I'm a great believer in the gratitude exercise that is suggested by most personal growth writers. There are a few ways of doing this, but basically you write down things you are grateful for, even on days when you feel lousy. If you have nothing to write about, you're supposed to list things like "I have two legs" (if you do) or "I woke up this morning". This is all good. But if you've ever practiced this exercise, have you ever written an entry and said to yourself "ok, yeah, I'm grateful for that, but it could be so much better" and then felt that you were trying to convince yourself that you were satisfied that this element of your life was the way it was -- that "just ok" was good enough?
One of the downsides of gratitude exercises is that they encourage us to look at the ordinary in our lives. But what about the extraordinary? We have the habit of lumping the two groups of elements into one pile, and the extraordinary, the fabulous, get totally lost in the ordinary. So I'm going to suggest a new exercise. It won't give us as long a list as the gratitude exercise. It won't necessarily make us feel good about the "ok" things in our lives. But it will help us notice the absolutely fantastic, fabulous, extraordinary things that we are all so fortunate to have. And it will help us realize that these things are truly fabulous and not simply "ok". I call this the FABULOUS LIST exercise.
My list has personal things on it that I won't necessarily share with everyone. But right near the top of my list are the three FABULOUS bookcases in my library. They are from Indonesia, I paid a sinful amount of money for them (when I had quite a bit more disposable income than I have today), they have survived a move across the country and one of my cats loves to sit on the top of the tallest one. They often go unnoticed as I walk by them from my office to the kitchen, but today, I will stop and pay attention to the dark wood grain, the intricate workmanship and remember the hard work I had completed to receive the bonus I used to pay for them.
So, there is an example of how to complete your FABULOUS LIST. I could tell you to write down one thing every day for the next 21 days ("they" say that this is the best way to create a habit). But I know that I don't have to, because once you start thinking about the fabulous things in your life, you will want to continue writing until your hand hurts. It may also inspire you to go get new FABULOUS things that you have been wanting for a long time.
Just remember: FABULOUS IS GOOD!
