Learn how to navigate the holiday season with grace and gratitude. Discover practical tips for managing stress, coping with negative emotions, and cultivating a positive mindset.

In this episode, we dive into:

Developing strategies: For maintaining gratitude during challenging moments.

The Power of Gratitude: A powerful tool for managing stress and improving mental health.

Practical Tips for a Grateful Mindset: Learn actionable strategies for shifting your perspective and cultivating a more positive outlook.

Key Takeaways:

• Make a list of what you're thankful for and have it readily accessible

• Engage in physical activity: Work out, exercise, clean, etc.

• Take a short walk outside (10-20 minutes)."
• "If needed, take a break in a private space (e.g., the bathroom)."

Process negative feelings through journaling: Write a 'psalm' expressing negative emotions, followed by a shift to positive ones. This can be done as a prayer or reflection.

• Create a personalized gratitude list and refer to it whenever you need a mental boost.
• By implementing these strategies, you can navigate the holiday season with greater ease and emerge feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

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Christmas, gratitude, mental health, stress management, self-care, holiday stress, positive mindset, mindfulness

Learn how to incorporate gratitude into your daily life. Discover practical methods, frequencies, and settings to foster a heart of thankfulness.

Are you truly living a life of gratitude, or simply saying you're grateful? While gratitude is a noble attitude, it can often take a backseat to the hustle and bustle of daily life. Let's explore how to intentionally cultivate gratitude through daily rhythms.

Building Your Gratitude Rhythms

To truly embrace gratitude, we must actively choose it. This involves incorporating specific methods, frequencies, and settings into our lives:

3 Methods (How):

• Remembering: Consciously recall moments of thankfulness throughout your day.
• Resting: Pause and appreciate the present moment, free from distractions.
• Connecting: Spend quality time with loved ones, fostering deeper relationships.

3 Frequencies (How Often):

• Daily: Incorporate daily practices like journaling, highlighting a daily positive, or sharing gratitude at the dinner table.
• Weekly: Dedicate time for Sabbath rest and reflection.
• Seasonally: Celebrate holidays and traditions with family and friends, emphasizing gratitude.

3 Settings (Who's Involved):

• Personal: Cultivate individual gratitude practices.
• Family/Friends: Share gratitude experiences with loved ones.
• Church: Participate in corporate worship and community-based gratitude initiatives.

Your Challenge:

Choose one method, frequency, and setting to start building your personal gratitude rhythm.

Ready to Thrive?

Explore additional resources to empower your journey:

gratitude, thankfulness, mindfulness, well-being, positive psychology, personal growth, spiritual growth

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By implementing these strategies, you can transform your life into one of genuine gratitude and fulfillment.

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Being present is easy to say but hard to implement. As men, we love to solve problems and get things done. This often causes us to be somewhere else in our heads when we are with people, which can damage our relationships and our work abilities. If we are somewhere else in our brains, we will often miss things in the moment.

Being present is a skill we can practice and improve. It’s not something that is only for those who have that ability. We can all practice it and improve at it.

When we become more present, we can have better relationships and be more successful in all our endeavors.

• The past is a reality in our lives
• Good or bad, we must deal with events of our past or they will affect the present
• No matter the past that happened to us, we can’t let it affect the present in a negative way
• Bad past events - we relive or live out in an unhealthy response
• Good past events - We live in the past and don’t recognize today
• We must learn how to process our past and then live in today

• Living today takes focus and work
• We have to decide to live in the present
• Be still and know that I am God
• This is a reality many don’t get cause they don’t slow down to let God speak to them

• We miss the present when we are so focused on the future
• Goals and growth are great and you should pursue them, but their purpose is to align our present
• We should not be so focused on the future that we sacrifice the present
• The habits of our lives in the present should feed the goals of the future
• Goals are there to motivate our present decisions

• Knowing your values helps you live in the present
• Get our free Values Start-up Kit to help you begin your journey of thriving

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We had a mix-up on the first release, here is the right version.

Gratitude is something people talk about, but putting it into practice is difficult. Plus, many people talk about it in a “touchy-feely” way, which throws us off as men. The reality of gratitude is something we need in our lives if we want to thrive.

In this week’s show, we discuss gratitude, what it is, and some of the pitfalls that keep us from developing a grateful attitude in our lives.

• Psalm 104 God sustains all aspects of creation
• We get used to things and expect them to stay the same
• Gratitude is a mentality that comes with practice - new neuro pathways in the brain
• Gratitude is a choice of where we put our mind

Entitlement

• When things are going good, we get used to it, and when things go bad, we notice it.
• Things “should be good” God Owes Me
• Biblical view: the only reason the world doesn’t fall apart right now is because God is holding back the chaos.
• The natural setting of this world isn’t life, but death. But God gives life.

