At the beginning of 2023, a friend of mine gave me a prayer journal to thank me for hosting her and her family. At the back of the journal was a section titled “365 Days of Gratitude.” This was obviously meant to encourage the owner of the journal to record one thing to be thankful for every day.

I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t clock up 365 things to be thankful for by the end of the year. I didn’t even manage it by the end of 2024!

Fast forward to 2025 and I decide to be more intentional about recording my thankfuls. Today I reached number 330 and I feel a lot better for it. I will have written down 365 before the end of July and I’m looking forward to starting a new journal specifically dedicated to gratitude. Writing my thankfuls isn’t just about getting something down. It is now more of a heart posture which I can honestly say helps me to believe bigger and manage anxiety when that creeps up on me.

Lastly, I got a copy of Janice Kaplan’s “The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life.” Like my prayer journal it’s from 2023 and I’ve only read a few pages. But it’s a good book! Don’t let my lack of reading progress fool you. In it, Kaplan talks about how one New Year’s Eve, she made a promise to be grateful and look on the bright side of whatever happened. She realized that how she felt over the next year would have less to do with the events that occurred than her own attitude and perspective. 

And this is it! Thankfulness does so much than we realize. Kaplan proves this by hearing from psychologists, academics, doctors, and philosophers. She shares how gratitude can transform every aspect of life from marriage and friendship to money and health and fitness. With all this evidence, what have you got to lose? Be grateful. You’ll be thankful that you were.