Gratitude Challenge Day 6: Give Thanks for Your Life

This is Day 6 of the 14-Day Gratitude Challenge held in Aug 2013, where we practice gratitude for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Gratitude challenge

 Hey everyone, welcome to Day 6 of our 14-day gratitude challenge! :D We are nearly at the half-way mark of the challenge. Let’s get started for today!

Day 6: Life

Baby

Life. That’s what we are living right now, every day, every second. Our lives basically started when we were brought into this world, out of our mothers’ womb, cleansed of our mom’s placenta, then wrapped in a little cloth and placed in arms of our loved ones.

Since then, much has happened. We grew up, from a baby to an infant, from an infant to an adolescent, then from an adolescent to an adult. Some of us may be in our teenage years right now. Some of us may be in our adulthood. Some of us may be in our middle-age years. And some of us may be past middle age and entering retirement years soon.

Through these years, we have experienced many ups and downs, trials and tribulations, failures and successes, pains and joy. We have experienced heartaches in relationships, disappointments from failures, anger from unaddressed grievances, anxieties from not being where we want to be, and fears from insecurities. We also experienced the joys of living: from the joy of great friendships, to the joy of supportive family members, to the joy of a relationship/life partner, to the joy of successful pursuits, to the joy of life’s little victories, to the joy of touching others’ lives, to the joy of everyday living.

Yet interestingly, despite the richness of our lives, despite the role we play in creating a great life experience, despite our constant pursuit for growth, and despite us working hard to change every difficulty into a success, we are not responsible for our being brought into this world (at least our current selves are not responsible for that). Our life today is made possible by people (our mom, dad, doctors, nurses, midwives, etc.), external powers (socioeconomic factors for example)  , and perhaps even higher powers (our higher self, our spirit guides/guardian angels, or even God, depending on your personal belief)–all of whom/which existed before we were born into this world.

 Today, your task is to give thanks for your life.

Your Task: Give Thanks For Your Life

Write a note in your gratitude journal today where you give thanks to everyone/everything responsible for your life today.

Specifically, give thanks to:

  1. People and external/higher powers responsible for your physical birth (and as a result, your life).
  2. Anyone and anything who have helped make you the person you are today and directly or indirectly brought you to where you are in life today

Your note can be as long or short as you want–there is no word limit. This is an exercise in gratitude where you express your heart’s truest intents. Type/write away and let your heart sing!

Daily Journaling: Write 3 Things You Are Grateful for Today

On top of today’s task, identify 3 things you are grateful for today. These 3 things can be events that occurred today, mishaps which could have happened but didn’t happen, or simply things which have always been in your life but which you suddenly came to feel grateful for today.

3 things I’m grateful for today:

  1. Ken and I are finally done with our photoshoots in Scotland!! It had been a crazy experience prepping for the shoots (in Glasgow and Edinburgh), from planning out the scenes, to getting the right outfits for the scenes, to liaising with the photographers to execute our ideas for the shoots.

    Now that the shoots are over, I can finally take my mind off it and get back to other priorities, such as writing the daily tasks for the gratitude challenge, writing my proposal for a new speaking engagement, and my upcoming speech at Spark Summit this coming Saturday.

  2. Ken and I are heading back to Singapore today after over two weeks in Scotland. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, in particular the Edinburgh PE Readers Meetup, but the weather has been getting a little too chilly for me. I also can’t wait to get back home and start working on my to-do’s.
  3. I’ve a fiance who is so understanding and accommodating. Ken has been there for me every step of the way during this trip, from listening to me rattle on about the photoshoots every day after he return from work, to making sure I’m duly fed during meal times, to buying flowers for the shoots because I felt they would be better with them, to taking care of me every second of the day. I feel incredibly blessed to have him in my life.

Share Your Results!

Who/what have you given thanks for your life? Who/what have you given thanks for your life as it is today?

If possible, share your gratitude note where you gave thanks to these people/things! Take a picture/screenshot and upload it to the comments section!

What are 3 things you are grateful for today?

Share them in the comments section! :)

Once you’re done, proceed to Gratitude Challenge Day 7: Give Thanks to Yourself.

(Images: Gratitude, Baby
)