Dr. JJ's Rule #11: Be Grateful

GRATEFUL people tend to be HAPPY people.

In a previous article, Dr. JJ's 13 Rules for Living were shared.

Click HERE to access JJ's 13 Rules.

This week's blog post addresses Dr. JJ's RULE #11, which states:

Take nothing for granted, and in everything give THANKS. 

The United States and Canada recently celebrated their annual Thanksgiving holidays. This occasion has always been one of my favorite times of year. Aside from my love of good food and drink—which so richly abounds at a North American Thanksgiving feast—I appreciate the reminder and opportunity this holiday affords me to inwardly express and outwardly display my immense gratitude for my endless blessings.

We do not, of course, need a formal holiday to give thanks. Gratitude ought to be a daily, and even an hourly, practice in our lives. No matter how challenging life may be at any given moment in time, there are always people and things to be grateful for. 

Indeed, it has been my observation that serendipitous blessings and favors abound—even, and perhaps especially—in my life's most difficult hours. And the more closely I pay attention, the more fully I recognize the grand scope of my fortune. For this, and for everything else that is good, helpful, and beneficial in my life, I am most grateful.

On the topic of gratitude, one leader has written and spoken with particular urgency and eloquence. Said he: "Gratitude is a sign of maturity. It is an indication of sincere humility. It is a hallmark of civility."  

"Gratitude is a sign of maturity. It is an indication of sincere humility. 

It is a hallmark of civility."* 

— Gordon Hinckley

Self-action leaders recognize that their blessings and favors never end.

I am personally thankful for so many things. First and foremost, I am grateful for my faith, and for the author thereof (God), who I believe is the source of all my blessings. 

Next I am grateful for my kind, intelligent, and beautiful wife—my best friend, lover, and closest confidant. After that I am thankful for my three smart, talented, and adorable children. 

I am also thankful for my ancestry, genes, and good health. Then comes gratitude for liberty and opportunity, and my opportunity to increase my freedom over time through Self-Action Leadership. I am grateful for education and good books that helped me to develop the SAL Theory and Model. I am thankful for sunlight and shadow, and for this beautiful Earth so richly warmed, illumined, cooled, and protected by both.

I am especially grateful for the never-ending small, personal, and tender mercies that come into my life on a daily, even hourly, basis. Such blessings go largely unnoticed by others. But I recognize their continual entrance onto the stage of my life, and acknowledge the reality and magnificence of this continual serendipity that I personally ascribe to an all-loving Creator that I believe watches over me and my family continuously.  

Self-Action Leaders are grateful people, and they are infinitely happier for it. Moreover, they express their gratitude on a regular basis to anyone and everyone to whom it is appropriate and relevant.    

I invite you to spend 5-10 minutes today reflecting on your own blessings and favors in life. In doing so, try to block out any comparisons with other people. Simply recognize what YOU have been given, and then allow yourself to feel the warmth, goodness, and joy that spontaneously arises in your mind and heart as you so reflect.

As another difficult year winds to a close for all of us, I promise you this activity will contribute to your happiness by placing your difficulties into their proper perspective.  

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays everyone!  

      

NOTE: This article is the 13th in a series of 22 articles on the subject of LIFE RULES.

Click HERE to access quick links to the other 21 articles.   

—Dr. JJ

December 22, 2021

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 244thBlog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 243 FF Blog Articles.  

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to learn more about Freedom Focused

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

Notes:

* Hinckley, G.B. (2000). Standing for Something. Three Rivers Press: New York, NY. P. 106.

A Pre-Thanksgiving Reminder to Give...

My little boy, Tyler, and his preschool Thanksgiving creation.
How grateful I am for Ty guy and all the time I get to spend with him!

This blog is a special Pre-Thanksgiving reminder to GIVE...

Give what, you ask?  

First, it is a reminder to give THANKS.

Even in the best of circumstances, life can still be incredibly challenging—for everyone. In the midst of so many varied trials that we experience as human beings, it is not always easy to be grateful. When things are especially difficult, it may take a conscious act of sheer willpower to shift your focus away from your problems and toward your blessings. 

But for self-action leaders, it is always worth the effort! 

Those who persist in focusing on their blessings instead of their troubles discover that their troubles don't seem as bad as they previously thought. 

