A Common Gratitude Mistake

Have you ever had a daily planner that had a gratitude section? If so, you might remember that the planner had you list a few things that you're grateful for each day. Some gratitude journals are set up this way too.

Listing things that you're grateful for each day is a fantastic way to build up your gratitude muscle and improve your well-being. However, there's a common mistake that some make when creating a gratitude list. The mistake is not going deep enough.

It's easy to think big picture when making a list of what you're grateful for. We tend to think about our friends and family, our health, and even the weather. While all these things are great, they aren't specific enough to truly work our gratitude muscle. We need to dig deeper and be more detail-focused when writing down a gratitude list.

Don't get me wrong, you can still write down that you're grateful for your friend but write down why. What did your friend do recently that made you feel grateful?

Take the extra step and think about how a person, place, or thing impacted you for the better. By being more specific with our gratitude lists, we'll invoke more gratitude. Specificity with gratitude lists will also help us focus more on the positives by being oriented to look for good things that happen to us throughout our day.

So the next time you gratitude journal or write out a gratitude list in your daily planner, remember to dive deep into the details.