I’ve written about gratitude a lot over the past year have spent considerable time working on myself and practicing how to be more grateful, authentic, appreciative, generous, vulnerable, curious, healthy, content, kind, less selfish, a better parent, have a better relationship with money, focus on experiences over things and have my priorities in order.
I’ve been able to interview more than 130 men during this process with diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
Here are some takeaways:
1. It can always be worse. Much worse. Be grateful for what you have and who you are.
2. You are capable of handling anything. Breathe. Think. Breathe again. Act.
3. Kids are incredibly smart, resilient and give you strength as an adult and as a parent more than I could possibly ever have imagined and could muster up on my own.
4. Bring your life into perspective and keep it there. Focus on what’s important. Write it down and keep it somewhere to remind you so that when shit seems to be going wrong, you can refer to it to bring you back on track.
5. Live every day. If you have your health, family, and enough means to enjoy the things and people you love, you’re there. Stop looking at everyone else.
6. It is about happiness. You’re just not going to be happy all the time though.
7. You have control. Not over every situation, not over people, not over “The system“ but over YOU. How you act, how you react and how you choose to feel.
8. Money cannot buy happiness. BUT it’s an important tool. Plan, save earn, and respect it. It’s about access, not excess.
9. Your network really is your net worth. Treat people well. Hold people to how you expect to be treated. Give without expectation of receipt. Level up.
10. We tend to overcomplicate almost everything. It’s actually easier to constantly be in the weeds, on the go, rarely coming up for air or stopping anything. Step out. Step back. Keep it simple. Simple doesn’t mean easy. It takes great discipline.
There’s a lot more than ten, that’s for sure. There are new things I pick up each week, mistakes I still make and need to learn more from, and things I thought I’d learned, believed, and am now changing my tune on. That’s another topic for another week.
I’ll keep adding to this series I’m certain.
