Embrace Your Attitude Of Gratitude!

By Emma Anderson, Eagle “U” Alum and Team Leader

With Thanksgiving behind us, it’s the perfect time to think about gratitude. It seems that in the excitement over food and family, the effort to be thankful is not so great. We tend to list a few things (family, friends, food) that we’re grateful for before rushing to carve the turkey.

Then what? We move on with our lives, seldom pausing to be truly thankful for all we have. This is fine, it’s normal. Everyone does it! But what successful people understand is that sincere gratitude is a powerful tool and nothing should be taken for granted. Because most people are happy to accept life’s gifts without a second thought, real thankfulness stands out. People are impressed by it and when you are appreciative for what they give you, they are likely to give more in return.

One of my favorite parts of attending Eagle U was the “I Appreciate” notes. At the beginning of the week we were each given a pad of papers reading “I appreciate _______ Because ________.” Right off the bat, Steve emphasized the importance of gratitude and challenged us to hand out all of our “I Appreciate” notes. At first, I was skeptical. I thought this gratitude would be forced and insincere. As the week progressed and I looked for things to be thankful for, I realized something BIG: All around me there were people, services, events, and even objects that I was thankful to have.

Using “I Appreciate” notes was an opportunity for me to see everything I had to be grateful for, and I still have every note I received from all of the past Eagle U programs I attended. When someone gave me a note, I felt loved and acknowledged-like I was “doing some good” in the world. Receiving these notes made me want to know the people who gave them to me even better and help them in any way I could. In a similar way, those I delivered my notes to were impressed and overjoyed with my gratitude towards them. I have applied this concept outside of Eagle U by writing thank you notes to mentors and others who have helped me in various ways. The times I have forgotten to do so, I have really regretted and the times I remembered I was blown away by the positive repercussions.

Gratitude truly is powerful and implementing it regularly will change you life!

What’s Your Number?

Every morning when we wake up there’s a giant number written on our forehead.  We get dressed and go on with our day, carrying this number with us along the way.  Our magical number lets the world know how extraordinary we are.  Each person we come into contact with can read it…

…but who put this number there? 

We did! Whether we realize it or not, each day we tell the world how awesome (or not so awesome) we feel about who we are.

Sometimes we unknowingly scribble a “5” up there.  Before we know it, our entire day has become less than extraordinary and we end up feeling pretty average.  Soon others catch on, and they start to think of us as just a “5” too.  Thanks to the law of attraction, we are now running with a whole crew of “5”s…

…but why hang with “5”s when you can hang with “10”s?

Think about it: We  get to select the number we walk around with every single day.  If we wake up in the morning and put on our “10”, everyone around us will start to notice us as “10”s, too! The truth is that the world takes us at our own estimate.  If we don’t think highly of ourselves, how can we expect others to do the same?

As “10”s, we attract even more “10”s into our lives!  The more we treat ourselves as “10”s and encourage others to do the same, the more extraordinary the group of eagles we flock with will become!

Action Item: Wake up each morning, take our your imaginary marker and draw a 10 on your forehead!