Matlok's Blog: Count Your Blessings....in a Spreadsheet

Count Your Blessings....in a Spreadsheet

If you would prefer to hear an audio version of this post, click this link.

Count Your Blessings...in a Spreadsheet

Today I am thinking about something I heard some years back. August 5, 2010 to be exact at the Global Leadership Summit. It was during the Jim Collins presentation More about the session here. In case you don't know, Jim Collins is a business thought leader who has studied what makes companies great and successful and has authored books such as "Good to Great" and "Built to Last". Bottom line, he is the real deal and we would be wise to listen to his advice. You can read and learn more about him here. His session was very good, but it is not the point of this post. It was one comment he made in his session that has always stuck out in my mind since I've heard it.

That comment was this:

"Count your blessings. Literally, count them in a spreadsheet, and do not stop until you get till at least 100. When we begin to account for all the good stuff that has happened to us that we did not cause, it's humbling."

This quote leads me to ask you and myself the question. What are you focusing on? Are you focusing on the bad in your life. Are you looking at the "misery" in your current state? Maybe you're in a job that you don't like, or are working in a field that you are not passionate about?

You can focus on that. To be clear, you can and should be aware of what is going wrong in your life. We should not be in denial and oblivious to what is not working in our lives. Quite the contrary, you should be brutally honest to yourself and your current state. This is actually the only way to make lasting change.

So it's clear we're not talking about denial. The better question is "Does dwelling and focusing on what is going wrong in my life really help me?"

I think most would agree that it doesn't help.

It is much better to focus on the things that are going right. This lines up quite well with Jim's point about Counting our blessings.

It can be seemingly simple things that we can count as blessings...like I'm alive, I have a roof over my head, I can read, I have hearing, I can walk, I slept in a bed last night, I have a job (even if it is not your favorite).

These things may seem like basic things, especially in America, but try experiencing not having any of these and you will appreciate them much more!

In the recording I talk about if someone is about to get into an accident and are trying to miss hitting an object, "studies say" (like how I interject that overused, often untested phrase!) that the person will be more likely to hit the object as you are drawn to what you're focusing on, even if the purpose of your focus is to avoid it.

With that in mind, I propose that the more you focus on the positive, your blessings, the better chance you'll have to experience even more blessings in your life.

Similarly, you focus and dwell on what is going wrong, the more you will experience more of the same.

One example of the power of focus that many of us are familiar with and may have experienced. You are looking for a certain model of car you want to buy and all of the sudden you see it everywhere. It's not that the car wasn't there before, it's just that you didn't see it cause you weren't looking for it.

This same principle applies to counting our blessings. The more aware and focused on the blessings in your life, the more blessings you will start to notice.

I want to emphasize again that focusing on the positive, is not meant to be a denial about your current state. In one of my Jon Acuff book reviews earlier, he says "you have to be brutally realistic about your present circumstances and wildly unrealistic about your future circumstances.”

There is tension in that phrase, but the two are not in contradiction.

For example, if you are sitting on a mountain of debt, you can't ignore it and think it will just go away on its own. You need to develop a plan to tackle it and focus on working that plan with the focus towards the future of being debt free.

This is how you don't deny your reality, but still maintain a positive, future focus of the possibilities.

When you do look at the negative, just figure out how you're going to change it and take action and move on to your positive goals.

The first action you can do after you read this is fill out a spreadsheet with what you are grateful for in your life (your blessings) and don't stop till you get to 100.

If you take that simple action, you will be taking the first step to open up your life to a whole new world of possibilities!

Here is the link again in case you still want to listen to the recording.

Count Your Blessings...in a Spreadsheet

Count your blessings. Literally, count them in a spreadsheet, and do not stop until you get to at least 100. When we begin to account for all the good things that have happened to us that we did not cause, it’s humbling. - See more at: http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/08/05/leadership-summit-session-2-jim-collins/#sthash.FIJNjIwg.dpuf

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Count Your Blessings....in a Spreadsheet

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