Victim mentality

• James Clear Quote on Focus
• "If you look for evidence that people are conspiring to hold you back and the world is working against you, then it will take you no time at all to find precisely that. If you expect to encounter helpful people and experience a world that is working with you, then you find plenty of evidence to support that view as well. The raw material for a sweet life or a bitter life is always there. The story you emphasize is the one you notice."
• Writer and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez on what matters in life:
• "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."

• At the end of each day, think about one thing you are grateful for

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What motivates you in life? What helps you have the energy and perseverance each day to keep going?

We all have different motivations. Some are selfish, and some are altruistic, but they often come down to our values. What we value will ultimately motivate us in our lives.

We want to do the work to recognize our values so we can focus on them and let them empower us to live a thriving life.

On today’s show, we discuss how values direct our lives and keep us from getting distracted or off course.

• Values are like a bridge between the wisdom of God and our everyday lives
• Values give a specificity to eternal principles and allow you to connect with them.
• Jim Dobson “I believe it [the midlife crisis] is more a phenomenon of a wrong value system than it is the age group in which it occurs. All of a sudden you realize that the ladder you've been climbing is leaning against the wrong wall.”

• Values inform your decisions and responses to life.
• If you do not choose, someone else will choose for you.
• “Your values are tested daily by those who do not embrace them.” John Maxwell

• Values force you to face reality every day: the difference between how you want to live and how you are living.
• You have to discover what’s important to you if you want to make progress.
• Your value score isn’t about the outcome of the day, but the input of that day.
• It’s not about how the day went, it’s about how you went through the day.
• It empowers you because it’s not about what’s outside your control, but what is in your control.

Get your free Values Starter Kit

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• Learn about the 4 fundamentals of a Successful Life

Discover OUR SPEAKING AND HOW WE HAVE EMPOWERED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD

What good are values? How do they help us in the everyday chaos of life?

That is what we are talking about on the show today. We will discuss how values are essential for us as we navigate life. Just like a compass helps sailors arrive at their destination, values guide us to live empowered lives. This means each day can be rich and full of meaning no matter what you do for a job or how many tasks you have to accomplish.

• Values can act as a compass and bring focus amidst the chaos.
• Values give us direction on what action to take.
• Values help us cut out the unnecessary or unimportant in our lives.

• Without values, we aren’t aiming our lives in any specific direction
• Values force us to choose.
• If we don’t choose a direction for our lives, someone or something else will choose for us.
• The current of life draws us towards the easy and the urgent. The easy and the urgent are rarely the important.
• Not choosing is a choice.

• A million different voices are screaming at us that we NEED to do their thing. (Buy their product, take their course, follow their advice, etc.)
• There is a dangerous assumption in our world that we can do everything.
• You CANNOT do it all. “Teach us to number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom.”(Psalm 90:12)
• We don’t need to do everything. We just need to do the right things
• The difference between a light and a laser is the focus.
• The difference between surviving and thriving is the focus.

• The Values Starter Kit

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Samwise Gamgee was an iconic character in the Lord of the Rings series. He was an everyday gardener who was put into some unbelievable situations. The amazing thing about Sam was that he didn’t let the good or bad situations change him. He had a strong identity and stuck to it no matter the situation.

Many men today are facing an identity crisis. This is due to their lack of foundational values. When a man has strong values, he will often have a strong identity. He can stand up in hard situations and is less likely to back down in the pressure cooker of life.

Today’s show discusses how our values help shape our identity.

“You have to be great and world-changing!”

All the unrealistic men on TV and social media.

Who am I? Do I need to be like them?

How we often look to accomplishments to validate ourselves.

They help you become more confident in who you are

They give you a pathway on how you should live

Values guide us and keep us focused on what we can control

Values are meant to guide your personal behavior, not define your circumstances.

Values guide how we live more than how we feel, where we are at in life, or how others respond.

Download and go through the Values Starter Kit PDF at www.thrivingman.com

Core strength often involves our abs and whether we are exercising. However, we want to discuss a different type of core strength in this week’s show: Inner Core Strength.

This has nothing to do with abs but has everything to do with your Values. When a man has values and seeks to live by them, he is stronger in every area of his life. When a man ignores his values, he will live a weak life of following others. Join us as we focus on values and why they are so important to men today.

Weak men lack purpose and wander through their lives

Weak men selfishly focus on themselves

A weak man’s world is easily wrecked by circumstances

Weak men will often seek escape from hard choices

The answer isn’t just to try harder

The answer is to build your core strength

Core strength in men is their values

Some values are universal and some are personal

They will become slaves to other people’s opinions and their appetites

RESOURCES TO HELP YOU THRIVE AS A MAN

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Thriving Man Coaching Resources

4D MODEL FREE PDF

Learn about the 4 fundamentals of a Successful Life

Discover OUR SPEAKING AND HOW WE HAVE EMPOWERED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD