Dan Sullivan: Make Everything More Valuable With Creative Gratitude

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As we head into the holiday season, the idea of gratitude is ever-present. It’s easy to feel like it’s become a bit of a cliche. But there’s actually real value in taking time to appreciate all the good things in our lives.

In fact, this active appreciation is so useful, productive, and joyous that we here at Strategic Coach consider it an essential strategy for enjoying an abundant life. We call it, “Creative Gratitude.”

Here are three ways to immediately put Creative Gratitude to use:

• Start off meetings right. Do the Positive Focus exercise to start your meetings, going around the room and having everyone list five achievements, advantages, or opportunities they’re grateful for. It’s amazing how quickly this puts everyone into a creative, productive frame of mind.
• Prepare with gratitude. If you or your team members need to have a difficult conversation with someone, prepare by listing eight things you appreciate about the person in question. This helps both sides work things out in an amicable, respectful space. Or if you’ve got a presentation to give, list eight things you appreciate about your audience. This takes the focus off you and puts it onto what you want to contribute to them — and why.
• Develop the gratitude habit. Every day, either in the morning or before bed, list five things you’re grateful for. It’s such a simple exercise, but it can radically flip your perspective around, making your life a lot more enjoyable and raising the value of every relationship and situation you find yourself in.