5 Hacks To Put Your Gratitude on Steroids

One of the best things you can do for your well-being is practice gratitude, but it’s deceivingly tricky.

I’ve always struggled to feel grateful, even though I have a ton to be grateful for.

It’s not hard to write a generic list of things you feel grateful for, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you feel it.

I’ve been doing an audit of my routines, and I’m set on making a short and effective gratitude practice a part of it.

I’m going to share a few techniques I’ve come across in various books/podcasts/articles that I’m going to incorporate into my routine that approach gratitude with a perspective that makes it easier to connect with.

And today is the last Thursday article I’ll write for a little while; I’m shifting to once per week for the next few weeks to double down on Twitter and grow my business.

Gratitude Technique 1: Present Nostalgia (from Alex Hormozi)

Apparently, you can be worth nine figures and still struggle with gratitude.

Alex Hormozi made a video about how gratitude doesn’t come easy to him, but a cool hack he’s found to connect to it is Present Nostalgia.

His angle is that gratitude is nostalgia experienced in the present.

This is exactly what makes it tricky — it’s natural to feel fondness for our favorite memories as we look back over our lives, but conjuring up that emotion for what we’re doing now is a different story.

Solution: project yourself into the future, and imagine feeling nostalgia for what you’re doing now.

Imagine yourself at 80 or 90, looking back over the years on where you are now.

Can you connect with the nostalgic feeling of appreciation you’d feel?

Maybe you have young kids or are just starting out growing a business.

Even if things are difficult, I’m sure there’s plenty you’ll feel nostalgia for when you look back at this time in your life in the future.

Hack your gratitude by trying to access that mindset now.

Gratitude Technique 2: Negative Visualization (Stoic Technique)

I read about negative visualization in “The Guide to the Good Life” by William B. Irvine.

He summarizes different stoic approaches to living well, and negative visualization is among them.

You know that feeling when you have a terrible dream, but then you wake up with a sense of relief that it was just a dream?

Negative visualization is hacking that feeling.

It sounds a bit dark, but it’s effective.

Take some time to visualize how things could go horribly wrong in your life.

Imagining all the things that could go wrong makes you appreciate how much is going right (or at least not going wrong), and what you have to be grateful for.

Don’t dwell on imagining dark things all day, but periodically think about how fortunate you are compared to the potential tragedies you could be facing.

Gratitude Technique 3: You Have Something You Once Wanted

The curse of being dopamine-driven creatures is that we’re way more focused on what we want over what we have.

This is probably why gratitude doesn’t come easy…

A cool trick for this is to remind yourself that you currently have something that you once wanted.

Gratitude is inevitable if you can access that feeling of wanting something again while you have it.

Even if it’s not something that you want as badly as you once did, it reminds you that you went out and made something happen.

Nobody is richer than the person who has what they want.

Gratitude Technique 4: This is not a dress rehearsal (from Sam Harris)

We have this irritating habit of discounting the present moment as a minor footnote leading up to when our lives really start (dopamine again).

There’s always a point in the future that seems far more exciting than where we are now, but when we get there, it’s still just us with our minds, and now there is another future moment distracting us from appreciating this moment.

It’s become a cliche to say, “Focus on the journey, not the destination.”

But it’s also true.

Our lives are mainly made up of monotonous moments, the little aspects of our routines, the things we do every day.

The little things aren’t meaningless — they make up the bulk of life.

In “Waking Up,” Sam Harris has the best phrase that captures this perfectly:

Life is happening now.

Not next week.

Not when you go on your next vacation.

Not when you hit your desired MRR.

It’s happening now.

Today is not some insignificant footnote to the point when you really start living.

Your life is happening today.

Appreciating this helps put things in perspective (and makes it easier to appreciate today).

Gratitude Technique 5: There will be a number of times (Stoics - Ryan Holiday, I think?)

It’s impossible to know exactly what the number is, but there is a set number of times you’ll experience all the things you cherish in your life.

And this number may be smaller than you think.

These experiences are limited — some of them extremely so.

Appreciating this is bittersweet, and it creates a sense of urgency.

Life is too short to be somewhere else in your head during one of these precious moments — moments that are not infinite and not to be taken for granted.

This helps create an appreciation for the small things in your life that you might realize aren’t so small after all.

TL;DR - the gratitude stack to put your gratitude on steroids and be the most grateful person you know:

• Present Nostalgia

• Negative Visualization

• You have something you wanted

• This is not a dress rehearsal

• There is a number of times

When you’re ready, here’s how you can work with me.

I’m looking for two people who want to lose fat, build muscle, and perform at their best.

No 2-hour workouts.

No restrictive dieting.

If you’re ready, reply to this email with the subject “Let’s go” and briefly describe your fitness goals.