Edition #41: Small Gratitude Leads to Big Gratitude

Plus: Return on Entertainment, BF Shopping Hacks, Investing Deals and Downgrading Cards.

Compliment of the day: You have a grateful heart.

This is Thanksgiving week so I’ll riff on the idea of gratitude. Then I’ll cover Return on Entertainment, BF Shopping Hacks, Investing Deals and Downgrading Cards.

🙏🏼 Small gratitude leads to big gratitude

Years ago, gratitude became vogue. I don’t know which TED talk went viral or if we can blame it on the proliferation of meditation apps, but I’m grateful that it’s cool to be grateful. #meta.

Gratitude makes life richer. I’m not living a rich life if I’m counting my problems instead of my blessings. Gratitude reminds me that I have power over how I experience life, and that’s regardless of status or income. Anyone can do it.

But I hit a wall early on in my gratitude practice. I found myself repeating the same things over and over again. I’m grateful for my health, my family, having a roof over my head…

The repetition made gratitude feel like obligation, like I had to say grand, big gratitudes. So I flipped the script: specifically, celebrating the small things.

I’m grateful for paper filters that make my coffee taste clean. I’m grateful for the dewy smell of air in the morning. I’m grateful that toothpaste for sensitive teeth exist.

There’s a power to being specific — the more that I practiced “small” gratitudes, the bigger sense of gratitude that I got. Starting with small gratitudes usually leads me back to the bigger gratitudes with a deeper feeling. To experience the big, experience the small.

You can read more about this practice in my article small vs big gratitude.

What small, tiny aspects of life are you grateful for? Reply to me with your gratitudes. Guaranteed to put a smile on my face.

🎲 Return on Entertainment

You may have heard of the sentiment “Buy experiences, not things.”