Gratitude isn’t a common habit, but without gratitude, life is more challenging than it needs to be. Feeling grateful resets your perspective, and this is a gift you can give yourself each day. If you find yourself feeling pessimistic or overwhelmed, a little gratitude can get your attitude back on the right track.

Gratitude is free, enjoyable, and effective.

Practice gratitude each day with these actions:

1. Write it down. Make a daily habit of writing down a few things that you can be grateful about. Ideally, you’ll do this early and late in the day. It gets your day off on the right foot and sets you up for a good night of sleep.

2. Be grateful for the little things. There are plenty of small things you can be grateful for each day. A great cup of coffee, the sound of birds in the morning, or the fact that you have a new set of tires on your car can all uplift your mood.

3. Go for a gratitude walk. This is a great way to get out of your head. Go for a walk and look for things that you can be grateful for. A beautiful tree, a child playing in her yard, a friendly dog, or a nice, cool breeze are all things you could choose to feel gratitude about.

4. Avoid making comparisons. When you compare one thing to another, you demean it. Be grateful for something exactly as it is. This applies to people and things.

5. Tell people you’re thankful. Show people that you’re grateful for thanking them. Whether it’s your neighbor for keeping his yard so nice or the cashier at the store. Be thankful and let them know about it.

6. Enjoy your pet. Pets give us plenty of reasons to feel gratitude. Give your pet some extra attention. You’ll both feel great.

7. Donate your time or money. Give your resources to something that you think is valuable to the world. It could be a charity or other organization. Time and money can have a great impact.

8. Make a list of things that impress you about yourself. Have a little gratitude for yourself, too. What are you impressed by when you take a long, hard look at yourself? You’ll not only be expressing gratitude, but you’ll also be doing wonders for your self-esteem.

9. Write a positive review for a business you appreciate. Business owners love positive reviews. It makes them feel good and can boost their business. Be supportive and express your gratitude.

10. Meditate on the things that you’re grateful for. Put your focus and attention on those things you’re most grateful for. You might develop an even greater appreciation for them.

11. Minimize judging and complaining. Judging and complaining are the opposite of gratitude. People that do this aren’t enjoyable to be around, either. Keep your negative thoughts and opinions to yourself. Avoid judging others and you’ll find that you’re happier and less stressed.

12. Be thankful at meal times. Since you eat at least one meal each day, this a great way to develop a habit of expressing gratitude. Be grateful for your food and the people sharing it with you.

Be grateful for everything you have. Even if you’re struggling to survive below the poverty level, you’re still living better than the vast majority of the world’s population. That doesn’t mean you have to be satisfied with your current situation, but you can still be grateful for what you do have.

Practice gratitude. Your mood and perspective will be lifted. Your opportunities for success will increase. And you’ll receive even more good things to be grateful for!

Life comes with challenges. How you handle challenges says a lot about your life. Big challenges can be especially intimidating.

Many people feel overwhelmed when faced with adversity, but this is unnecessary. All challenges, both big and small, can be handled with the same basic strategy.

When you feel confident that you can handle any challenge, you have more opportunities available to you.

Use this process to deal with the challenges in your life proactively:

1. Set a goal. Goals are helpful in many situations, including overcoming a big challenge. If you want to be successful, set a goal. Setting a goal accomplishes several things:

– It focuses your time and attention on a solution, rather than putting your attention on the problem.

– It makes it clearer how you should be spending you time.

– It gives you the best chance to overcome your big challenge.

– It makes you feel like you have some control over your life.

– If there’s nothing you can do about the challenge you’re facing, avoid spending any time or energy on it. Work on something else instead.

2. Avoid wasting time. If you have a big challenge in your life, you can’t afford to waste your time on silly things. Identify you biggest time-wasters and commit to spending that time on your solution instead. You might find that overcoming your challenge wasn’t as difficult as you thought it would be.

3. Create a plan. You have a goal, and you’re not going to waste time. So, now you need a plan that will help you accomplish your solution.

– What has to happen immediately before you accomplish your goal? Keep working back until you reach an action you can take today. Now, all you have to do is perform that action. What could be simpler?

– Just keep going like this, step by step, to make a successful plan.

4. Get help. The more resources you can utilize to make your solution a reality, the better the odds of success. It will also speed up the process greatly. Get whatever help you can. Now isn’t the time to be bashful. You can always repay the favor at a later date.

5. Visualize success. Visualization makes your objective clear. It also gives you a boost of confidence and keeps you focused. See yourself successfully overcoming this challenge. Visualize a few times each day.

6. Persevere. If you have a plan, you’re working your plan, and you’re not wasting time, the only thing left to do is hang in there. There’s not much you can’t accomplish if don’t give up. Keep working your plan and persevere!

7. Determine how to avoid a similar situation. If the treads came off your tires, now you know to replace your tires sooner. If your ex-boyfriend stole all of your money, you know that you need to protect your finances better.

– Consider how this challenge came to be, and how you can prevent it from happening again. It would be a shame to go through all of this grief and not learn from it. Use your challenges to ultimately become more capable.

– Just be sure to solve your challenge before taking this last step. Focus on your solution first. Worry about prevention later.

The bigger your goals and aspirations, the bigger the challenges you’ll face. It’s important to have a strategy for dealing with challenges when they arise.

The worst thing you can do is nothing. If there’s a solution, it’s important to actively pursue it rather than sitting around worrying. Your success is largely determined by your ability to overcome challenges.

If you’re facing a big challenge, do what you can to find a solution. Avoid the tendency to sit around and worry about the situation. Be solution-focused!