Earlier this month I shared two habits I was looking to develop: gratitude and asking. Today, I thought I’d share a little update on each.

 

The Gratitude Habit

Right after Thanksgiving I felt weak the gratitude department, so I decided to build up my gratitude muscles by setting two phone alerts to go off everyday (one at noon and one at 3:00p).

I immediately felt more grateful the first day or two. I really loved it.

By days three through six… I kinda found the alerts annoying. I briefly considered turning them off, but realized that the times when I felt frustrated by the alerts were the exact times when I was not feeling very present.

So rather than delete the alerts, I made a more concentrated effort to stop whatever I was doing in the moment (as long as I wasn’t in the middle of a call or conversation), and really tried to give the next 60 seconds to finding five things to be grateful about. This one switch really made a big difference!

Now this habit helps me strengthen my gratitude as well as my present moment awareness.

I highly recommend trying it (or something similar) if you want to help boost your gratitude.

 

The Power of Asking

 

This second habit comes from the wallpaper quote for this month. I have seen the fruits of this habit in large and small ways.

The small way that this came true involves a pair of grey stretchy workout pants that came in the mail. I wanted a pair just like them, so I was quite pleasantly puzzled by the fact that they appeared on my doorstep.

I asked my mother-in-law, who sent the pants, how she knew I wanted them. She simply replied, “you said that you liked my pair when I was at your home for Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d get you a pair.”

Duh. I had totally forgotten about my compliment. I was so surprised that mentioning a desire in the form of a compliment could bring it into my life.

As for the big ask, I recently renegotiated a contract and I needed to decide what to quote for the project. I had a number in mind, but part of me was scared to ask for it.

It was a large sum, and independent of my own feelings about the value I would provide, I was a still intimidated by the number itself.

However, when I thought about how I picked this wallpaper quote and hoped that you would take it to heart – I knew that I needed to do the same.

I ended up quoting the scary, but well deserved, rate and got it! It was a huge relief – and I am so, so thankful I didn’t cut myself short just because I was scared by a number.

The job was well worth the value and now I get to move forward feeling properly compensated for my work.

 

So how about you? Have you tried either of these habits and seen any results?

Thank you so much for reading and have a great weekend! 

 

PS – I have some surprises for you next week… stay tuned!!