Celebrating a Grateful New Year

New Year Fireworks

We all love a fresh new year. New Year’s Day always seems so different. It’s a time of letting go of the past year, past mistakes and moving on to a fresh new slate.  Our hopes are high with new goals and beginnings. We are focused on new things and making them work in the new year. Some of us make new year resolutions and promise ourselves we will commit to them without fail. 

We are excited about the new days ahead, and then we fall off the wall of resolution and back to our old ways. We tell ourselves we will try again in 6 months, which turns into the next new year. We ride this cycle every year, and every year we only get it half done. 

I want to encourage you to keep reading because this may be the year you stop the cycle, get off the merry-go-round and thrive with success. I invite you to look at the new year that is coming with a different set of eyes or a different tone of the heart. 

This new tone of the heart is a heart of gratitude. 

Gratitude is a strong principle to add to your life. So, instead of starting a new year resolution that you might fail, why not start something I call the “gratitude attitude.” Don’t let the year be about the goals you set or resolutions but about the attitude of the heart you develop in your daily life. There is power in being grateful. But how does that look in your everyday life?

If you are unsure what gratitude means, here is the definition: The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

New Year Clock

So, if you are ready to go on a new journey this coming year, let me give you a few suggestions for implementing the definition above. First, I want to show you how to keep track of your new attitude. Second, I want to share a few ideas of ways to be grateful with you. 

You will only need a journal and a pen for this to work. 

In your journal, put the month of January at the top of a blank page. As the month goes on, list all the things or people you are grateful for. You will begin to create a list of things that people did for you, good things that happened to you during the month, or things God has done for you. 

You will do this each month until you get to the end of the year.

Let’s look at some suggestions of what you could have gratitude for and be on the lookout for in your daily life. These suggestions, and the list is endless, will grow your heart in your new gratitude attitude. Look at them as jumping-off points to a new year and a new way of looking at life. Here you go!

  • Look for ways to pay it forward 
  • See the good in people 
  • Incorporate more gratitude in your prayer time
  • Make a habit of saying “thank you” to people 
  • Express appreciation for the blessings in your life
  • Learn to be more still and listen to the voice of God 
  • Be grateful for another new year 
  • Love of family 
  • Love of a pet 
  • Ability to sleep and rest 
  • Friendships you have 
  • Home you have 
  • Ability to forgive someone 
  • Kindness of a stranger 
  • Blessings of in-laws
  • Your children 
  • Surprise gifts
  • Sunrise & Sunset
  • Try a 100-letter challenge, where you write 100 letters during the year to people to thank them for what they have done for you

These are just a few ideas of things you can look for in your life to be grateful for in the new year. Gratitude takes practice. Don’t get discouraged. Every day presents something new. Gratitude will make you aware of the things that God does in your life every day, big or small.  We are not very grateful people by nature. It is a decision you will have to make every day to be more grateful and one that will reap many, many rewards in your life. 

Welcome to the New Year!

Grace and peace,

Alicia

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