American Cheerleader

Living in NYC can be trying at times. There’s a ton of hustle and bustle, people can be a little jaded and commuting on the subway is tolerable at best (try having to wait for 3 trains to go by before you can get on, just to be squished between 4 super-sized people while a stranger gives a morning sermon on the evils of the world, and then you’ll know what New Yorkers go through just to get to work every morning). So, usually by the time I get to my office (a little before 9AM), my feathers are already ruffled.

Instead of letting the stresses of everyday life get to me and settle for drudging through the day in a cranky mood (which, let’s face it, doesn’t help anyone), I’ve started to do something to make sure my day begins on a positive note.

Every morning when I get into the office, I write a Gratitude List. By starting my day with an “attitude of gratitude” I’m taking a step toward focusing on the positive instead of the negative, which helps more than you can believe. If you want to start a Gratitude List of your own, here’s what to do:

What's Alicia grateful for? Her teammates at Quinnipiac University, of course!

1. Find a group of friends or family members who’d like to join in on your Gratitude Lists.

2. In the morning, someone should start the mass e-mail, CCing everyone in your group, and adding either the date or day in the subject line (my friends and I like to come up with creative subjects, like “Wonderful Wednesday Gratitude” or “TGIF Gratitude”).

3. Write up a list of everything you can think of that you are grateful for that day. It can be small things (finding a quarter on the sidewalk) or big things (you got news that you were named captain of your squad!). The number of items is completely up to you (it can range from 5 to 25, depending on your level of gratitude that day).

4. Then, everyone else in your group should take turns replying to all, and leaving their own lists.

And that’s it. So, how does making a list help? Well, it’s difficult to walk through your day ticked off and depressed when you’ve just listed all the GREAT things that are happening in your life.

So, why not start a Gratitude Group today? To get things started off, I’m including my own list for today, below.

1. My morning coffee.

2. My friend, Kate, for trusting me with the keys to her apartment.

3. Miley Cyrus and her music. It always pumps me up in the morning!

4. Deadline is going smoothly so far.

5. Our groovy interns who are so helpful!

6. My BFF, Tammy, always makes me smile.

7. I’m 100+ pages into writing my new book, Painless.

8. Last night’s episode of “House” was awesome!

9. All the magazines I’m catching up on this week.

10. It’s a beautiful sunny day outside.

11. My boyfriend, Matt.

12. You all!

What are you grateful for? Leave your lists below!

Brittany