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If you are looking for a gratitude icon, the dudes try to play the part – they know that gratitude is a big key to living a happy and productive life.  Listen to this episode to hear Kyle and Sean‘s thoughts about putting gratitude in practice.

Why Gratitude?

Without gratitude, it’s easy for us to focus on our struggles in life. Living with a disability (or any challenge) seems like a great excuse for us to get bogged down by negativity.  We may think it’s an excuse to brood over how simple tasks can be a lot more difficult or even impossible for us to do on our own.

This difficulty is not something we choose to dwell on and we discourage others from focusing on it, but we have to acknowledge that it exists. Sometimes living in the shadow of frustration is much more crippling than our inabilities.

For Example

A listener drew our attention to an episode of the Freakonomics podcast, “Why Is My Life So Hard?” This podcast uses the terms “headwinds” to describe the oncoming obstacles in front of you. “Tailwinds,” on the other hand, are the times in our lives when all of our struggle gives us a sense of relief and rest as we move forward.

Unfortunately, the moments of tailwinds in our lives are often unnoticed, leaving us only aware of the difficulties.

We cannot live with urgency when we only focus on the negative aspects of life. We are at once obligated to respect the struggle, and to look beyond it.

And one of the best ways to do that is with gratitude.

How To

To use gratitude to bust your funk, we’ve come up with 3 simple steps.

1. Be thankful- Think about it, be aware (acknowledging both the positives and negatives of the state you find yourself in) and reflect on what you are grateful for
2. Write. It. Down.
3. Take action.

We have two ways that’d we’d like you to join us in being a little more grateful in our day-to-day lives.

1. Don’t Forget the Crew is a fun way to actively show appreciation to others in your life. More details in the episode and on the website: dontforgetthecrew.com.
2. 2DD Challenge: One Thank-You card written each day for a month. If you want to join us, please do and let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Thank you for being on this journey with us!

Listen to another amazing gratitude icon in Episode 064: Mr. No Excuses – Hasan Banks.

One of the videos Sean mentions in this episode: “Getting stuck in the negatives and how to get unstuck” by Alison Ledgerwood.