Weekly Gratitude – If In Doubt

The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.

In my opinion, the people who give up on their resolutions fall into two categories: those who never start and those who can’t keep it up. Today, I wanted to talk about the first set since I think those might the people who’re likely giving up on this project right around now.

Let’s say you read about Weekly Gratitude somewhere and thought it would be a lovely idea to do it in 2010. You spent some time thinking about your format or maybe you had big ambitions about making a fancy album with beautifully designed pages every week. You might have even begun the album but you never really did a page. You just couldn’t settle on a format. You’ve been meaning to do it but we’re already on week 4 of the year. Now you’re so behind, it doesn’t even seem worth it. Is it worth it?

Absolutely.

Let me repeat that: YES! It’s WORTH IT!

You can still begin and you should absolutely do so. The great thing about this project is that it doesn’t have a timeline. The calendar year is an imposed timeline and not a natural one. The best time to start practicing gratitude is……

now.

Not in January 1 or February 1 or any other time. It’s just now. Scrap the fancy format you intended to do, give up on the beautiful layouts, but don’t give up on practicing gratitude. If you’re struggling with getting started, simplify. Simplify a lot. Take just one photo a week, or jot down a few words. Even a single sentence each week counts. The goal is to take a moment (however small it may be) and pay attention to something that makes you feel grateful.

You don’t have to go back and create ones for the first few weeks of the year. Start from this moment on. Lori doesn’t put dates on her art and I think that’s a marvelous idea, gratitude doesn’t have anything to do with a timeline. The goal is to notice more. To look around and see the things that are wonderful in your life right now. If all you end up doing is taking a moment for ten minutes a week and thinking of one thing that you’re grateful for, I think you’ll still find the exercise to be powerful and beneficial.

All this is to say, you can start now. Don’t tell yourself that it’s all over cause you haven’t begun yet. Don’t punish yourself by making yourself go back and do all of the previous weeks. Don’t fret if you did week one and skipped weeks 2 and 3. It doesn’t matter. You can start now and you can continue now. Don’t worry about impressing others. Don’t worry about the quality of your art or words. This is not for other people. You don’t have to share it with anyone. This is for you.

This is so you can see the good things in your life and nothing should get in the way of that.

I don’t mean to sound preachy or like I’m scolding. I really just want to encourage you. I want you to know that this one resolution can be started anytime. It’s not tied to January 1.

Today’s as good a day as any so if you’re in doubt, today is the best day to start this project.

Ps: If you have friends who has intended to do the project but gave up and aren’t even reading our blog anymore, please send them this post. Encourage them to start. I wholeheartedly believe that they will be grateful to you for encouraging them.