Mindfulness vs. Forgetfulness: How to overcome the biggest threat to being grateful

May 22

Hand drawn illustration of a watch with wreath

I have a smartwatch—a watch so smart, it notices when I’m inactive and it nudges me to stand up, to move, to exercise. It’s paying attention to a few basic markers of living an active life. The data connects to an app on my phone which looks for trends and lets me know when I’m off track and on track. It’s been a game changer for me.

Just as physical activity is to physical health, so is gratitude to overall wellbeing—the practice of gratitude is a workout to build a mindset of excellence. It might even be the simplest and easiest mindset workout that impacts all aspects of your life.

But here’s the challenge:

We know the biggest obstacle to being grateful is forgetfulness.

There are two elements to our forgetfulness:

Life gets in the way. We go on vacation. Work gets busy. The kids get sick. We change jobs. Whatever. I couldn’t tell you the number of people who’ve shared with me that they once had a Habitual Ritual but somehow, it lapsed. Here’s the thing, once we stop, we forget and we don’t restart—unless we’re somehow reminded.
Life is filled with headwinds and tailwinds. We never lose sight of the headwinds. In fact, we often become obsessed with the challenges that get in our way. On the other hand, we easily forget the tailwinds in life. Last month’s raise is quickly forgotten. The once perfectly fine house is now too small. Our many freedoms are taken for granted. A supportive partner or spouse becomes defined by their shortcomings.

Does any of this ring true to you ?

Your best defence against succumbing to forgetfulness is to engrain a trigger into your day that reminds you to take a moment and be grateful. You never forget to eat because your body has a built-in mechanism that knows when you need food and sends you messages to ensure you do not starve.

In terms of building a world-class mindset with gratitude, you need a trigger as reliable as your body’s hunger response and as reliable as my smart watch. You need a regular nudge to remind you, your Habitual Ritual is as important to your overall well being as being properly nourished—and it encourages you to put gratitude into practice. It may be a notification, a repeating calendar appointment, an external message (like our Daily Gratitudes email). I don’t care what you use as a prompt, but it must be a reliable system that works for you !

If you don’t already have a reliable prompt, schedule it right now.

If you want to use The Daily Gratitudes as a systematic prompt - check it out and join us here.