Having an attitude of gratitude is sometimes more than a platitude.

What is gratitude to you?

I had a pair of sheets when I was younger. They had the Peanut cartoon characters on them.

The sheets said, happiness is … And then had a bunch of different answers. The one I’ve always remembered is Happiness is wanting what you have. I think that’s pretty deep for a set of bedding.

This past weekend we were visiting my in-laws. My father-in-law has a new hip so we were spreading recovery cheer. My husband stumbled upon some books he remembered from childhood. He snagged them and brought them home. One was the Peanuts book of this same series.

Got me to thinking about gratitude and happiness.

Also in my research of the blogosphere I found another blogger who posts weekly about things she’s grateful for. I love it and so I’m stealing that idea. 25 random things from the previous week I’m thankful for.

1. Benedryl – my son has severe allergies and a trip to a local yogurt store was a bit yucky this week.
2. Sunshine
3. Funny movies – saw Bridesmaids this week.
4. Coffee in the morning
5. Ice cold water
6. Armor all wipes
7. Finding my iPod.
8. Not being run over by an aggravated driver while biking in a traffic jam.
9. Preschool – there’s just no place like it.
10. Pretty flowers in my house.
11. Working air conditioning – it’s hot here already.
12. Blackout shades
13. Speedy race results from multi race
14. Tylenol pm
15. Not falling off my bike
16. First grade play dates.
17. The climbing tree.
18. Good friends to have coffee with during gymnastics
19. Cold beer
20. Basketball playoffs
21. Good weather for the race this weekend.
22. Online weather services to obsess about the weather for the race
23. Swimming with the current versus against it.
24. Adelle (I love her song)
25. Having my family cheer me on during my most recent race this week.

🙂

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Update in 2018. Now the way coaches like to say this is that to keep your motivation you have to understand your why for racing. The why almost always comes back to gratitude and service. It must just be how most humans are wired. But if you’re having trouble staying motivated to train – especially training hard and for long races take a few minutes and think about your why. You don’t need to be on a mission to cure cancer or anything dramatic. Your why can be to feel better. Your why can be to be healthier for your kids. And then think about things you are grateful for. The trendy words for this is “gratitude practice.” I like to do this when I go to sleep and when I wake up.

What are you grateful for?