What I Found Out About Gratitude in 15 Days

(Please note that I do not own any of the "big things" listed below. But I'd be grateful if I did.)

I came up with the idea of The Gratitude Project over Thanksgiving. I imagined how cool it would be to have everyone I know rallying around this powerful emotion of Gratitude for 30 days in December. The possibilities? The ripple effect? A Facebook group would be perfect. We would all inspire one another and remind each other of things we had forgotten we should be grateful for.

But what I found out is that Gratitude is a personal thing.

I had imagined everyone going to the page daily and posting SOMETHING they were grateful for. But it was just me.

Because I'm the only one grateful? Certainly not!

Here is what I found out:

It IS very personal. It's ok to be publicly grateful for the family, kids, friends, job, sunshine, etc.

But even though you may be genuinely grateful for the "big" things, it's weird being publicly grateful (like on Facebook) for:

• The new "media" room in your $350M home; when there are so many foreclosures.
• The neat gadgets in the new $50M SUV; when many can't afford $2.50 + per gallon
• The beach house
• The 4^th trip to Cancun
• You get the idea…

One can and should be grateful for those things, but never feel guilty or ashamed of attaining those goals.

But I can understand how being publicly grateful would "seem" like boasting instead of showing gratitude.

And on the other hand, it also seems weird or sappy to be grateful about the simple, little things like:

• Watching your child sleep
• Tearing up over a letter to Santa Claus
• Watching puppies play at the pet store
• Colorful sunrises
• Greasy cheeseburgers

So GRATITUDE is a very personal thing. Something that should be accounted for everyday but maybe not publicly.

The most powerful affects of a grateful heart take place on the inside…not on a Facebook page.