491: 100 Ways To Count Your Blessings

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Steli Efti : Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

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Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

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Steli Efti : And today on The Startup Chat we’re going to talk about all the ways in which you can count your blessings and why you want to become an expert and really good at doing that. So any of you that have been listening to us for a long time, and a lot of you do and we really appreciate your attention and we really appreciate all the feedback and you sticking with us through all these years. We’ve been doing this podcast for a while now. For those of you that know us well, you know how much the power of gratitude and the power of appreciation means to both Hiten and me and how much we think about it and how much we try to practice it. We did a really popular episode awhile back, episode 161, The Power of Gratitude. You can just search it on thestartupchat.com or if you just put it into Google, Startup Chat, and then episode 161 you’ll find it and you can check it out. But today I don’t want to talk that much about why being grateful is of benefit to you in the world and why using the power of appreciation is really impactful. We’ll just assume you already know. What I’d like to do is just do a quick episode where we share all the ways we have practiced and counted our blessings and just to stimulate people maybe with new ideas or to push them to pick up some old habits that they had accumulated. Because I really think that if we can increase, if we can even just get a handful of listeners to start counting their blessings a bit more every day, the impact is impossible to measure, but it’d be very exciting to me. So I want to just ping pong, go back and forth between you and I. I’m going to share a way I have counted my blessings or practice gratitude or have seen others or heard from others. And then you go and I go and we’ll do this for a couple of minutes and we’ll wrap it up and hopefully people won’t be able to help but to start using some of these ideas to increase the level of appreciation in their daily life.

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Hiten Shah: That sounds good.

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Steli Efti : All right. You go first.

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Hiten Shah: I think one thing to practice is, no matter what the experience is, being thankful for whatever experience you got. You’re next.

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Steli Efti : No. All right. I love it. I was like, “This is a negotiation tactic.” I’m like, “Silence, maybe he’ll say more.” I was like …

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Hiten Shah: A nice try.

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Steli Efti : Yeah. Well, can’t blame me for it. Okay, so-

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Hiten Shah: Well I hope you’re thankful for the experience.

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Steli Efti : I am. I’m very thankful and grateful for you. Not to get too cringey on this podcast, but I am. And this is the thing, okay, tell people that you’re grateful for them and what they bring to your life. Don’t just think it, don’t just feel it, say it. This is really true. The amount of times, we’ve been doing this podcast for, I don’t know, four years, five years now, and we have surpassed over 100 times. We definitely have told each other over 100 times how much we appreciate and how grateful we are for each other, for the advice for the laugh, for the friendship, for the connection. Oftentimes we stop recording this podcast and then we’ll chat for a couple of minutes about our lives, our struggles, what’s happening. And then we’ll say how much we appreciate each other, how much we mean to each other. And it’s not just because we’re softies, although that’s part of it, but it’s because that’s what we feel. And communicating to the people that you appreciate them, that you’re grateful for them. It doesn’t matter if it’s your co-funders, your coworkers, your parents, your family, your friends. If somebody means something and brings something to your life, tell them, don’t just think it.

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Hiten Shah: Yeah, that was great. I think morning gratitude or a time where you’re grateful, whether it’s morning or evening or after you’ve woken up, after you brush your tea or after you put on your pajamas, whatever it may be. Just mentally having that trigger of after you do something, just have a something that you do every day, just have a moment of gratitude. Just have a moment of just think about like what you’re thankful for. Either this morning or this evening or whatever happened in the day. I think it’s a good practice to just find something where you can just sort of have a natural cadence for doing it every day.

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Steli Efti : I love it. So related to that is write it down. So what I do in the mornings is I do start fairly early in the mornings writing down a couple of things that I’m grateful for, and that sets my mood and it’s important for me or it’s a different experience and a different feeling around it when I write it down versus when I just think it or feel it. It’s not better or worse or stronger or weaker. It’s just different. So I like to write it down in the morning. And then in the evening, one practice that I have with my two sons is that the very last thing we do before they go to sleep is each and every one of us shares what we’re grateful for that day. And that’s another beautiful thing, is you can go through this alone, but it’s also nice if you have somebody where you can actually share with that person, here’s what I’m grateful for today, and then listen to their gratefulness. A lot of times what happens between me and my two sons as they share things and as I share things, we remember other new things to share with each other. One is pollinating and stimulating the other. So that’s also a beautiful way to do that is to to do it with somebody else.

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Hiten Shah: Yeah, I like that. That’s awesome. I think the shared experience is always great. I’ll throw a different one around. One that I tend to use is actually if I’m not feeling that great, I think finding something to be grateful for, even if it’s just a roof over my head can be really useful. So I think it’s a way to solve a problem where you’re just not feeling that great for whatever reason. Maybe you’re upset about something or things that didn’t go your way. I think it’s important to just be grateful for anything, and that usually tends to at least make my mood slightly better if I’m not feeling great.

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Steli Efti : I love it. Yeah. So this relates to another thing. So I think it’s important or it can be really powerful and beautiful to be grateful for the significant things in life. There’s also a power, and I struggle with this to be honest, I don’t do this as much, but I’ll practice this more, is counting your small blessings as well. Being grateful for a glass of water, being grateful for fresh air, a deep breath of a fresh air, being grateful for a warm bed, just practicing being grateful for things that are really amazing. But because they’re so abundant in your life, maybe they’re not as significant as the million dollar deal you just close today or the whatever. We always look for these peak moments to stand out to be grateful for and we should. But there’s also, I think, true power in learning to be grateful for the quote unquote tiny or small things in life that are actual magical or essential. So practicing gratefulness for small things, not just big things, I think can be also incredibly rewarding.

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Hiten Shah: Yep. Small things, not just big things. Absolutely. I think one other one I would talk about would be the fact that there are, and we mentioned this a little bit, or you did. But I think it’s like if you have a significant other, you have kids, it’s just simple and easy to just be grateful for them, count those blessings. The fact that they’re there. And in relation to that, they’re alive, is your health, just being grateful for your health can go wonder … It can be wondrous.

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Steli Efti : I love it. All right, we could go on, I think we could go on for a little longer, but I’d rather do this. I’d rather wrap up this episode at this point, but then ask anybody that has listened all the way to this moment, this very moment. I have a big ask for you. Well first a tell, we’re really grateful for you and for your attention. We know that it’s something special to listen to the two of us for this long and to give us your attention, your time and your energy. And the second is an ask, which is send us a quick email even if it’s just a word or a sentence and share with us what you’re grateful for. The more of these emails we’ll get, we’ll share back what we’re grateful for, but let’s just spread this, let’s cross pollinate each other. But I’d love to hear, I’d love to hear what comes to your mind after listening to the two of us for a couple of minutes. Just shoot us an email, [Steliequals.com 00:00:09:36], [HSI@gmail.com 00:09:37]. Subject line counting blessings, blessings, gratefulness, appreciation, whatever you want. And just write, it could just be a word, could be a sentence, whatever it is, just share a little bit of what you’re grateful for today with us in writing. We’d really appreciate it.

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Hiten Shah: Please.

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Steli Efti : That’s it from us. We’ll hear you very soon.

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Hiten Shah: Later.

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