At one point in my life, I was so broke that I found myself getting mad at a man named Percy Douglas-Hamilton.
Never heard of him?
Well, neither had I until I started wondering who invented turn signals.
Yes. TURN SIGNALS. đ¤Śđżââď¸
Let me explain.
My Beef With Percy Douglas-Hamilton
Years ago, I was going through a pretty difficult financial season.
My car needed repairs I couldnât afford. And one of the things that wasnât working was my turn signals.
While I couldnât afford to fix my car, I also couldnât afford a ticket for failing to use my turn signals.
See the problem?
So one day, I was driving along, and a police car ended up behind me.
And instead of turning where I actually wanted to turn, I just kept driving straight.
And driving.
And driving.
Because I didnât want to risk getting pulled over for failing to use a turn signal that DIDNâT WORK. And somehow, in the middle of all that frustration, I found myself thinkingâŚ
WHY DID SOMEBODY HAVE TO INVENT TURN SIGNALS ANYWAY?!
Yep.
Thatâs where my mind went. đ
Eventually, I traced my frustration all the way back to Percy Douglas-Hamilton, a man who patented an early vehicle turn-signaling device more than a century ago.
Now, just imagine this guy trying to make driving safer.
And here I was, decades later, blaming him because my car was broken and I couldnât afford to fix it.
Ridiculous? Maybe. But thatâs what happened.
And hereâs why Iâm no longer embarrassed to tell that story.
From a Chain of Blame to a Chain of Gratitude
I had somehow created an entire chain of things to blame for my frustration.
My car was broken. I couldnât afford the repairs. I couldnât afford a ticket. I had to drive straight longer than I wanted to. đŤ
And somehow, this was Percyâs fault.
Then one day, in The Miracle Morning Group, probably eight years after my blame chain, I saw someone share how sometimes theyâre grateful for something that made something else theyâre grateful for possible.
And I thought wow, if I could trace something I was frustrated about backward through all the people, inventions, circumstances, and events connected to itâŚ
Why couldnât I do the same thing with something I was GRATEFUL for?
If something going wrong had so many things connected to it, wouldnât the same be true for something going RIGHT?
That simple realization eventually became one of my favorite gratitude practices.
I call it The Gratitude Chain. đ
How The Gratitude Chain Works
The idea is pretty simple.
Start with ONE thing youâre grateful for.
Then think about what made that thing possible. Then what made THAT possible. And what made THAT possible.
Keep following the chain.
For example, letâs say youâre grateful for the food you ate today.
Simple enough.
But what made that meal possible?
Someone had to grow or raise the food. Someone had to transport it. Someone had to sell it. Someone prepared it.
And before any of that, there were seeds, soil, water, sunshine, and an enormous number of other contributions that made the whole thing possible.
And thatâs just the food itself.
What about everything that made it possible for YOU to have that food?
The money to purchase it. The people who helped you earn that money. The transportation that got the food to you. The people who taught you how to prepare it.
One meal.
A ridiculous number of reasons to be grateful. And potentially a ridiculous number of PEOPLE to appreciate.
See what I mean?
There Are More Connections Than We Notice
One thing I love about this practice is that it doesnât require you to have more good things happen.
It helps you discover more of the good thatâs connected to things you ALREADY appreciate.
And sometimes, the chain leads to people youâd never think to thank.
People whose names you donât know. People who lived before you were born. People who played some tiny part in making your everyday life possible.
Just like I managed to trace my frustration back to a man from the early 1900s.
Except now, instead of looking for more people to blame, Iâm intentionally looking for more people and things to appreciate.
I wasnât grateful FOR my broken turn signals.
I wasnât grateful FOR not having enough money to fix my car.
Those were genuinely frustrating circumstances.
But I could learn something useful from the way my mind responded to them.
And today I can look back and be grateful for the experience. Just because I wasnât then doesnât mean I canât be now.
Thatâs Practical Gratitude.
Letâs Practice The Gratitude Chain
Hereâs something you can try today.
1. START WITH ONE THING.
Think of something youâre genuinely grateful for.
A person. A meal. An opportunity. Your home. Your car. A favorite memory.
Anything.
2. ASK WHAT MADE IT POSSIBLE.
What people, decisions, inventions, circumstances, or events contributed to that good thing?
3. FOLLOW THE CHAIN.
Choose one of those connections and ask what made THAT possible.
Then follow the next connection.
And the next.
Three âchain linksâ is enough, but you can keep going as long as youâd like.
You may be surprised by how many reasons to be grateful are connected to just ONE thing.
One More Thing
Somewhere, right now, someone may be grateful for something that YOU helped make possible.
Maybe it was something you did intentionally. Maybe it was something you barely remember. Maybe theyâll never even know your name.
But you were part of the chain.
Isnât that interesting!?!?
This week, Iâd love for you to try something.
Find one thing youâre grateful for.
Follow its chain.
And if one of those links leads to someone you can actually thank, go ahead and thank them.
You might make their Thursday a little better.
Until next ThursdayâŚ
Stay grateful.
đđż Conrad
P.S. Ever had one of those moments when you realized you were blaming someone or something that really wasnât responsible for your frustration? Hit reply and tell me. I canât be the ONLY person whoâs done something this ridiculous. đ