Daily Gratitude: How many of you feel or have felt this way? I know I have. And a good friend recently pointed out to me that I have my own positive qualities and don’t need to compare myself and feel “less than”. I am so grateful to that friend. It’s not selfish to take a look in the mirror (figuratively) and list the good things you’ve done and the positive aspects in your soul and personality. Write them down and tape them to your bathroom mirror and your refrigerator and any place else you will see them. I did this with my 2024 goals and it’s amazing what seeing them, even if not consciously, has done as far as implanting them in my mind has done. The same thing will happen with your positive characteristics. Go ahead and do it now!

Daily Gratitude: This is pretty simple and pretty solid advice. You don’t have to sit around and “wait” until this or that happens before you can start something. You can start anything right now. You will be surprised at how much you can get done if you just look around you, see what you’ve got available to use, and just begin. Begin something, anything. Monitor your excuse making and nip every “reason”/excuse in the bud. You don’t want reasons why not. You want action. And any action is better than none. It doesn’t have to be anything big. In fact it’s the small things done repeatedly and consistently that lead to big things. If your city has as much construction as San Antonio does, you can set this in effect. The constitution never seems to end and then one day a new road or a new building is having its “grand opening”. Make that your goal. To aim towards your own grand opening! Build your foundation first. You’ll have to let it set for awhile perhaps but while it’s setting there are plenty of other little things you can be doing. Just start and then keep going.

Daily Gratitude: “Consistency is the ultimate key to success. The compound effect is the strategy of reaping huge rewards from small, seemingly insignificant actions. Small choices + consistency + time = significant results.” This is from James Clear’s review of the book “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. How often have you started some practice that you think will make a difference in your life? How long did you stick with it? Even if you spent 5 minutes every morning doing one thing that you think is important, AND you keep doing it every day, it definitely will make a difference. The trouble is that often when someone doesn’t see results in the period of time THEY decide, they give up and go on to something else. What if women decided that they should be delivering their baby at 4 months gestation? How well do you think that would work? We humans have this thing about controlling everything. The universe has its own laws by which it operates and no matter what we think, those are the laws that guide things. I have gotten into the habit of doing a daily gratitude journal. All I do is list 3 things I’m grateful for each and every day. It takes just a few minutes. It’s such an important part of my life that I even do it during races. It’s small but I do it consistently and it has changed how I look at life. Did that happen after I’d done it for a few weeks? No. Could I have stopped then? Yes but I’m glad I didn’t. Think about the compound effect next time you think something in your life isn’t working….yet.