Moreover, since the human brain can only think about one thing at a time, filling one's mind with positivity is a powerful antidote to eliminating negativity. In so doing, I am not suggesting that you ignore your problems or pretend they don't exist. I am merely inviting you to consciously remember to devote a healthy amount of time to dwelling on what is good in your life—and what could yet be—rather than constantly drowning in a sea of worry about what hasn't gone right, or what isn't working out (yet) in your life.

Despite the tremendous challenges I have faced in my life with my MENTAL HEALTH, RELATIONSHIPS, and CAREER, it never ceases to amaze me how often I have been blessed and how varied my blessings have been all along the way. After all, the vast majority of my mental issues are now behind me, my romantic woes are way, way behind me (thank you, Lina!), and while my career remains stalled in some senses, am I not—in the very moment of writing this article—living my dream career right now?  

The answer to this question is a resounding YES! 

          And I am so grateful for it. 

It never ceases to amaze me how many and varied my blessings are
—even, and perhaps especially at the most difficult times in my life. At this Thanksgiving season, I invite you to give THANKS a little more than you have in the past. Dig deep to fill your mind with all the macro and micro fortunes that have flooded into your life over the years. Then express your gratitude to anyone and everyone you come across that played a role in bringing those blessings your way.  

SECOND, this article is a reminder to GIVE something tangible to someone else in need. Chances are good that most (if not all) of my readers will be sitting down to a bounteous feast next Thursday. Before you dine on that sumptuous Thanksgiving banquet, I invite you to do something that requires some action and effort on your part that will, in some small way, enable someone else to have a nicer, fuller, and more bounteous holiday themselves. It won't take much effort on your part to accomplish this task, but it will require you to consciously and proactively take an action that you might not otherwise take.

Most people are decent folks with good intentions. Unfortunately, it is a much smaller percentage of people who routinely take action on those good intentions. I invite you this Thanksgiving to count yourself among this smaller percentage of DOERS. I'm not asking you to do something overly difficult, creative, or time-consuming. I'm merely inviting you to do something above and beyond what you would have done had you not read this article today.  

For example, in the process of living my own routine schedule, I learned about two food drives that were taking place at my son's preschool and a local doctor's office. 

Now I want to be honest about something....

When I first heard about these food drives, my mind began making excuses why it really wouldn't make much of a difference if I just let other people contribute. After all, I already give money to my Church to help the poor. I have also personally provided food, water, and/or clothing to individual homeless persons on many occasions in many locations throughout my life.

But then I remembered something about self-action leaders: they don't make excuses and they don't wait for other people to jump in and help when they are entirely fit, capable, and available to help themselves. They also don't content themselves on what they did yesterday, yestermonth, or yesteryear. They continually concern themselves about and are focused on TODAY. 

"What am I doing TODAY to make the world a better place?" That's the daily question that self-action leaders are always asking themselves. 

Shopping with Tyler for two food drives
in my community

Suffice it to say, that little self-reminder put an end to my excuse-making. A few days later, my little son (Tyler) and I went to the grocery store and bought a cart full of groceries to split between the two food drives. 

It felt very good!  

Isn't that amazing? I went to work to do something that I initially didn't want to do to help somebody else, and I am the one who ends up feeling great. What a deal!  

So... 

          What are you waiting for? 

Sometime in the next six days, make an extra effort to help somebody else by going out of your way to serve, lift, love, encourage, etc.  I promise you that if you will accept this simple challenge, this Thanksgiving will be one of the best you've ever had, and you'll enjoy your own fabulous feast even more.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!

-Dr. JJ

November 18, 2021

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 240th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 239 FF Blog Articles.  

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

Click HERE to learn more about Freedom Focused

Click HERE to learn more about Dr. Jordan Jensen

Click HERE to buy the SAL Textbooks

Reflecting on Two REALLY BIG Anniversaries ~ Kennedy & Lincoln

America celebrated two HUGE anniversaries in U.S. History this week.  The first occurred on Tuesday, November 19^th with the 150^th Anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address.  The second occurs on Friday, November 22nd, with the 50^th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

There are a few, select dates in American History that virtually anyone alive at the time remembers.  Think April 14, 1865 and December 7, 1941, or November 22, 1963 and September 11, 2001.