Every morning, when I go about my morning routine, I log into an app called the Five Minute Journal.
Its like a regular tune-up. To appreciate what I have and to continue throughout the day with this appreciation.
I started doing this exercise every morning a few months ago when a friend told me that I wasn’t a very grateful person.
At first, I was in denial.
But that same night, I was curious…
So I found a quick-fix — the Five Minute Journal app. (I remembered Tim Ferriss mentioning this in one of his talks)
I discovered very quickly that my friend was right — I wasn’t very grateful at all!
In the beginning, my gratefulness morning entries were something like this — -
- I am grateful that I have a network of A-players
- I am grateful that I started a business
- I am grateful that I can achieve big things
But as months went by, they became more like this — -
- I am grateful that I have a loving family
- I am grateful that I am alive
- I am grateful that I have a roof over my head
What this daily morning exercise gave me was the ability to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
I also started to feel more grateful and it impacted many areas of my business that I didn’t expect it to.
As entrepreneurs, “focus” is a major value in the culture.
When we’re building a business and helping our students, we are laser-focused on the goal.
I’ve found that this laser-focus is 100% necessary in order to build something great.
Anyone who is wishy-washy with their work gets eaten up by the competition (and they deserve to).
Heres the thing…. when we love our business, we focus on every detail and oftentimes we get frustrated when something doesn’t go right.
This frustration can lead to things like the inability to take action in our business or fear of taking risk.
Practicing gratefulness every day has helped me stay calm at the gates of fire.
Because no matter what happens in my business, nothing can take away the real things that I hold near and dear to me.
Your friend,
Brian Li
P.S. Check out this new podcast episode on how Andreas created a profitable online course from a super-niche topic that most people would otherwise dismiss as “impossible”
