What is the 21-day gratitude and abundance challenge?
‘Tis the season for giving, and this 21-day gratitude and abundance challenge is my gift to you. It’s here to lift you, to inspire you, and to challenge you to exercise your love muscles. The heart is, after all, a muscle too!
It’s a great first step to jump-start your journey to creating an abundant, happy, and fulfilled life. Best of all, it can be a gift that keeps on giving. How? Because this challenge can become a healthy practice that you keep on doing every day, if you want it to.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how this challenge works, let’s lay down the ground-work for you. Research on gratitude is nothing new. We have been researching the impact it has on our lives for decades, desperate to find this ‘Holy Grail’ of happiness.
Happiness is not something we arrive at. It’s not based solely on circumstances, either. While circumstances DO play a role in our happiness, how much of a role it plays is a choice.
Did you know that humans inherently have a genetic set-point for their level of happiness? I didn’t either, until just recently. I found it absolutely fascinating. A whopping 50% of the population is, by default, profoundly affected by negativity!
This means that our feelings of happiness and well-being naturally fluctuate. It’s perfectly normal that they change by the positive and negative events that happen in our life. We do have some control over whether or not we lose sight of it altogether, however.
Genetics dictate whether or not negativity affects you to begin with, but your reaction dictates how much and for how long.
As you follow along on your own 21-day gratitude and abundance challenge, you will be amazed at the positive impact that it has in your life. Anyone, at any time can join in on this gratitude challenge, long after the blog post date.
As I’m posting this, we happen to be entering the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Regardless of when you’re reading this, gratitude should be a daily habit.
So, why did I choose 21 days? Because it takes, on average, about 21 days to make a new habit. Personally, I feel as though it takes much longer for many people. In fact, there is plenty of information out there to support that.
21 days feels a lot more doable for the vast majority of us, who likely feel that we already have plenty of other things to think about. Still, I encourage you to kick it up a notch, and make this into a solid habit for life.
But regardless, let’s get you started, so that you can watch where it takes you. I want you to see it through long enough to witness the effects that this has on your life. Any progress you see will inspire you to continue this new habit for good!
It’s not happy people who are thankful. It’s thankful people who are happy!
This gratitude challenge will make you feel happier, but there’s more benefit than just that. When you’re grateful, you create more to be grateful for.
The first step is to re-wire your mind. Research once told us that our minds didn’t really change very much as we aged. We know now that we can mold our minds to accept any new habit, thought or reality. It’s our beliefs and intentions that create our world first in our minds then in our hearts.
The feeling of gratitude is not in our minds, it is our intention that is. It is only after we put our intention on what we FEEL grateful for that creates MORE of that feeling which is where the magic begins. You will soon have a better outlook on life, and open up your world for more abundance!
Still need more reasons to get started? I understand – I’m a bit of a skeptic myself.
Research shows that the more you practice, the more grateful you become. Your new found positive outlook will no doubt begin to rub off on your friends and family too.
This is your positive energy, SQUARED. Imagine the potential!
We all have input that feeds our mind with negativity. There’s the news, negative co-workers, and Facebook to thank for less than abundant information that penetrates our minds. We need to counter this with positivity!
So are you ready to begin this 21-day gratitude and abundance challenge? Let’s get going!
At the very basic level of this challenge, I want you to go inward to celebrate you. What a wonderful way to start this gratitude challenge. Think of a new born baby for a minute. See how precious they are? You began this same way, so perfect and beautiful, let’s say thank you for your life.
My gratitude journal book – I went to the dollar store and bought a cute journal that just happened to be decorated. I bought several of them so that my daughters could get in on the fun. Any steno pad will do for this project but the girly side of me wanted to make this fun.
We will begin by choosing a time of day that you will write in your journal. This takes less than five minutes a day. Don’t get caught up in the fact that you are adding something else in your already complicated day. I always choose right before bed because the house is quiet and my girls are in bed. I can finally be alone with my thoughts.
This gratitude challenge is simple. All you need to do is date the entry, and write three things that you are grateful for. Starting off my journal, I was a bit empty-minded and groggy. I started with writing about silly little things, like “I am grateful for my Caramel-flavored Coffee this morning.”
Have fun with it. Don’t take the task too seriously. Look at it like it’s just for fun, if you feel that silly. This shouldn’t be a chore!
This journal is all yours. It’s private. If a flavored coffee is something that you love, then by all means, say that you’re grateful for it!
Bringing positivity into your life goes far beyond just gratitude. Another great practice to adopt is to journal about any and every recent successes that come to mind – no matter how small. Take the time to say “thank you” for the ‘wins’ in your life.
After all, you bring about what you think about. Thinking about where you’ve succeeded already will help you bring more success to you.
Feel free to write additional uplifting words such as gratitude affirmations. Here is an example.
“Right now, and forever, I choose to be grateful”
“I’ve decided to be healthy”
“I choose to be patient. Abundance is coming – all I have to do is take action toward it and align with it.”
These statements are powerful when repeated a few times in your day.
So, if you can remember, you will need to implement an additional time in your day where you re-read your journal. Reading these personal gratitude statements will help “lock in the learning”. Let’s face it, if you were in school and your desire is to learn something you would study it. You would work to retain and memorize the information.
But wait, there’s more! As you go about this gratitude and abundance challenge, be mindful to give thanks with these other great ideas.
- Write a gratitude note to someone
- Share one of your grateful thoughts
- Give thanks for all of the mistakes that taught you something valuable
Stay focused in your 21-day gratitude and abundance challenge. Remember where focus goes, energy flows. Your life is so full of gifts, it is difficult to note them all. Even through all of the tragedy in my life, I work to find the things to be grateful for. It makes me humble, loving and happy.