is it All about gratitude

Yesterday, I had an epiphany.

The epiphany arrived as I was doing reflective writing on this gratitude journey that, for me, started almost five years now.

As I reflected and wrote, suddenly, I realized that, at the start, it wasn’t originally about gratitude.

I didn’t set out to become the World’s Gratitude Coach.

Or did I?

Travel with me as I share with you what I unpacked yesterday and the resulting discovery.

I vividly remember that fateful Tuesday morning — April 17, 2018.

It was dramatically different than most of my mornings.

I was in despair and on the verge of a downward spiral into the darkness of depression. I struggled to crawl out of bed that morning.

Usually, I’m up by 5:00 am without an alarm clock. Seriously, today I up at 4:00 am — raring to go.

That morning, I looked at the clock dozens of times through the night, but couldn’t muster enough energy to roll out of bed.

Finally, around 7:30, I dragged myself out of bed and into my office.

I grabbed my journal and sat down on the floor — and, I’m not a floor sitter.

I tried to pray — but not much came out. Eventually, I cried out for help — “Holy Spirit, you are the creative spark of the universe, spark creativity in me.”

A few days later, I stumbled upon two loops that really explained a lot for me.

The first loop was the Scarcity Loop. I knew this loop well. It was like someone mapped my brain and helped me understand what had become well-worn paths in my mind.

FEAR >> ANXIETY >> POOR CHOICES >> NEGATIVE OUTCOMES.

In a nutshell, that loop was the story of my life. The story of my business…the story of my current struggles.

I was trapped in the Scarcity Loop.

A couple of years before, I had exited a business partnership that wasn’t right — in spite of my efforts over many months to try to make it right.

I had struggled to find the path forward — any path forward. I was stuck. Spinning my wheels.

Actually, I was circling the drain of the sucking vortex of scarcity and lack.

You see, I entered that business partnership out of fear and insecurity.

Trust me when I tell you — fear and insecurity are not the ingredients of success!

I had been in FEAR and experienced loads of ANXIETY that resulted in me making POOR CHOICES…and ending up with NEGATIVE OUTCOMES.

It dawned on me that I lived much of my life in scarcity…or Scar City as I came to think of it.

The scars of bad decisions left me stuck and struggling to make the better decisions I longed to make…and experience the better outcomes and results I longed to enjoy.

I was living the Scarcity Loop…and longing for something better.

Sitting next to the Scarcity Loop was The Abundance Loop.

ABUNDANCE…that’s what I longed for. Abundance is what I wanted to experience in family, business, and life.

But I was stuck in scarcity.

I saw the two loops a lot of places on the web — never with attribution to the creator.

About that time, I was invited to speak at the Meals on Wheels national conference and knew I wanted to include the loops in my presentation.

Then, I saw a line in the contract — if you are using copyrighted material — you must use it with permission and attribution.

Great!

I want to use the loops — but had no idea who created them.

An intense searched ensued. A couple of weeks later — in Summer 2018, I found the creator, Juliana Park.

She had written a book, The Abundance Loop.

The Abundance Loop starts with GRATITUDE. Gratitude leads to PEACE OF MIND which allows and enables WISE CHOICES that produce POSITIVE OUTCOMES.

We became friends. I invited her to join me for conversation on the Higher Purpose Podcast. She had never done a podcast interview.

We enjoyed a few hours of deep and rich conversations about the loops. You can listen to one of them here.

It was in one of those conversations when I had one of my earliest epiphanies about gratitude.

Gratitude is the gateway to abundance. It opens the door to the good things in life.

Gratitude is the single most powerful action you can take to break the cycle and escape scarcity.

I started embracing and practicing gratitude…to escape scarcity and enter and embrace abundance.

I kept leaning into gratitude.

I incorporated gratitude into every aspect of my life, every meeting I hosted, and integrated gratitude into every conversation I had.

Then, early on the morning of June 17, 2019, I heard these four words — **HOST A GRATITUDE CHALLENGE?**

Saying YES to that one inspired idea was a spark — the spark that ignited a fire that has grown into a global gratitude movement.

Since then, the inspired ideas and invitations have kept coming…and I continue to say yes.

Those ideas and invitations led me here…to creating The Grateful App.

I never set out to create an app — to get so immersed into gratitude that I’d become the World’s Gratitude Coach.

No — I set out to escape the stranglehold of scarcity on my business and my life.

I set out to embrace and enjoy abundance.

To do that, I leaned into gratitude.

Gratitude is my gateway to abundance. Gratitude IS your gateway too.

Your dream — your path does not have to be to grow gratitude in the world, but growing gratitude in your life is absolutely essential to living in abundance.

I want to see you embrace and enjoy abundance. So, I invite you to discover gratitude as your gateway.

You see…it’s not really about gratitude after all.

Or maybe it is!