I missed Thursday. On week FOUR. 😩
Last week I celebrated three consecutive weeks of on-time Thank You Thursdays.
I even called myself a model of consistency.
Well… that aged well. 😂
I was on a cruise this past week. And somewhere along the way, Thursday apparently sailed right past me 🥁… get it… cruise… sailed…
Anywho, here we are.
Thank You Fridays???
Just joking, we’ll stick with Thank You Thursdays.
And ironically, the practice we’re covering this week is probably the perfect one for a situation like this.
It’s called Gratitude Everywhen. ♾️
Yes, EVERYWHEN.
And yes, I know it sounds like a made-up word.
To that I say, aren’t all words made up? 👀
What Is Gratitude Everywhen?
Last week, I introduced you to The Gratitude Ladder.
The basic idea was that sometimes you can find more reasons to be grateful by changing your POSITION.
Changing your position changes your perspective.
Gratitude Everywhen is similar.
Except instead of changing WHERE you’re looking from, you change WHEN you’re looking.
A lot of gratitude exercises focus on one question: What are you grateful for RIGHT NOW?
And that’s a great question.
But why limit ourselves to right now? What about all the good things that have ALREADY happened? And all the good things that MIGHT happen?
That’s the idea behind Gratitude Everywhen.
Three directions.
What WAS good?
What IS good?
What MIGHT be good?
Past. Present. Future.
And potentially an almost infinite number of reasons to be grateful.
One Cruise, Three Directions
Since I was on a cruise this past week, let’s use that.
Jennifer and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on this trip.
SIXTEEN YEARS 🥹 of experiences, memories, and reasons to be grateful.
Not because every moment of those sixteen years was perfect.
But because there’s a whole lot of GOOD in our past that I can still appreciate today.
That’s PAST gratitude.
And then there was a conversation Jennifer and I had about our teenage kids who were on the trip with us. It was a family vacation we used as a way to celebrate our anniversary too.
And we were talking about how this particular season of life is getting shorter.
Not that we’re going to stop being parents. 😂
But the years of having teenage kids, with all that comes with this stage of life, aren’t going to last forever.
And we were intentionally trying to appreciate this season WHILE WE’RE STILL IN IT.
Because one day, what we’re experiencing right now will be something we look back on.
And hopefully we’ll be grateful for it then.
But why wait until THEN to appreciate it?
That’s PRESENT gratitude.
And then there were the people we met.
We met some duck farmers from South Carolina who were also Gamecocks fans. 💪🏿
And a fellow Air Force veteran.
Actually, meeting interesting people is usually one of my favorite parts of cruising.
And the sunrises…
You leave home not knowing who you’re going to meet.
And you come back having crossed paths with people you may have never met otherwise.
Which makes me wonder about all the people I HAVEN’T met yet.
The conversations I haven’t had.
The experiences I haven’t experienced.
The memories I haven’t made.
I don’t know what those will be.
But I can appreciate the POSSIBILITY of good things still ahead.
That’s FUTURE gratitude.
And here’s what I find so interesting about all of this.
Sixteen years ago, Jennifer and I hadn’t experienced the memories we’re celebrating today.
One day, this season with our kids will be part of our past too.
And the people we met on this cruise were complete strangers to us before this week.
The good doesn’t stop being good just because it becomes a memory.
And some of the good we’ll eventually be grateful for hasn’t even happened yet.
Past. Present. Future.
Three directions.
And potentially an almost infinite number of reasons to be grateful.
But What If Right Now Isn’t Good?
Now, I realize a cruise, a wedding anniversary, and family vacation are ridiculously easy examples.
It’s not difficult to find reasons to be grateful while you’re enjoying a vacation and celebrating sixteen years of marriage.
But what about when your circumstances are anything BUT enjoyable?
What about when you’re having a difficult week?
Or month?
Or year?
This is where I think Gratitude Everywhen becomes especially useful.
Because maybe RIGHT NOW isn’t a particularly enjoyable time in your life.
Maybe things genuinely suck.
And I am absolutely NOT suggesting you pretend otherwise.
But you can look backward.
Was there something good yesterday? Last year? Ten years ago?
A relationship. An experience. A conversation. Something someone did for you. Something you got to do for someone else.
The fact that something good is over doesn’t mean it was never good.
And then you can look forward.
Is there something you have reason to look forward to?
Something you’re working toward?
Something that might happen?
A possibility you can genuinely appreciate, even though it’s not guaranteed?
You don’t have to pretend the future is certain.
And you don’t have to pretend the present isn’t difficult.
You can appreciate what was good without wishing you were still there.
You can appreciate what is good without pretending everything is good.
And you can appreciate the possibility of what’s ahead without knowing exactly how things will turn out.
Grateful IN, not necessarily FOR.
That’s Practical Gratitude.
And Gratitude Everywhen is one way to practice it.
Let’s Practice Gratitude Everywhen
Here’s something you can do in just a minute or two.
Think about three things.
1. PAST — What WAS good?
Think of one experience, person, moment, or circumstance from your past that you can still appreciate.
It doesn’t have to be recent.
It doesn’t even have to be something you can experience again.
Just something you’re grateful you got to experience at all.
2. PRESENT — What IS good?
Look at your life right now.
What’s one thing you can genuinely appreciate?
Not because everything is perfect.
Not because all your problems are solved.
Just because this particular thing is good.
Or true. Or working.
3. FUTURE — What MIGHT be good?
What’s something you’re looking forward to?
Something you hope to experience?
Maybe something you’re working toward.
Or even a possibility that didn’t exist in your life before.
You don’t have to know for certain that it will happen to appreciate that it might.
That’s it.
Three different directions.
Three opportunities to notice something worth appreciating.
And you can revisit them whenever you want.
One More Thing
Here’s something else I love about this practice.
You don’t even have to find three DIFFERENT things to appreciate.
You can practice Gratitude Everywhen with the SAME thing.
Think about someone you love.
You can appreciate memories you’ve already made with them.
You can appreciate whatever is good about having them in your life today.
And you can appreciate the possibility of making more memories together.
One person.
Three directions.
Potentially hundreds of reasons to be grateful.
And THAT is why I believe learning to practice gratitude can help us enjoy the experience of living life more.
Not by making every experience enjoyable.
But by helping us stop overlooking so much of what already was, still is, and might someday be.
Okay. Your turn.
Which direction is easiest for you to find gratitude in right now?
The past? The present? Or the future?
Hit reply and tell me. I’m genuinely curious.
Next Thursday, we’ll explore The Gratitude Chain.
Assuming I remember what day Thursday is. 😂
Until then…
Stay grateful.
🙌🏿 Conrad