How To Have More Gratitude | The Mindset Mentor Podcast

Rob Dial argues that gratitude is a choice. He points to Nelson Mandela and Holocaust survivors who found gratitude in extreme hardship, and shows how modern conveniences like smartphones and air travel are miracles compared to past generations. The mindset you adopt determines what you attract: focus on problems and you get more problems; focus on gratitude and you find more reasons to be grateful.
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Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. Today I'm going to be talking about how to have more gratitude, and I'm honestly just going to talk to you about how fucking amazing life is in this human experience is. And my goal for today's episode is to reframe your mindset in some way to help you have more gratitude today. Now, a piece of what I'm saying where I say everything's amazing. When I say it's amazing, I don't mean that it's perfect. I don't mean that there's not some shit hitting the walls. I don't mean that there's not stuff going down all the time and that there's, you know, injustices across the world. There always has been, there probably always will be. But it doesn't mean that we can't seem to find gratitude, no matter what's happening around us, for every single moment that we have. If we have people, and you can read about people like Nelson Mandela who can be locked up for as long as he was and still be a grateful person, if you can hear about people who live through some of the crazy stuff with the Nazis and they can still find a way to be grateful, it's like, man, I can still find a way to be grateful for what's going on in my life, Right? And really what it comes down to is we can start a. Start a system of gratitude and when we can be more grateful for what we do have. Because if you're listening to this podcast, you have a lot more than the average person. Like, a lot more than the average person. But a lot of times, what do we tend to do? We tend to think about what we don't have versus what we do have. What we can be grateful for. When we can start from a place of feeling, grateful for what we have, grateful for our lives, we can serve the world better than if we're like, oh, I don't have what I want. I'm not good enough. Oh, my life isn't where I want it to be, but my bank account isn't what I want it to be. In my job, it's not what I want it to be. In my relationship isn't what I want it to be. Like, I understand. You can have that mindset if you want. That's fully your prerogative. Or you can say, you know what? I'm gonna look around me and I'm gonna search for things to be grateful for. And what I'm gonna do is I'm going to focus on those things that I can be grateful for. Because if I can be grateful for the little things, then I can show up better, I can serve the world better, I can be a better human. And what you focus on expands. Maybe if I focus on these little tiny things that I'm grateful for, just maybe the universe will give you more things to be grateful for. And I remember watching a comedian, like, 10 years ago, and he was talking about how everything is amazing and nobody's happy. Like, if you really take a step back, it's like, damn, stuff is amazing. And he was talking about how he was on his first flight with WI fi on a plane, and it was like one of the first flights and WI fi was on it, and everyone was all excited. Oh, my gosh, we get to go on one of the first flights with WI Fi. And then in the flight, the WI fi stops working. And the guy next to him was like, this is bullshit. And he was talking about how he was joking about the fact that the guy was mad about something that he didn't know existed 20 minutes ago. And it's like, how often does that happen where it's like, we have this amazing thing that's going on, WI fi in a plane, and then when it stops working the very first time, it's like, oh, well, this is bullshit. And it's ridiculous, because if you really start to think about it, everyone on the plane should be like, oh, my God, this is the most amazing thing in the world. Like, you're literally in a chair in the sky. You're in a chair at 30,000ft, going 600 miles an hour in basically like a Coca Cola can, right? That's amazing. Like, every time that I take off. And if you've been listening to podcasts for a while, you know, I've been in flight training and getting my pilot license, everything like that. Every time I'm in a plane and it takes off right when the wheels get off, I'm. The first thought in my mind is, holy shit, this is crazy. Like, it's amazing if you really start to think about it, right? Like, how amazing this thing is. Like, you have 250 people flying at 600 miles an hour because of two fans that are going really fast. Like, it's pretty amazing. And, you know, to go from New York to LA is like five to six hours. That used to take 30 years, and a bunch of people would die on the way, right? Like, I was watching the show 1883, and it's about, you know, going on the Oregon Trail, and it really starts to put your life into perspective of, like, what some of our ancestors had to go through years ago. Like, my ancestors weren't in America. They all came over from Ireland. But Everybody in the 1800s and 1700s lived, you know, pretty similar lives as far as, like, what they had, what they didn't have, what they had access to, what they didn't have access to. And you really look at it, it's like, it's amazing that you could literally just hop in a plane, go at 30,000ft, travel 600 miles an hour, and go from LA to New York in five hours. And, you know, like, if you really start to think about that, it's like, man, that's a pretty amazing thing. And then you think about how miserable people are in airports. It's like. It's like the worst thing in the. It's like the worst part of their day. This traveling for seven hours is the worst part of their day, right? And it's like that used to take 30 years, and most of the people would be dead, but by the time you got there. And then some people would have babies. And so you would show up at a location 30 years later with a completely different group of people than what started with you. And so it's like, man, so many people are miserable when they have to go on an airplane and go into an airport. There's so many people who are miserable in their airports that it's like they don't actually even take a step back to think about how amazing this is. Take another thing, for instance, like, your phone. Think about how amazing your phone is, right? Like, I came from a time where I didn't have a cell phone until I was 17 years old. And so, like, I remember life before everybody having cell phones. And I remember when it was literally, like, my dad had one when I was a kid that was, like, in the car. Like, the cell phone was built into the car, and it never worked, ever. It, like, kind of worked in and out, and then it would just, like, stop working. But, like, if you look at your phone, for instance, like, the thing that's in your pocket, it has a camera. Like, if you think of all of the things that used to be required for your phone, it's like a ton of different things. So I put a list of them together. Ready? It took the place of a camera. It took the place of a camcorder. For those of you guys that are old enough, remember that cameras and camcorders Are two different things. Back in the day. Took the place of a radio. I haven't used a radio in years. I use Spotify. Took the place of CDs, took the place of books. Took the place of calculator. It took the place of a voice recorder. Took the place of a gps. So, yes, remember there used to be times when you used to have an actual separate gps, a unit in your car. Hey, beautiful person, if you're loving this podcast episode, please do me a real quick favor. Give us a like down below. And then if you have anything that you want me to do in future episodes, go ahead and comment it down below. I. I always check the comments to see what you guys want me to talk about. So if you give us a like and a comment, I'd greatly, greatly appreciate it. I remember one of my first jobs. I had to have a satellite GPS so I could get around and, you know, travel and make some sales. Takes place of a flashlight. Takes the place of a leveler. Takes the place of a scanner. Like the other day I had to scan something and send it, and I literally just used my phone for it. There's a part of me that was like, do I have to drive to FedEx to do this? No, I just do it from my phone. Takes the place of a compass. Takes the place of a video game console. It can take the place of a credit card now. Take the place of an alarm clock. Take the place of a stopwatch. Take the place of a timer. Take the place of a calculator. Take the place of a calendar. Take the place of a notepad. Take the place of a photo album. Take a place. I was watching a video yesterday, and there were people on YouTube talking about this guy who had a picture, and they're like, what is with this picture? That's kind of odd that he would just have this picture out. And they're like, oh, well, I guess when this was recorded, the only way that you could see pictures is by printing them out. And you're like, oh, damn. There was a time when you. The only time you could see pictures was when they were printed out. It takes a place of new piece of paper. Takes a place like, for me, like, I have a guitar tuner on mine when I want to play guitar. Takes place for guitar player. Takes place. Remote control you could control your TV from. It takes the place of, you know, one of my cars, car keys, where you can just get in with the car and it starts working. And it's crazy. And all of the knowledge that mankind has ever known. You can access through your phone by using Google and the Internet. It's fucking amazing. It's the most incredible piece of technology that's ever been created. When people always say it's the best thing since sliced bread, People should now say it's the best thing since a cell phone. Cause it's so incredible. But how much do we just forget about how amazing things are? You know, people say, oh, my gosh, but phones are so still addicting. They're so addicting, and there's something wrong with them. Well, you know, if you're addicted to your cell phone, you're letting yourself be addicted to your cell phone. It's a really great servant. It's a terrible master. And you have to decide how and when you want to use it. Really what I'm trying to get to, though, is do you often take yourself out of your own head, look around and go, wow, this is pretty amazing. This is an amazing thing that's going on right now. Like, for me, I'm in the studio right now. I'm going to be fully transparent. It's 84 degrees in here. Because our air conditioning was broken this morning, we had to have the guy come and fix it. He fixed it. And I could be pissed off about how it's 84 degrees right now and be like, well, this is bullshit. I like it to be 72. It's 84 degrees. Kind of got some sweat going down my back as I'm recording this for you guys, and this is fucking bullshit. And, you know, I have a leather chair that I'm sitting on, and I can feel the back of my knees are starting to sweat. I could be all pissed off about it. And there's always a reason to be pissed off. If you want to be pissed off. There always is, and you can find that reason. Or I could be like, you know what? It's 82 degrees in here. It's 104 outside right now in Austin. I'm pretty grateful that I'm not outside right now. 22 degrees hotter. I can choose which one I want to focus on. There's always something to be pissed off about, and there's always something to be grateful for. But the best part about it is you decide the filter. You decide what you want to focus on. And you know, like, shit. Another thing that just popped up into my head just thinking about the phone as well. Like, we were just in Italy not long ago, and our security camera. We can check on the house when I'm in Italy, you know, I get motion in my front yard and my backyard, and I'm thousands and thousands of miles away. And, you know, there was a Amazon guy that came and dropped something off, and I can talk to him. I can talk to the Amazon guy through my security camera thousands and thousands and thousands of miles away and tell him where to leave a package. The hidden place he can leave a package. That's crazy. And then when my friends come over, because they want to take the package and put it inside, I can unlock the door from my phone. Thousands. Like, it's bonkers how amazing stuff is nowadays. Or you could be like, I just want to be pissed off, right? Text messages, for instance. Text messages. Think about that for a second. My grandparents, like, I could be in Italy and I could send a text message to my best friend here in Austin, and they get it. He gets it immediately. My grandparents, my grandpa's in World War II. They met, and then my grandpa had to go to war. And they used to write letters to each other. Like, my. My grandmother would write a letter to my grandfather responding to his letter that he got or that he had sent months before. And she's writing him a letter not knowing if the person that she's writing a letter to is, number one, going to receive it or. Or, number two, if he's even still alive. Now you can just send a text message, and people immediately get it. Like, think of your life. If you really take yourself out of it and think about it, it's amazing. It might be great, it might be good, it might be terrible right now, but it's still amazing. And if you're listening to right now, your quality of life is a hundred times better than a king 500 years ago. I say this all the time because I really want to put your life into perspective. If you were a king 500 years ago with the best possible life that you could have, a King's life 500 years ago is not as good as your life today. That's a pretty crazy thing to think about, isn't it? You know, we have food, water, shelter, clothing, hopefully a couple people that love us, and we're over here like. But I want more. I want faster Internet so I could watch YouTube in 4K, right? Like, think about how much. And mind you, I'm not making fun of you. I'm making fun of us because we do this. And there's times when I'm like, oh, the fucking TV's not working. And I'm like, screw you, Rob. Like, I'm thinking this in my head. I'm like, screw you. Who cares? It's not a big deal. Your life is amazing, right? And the way that I like to think about it is that you're very rarely going to be given more than you currently have if you can't be grateful for what you currently have. Think about that for a second. You will very rarely be given more than what you have right now if you can't find a way to be grateful for what you have. I don't believe that God, the universe, whatever it is that you want to believe in, likes to reward, can be honest with you. I don't think that the God of the universe likes to reward little bitches, right? And if I'm sitting around being a little bitch and I'm whining and complaining, why would I ever be gift with more? It's like a child that constantly complains. If a child just complains, oh, this toy sucks. This sucks. I'm mad, I'm pissed. All this stuff. Why would you give another toy to a kid? Same kid? No, we won't be given more until we become really great stewards for what we already have. And so for you, you have to realize, for myself included, because every podcast I make is made for you, but also for myself, what we focus on, we'll receive more of. And so we need to focus on what we have, what we can be grateful for. If you choose to focus on what you don't have, if you choose to always look at the negative, if you choose to always try to find problems, you will get more problems. You will find. If you're searching for problems in your life, they're everywhere. No matter how amazing life is, there's always problems. But if you focus on what you're grateful for, you will find more things to be grateful for. And I don't know about you, I would much rather live in a state of gratitude than a state of problems. But the beautiful thing about all of that is that you and I are able to make the decision of which one we want to focus on. It's completely up to us. Nuts. Beautiful thing about life. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please do me a favor, go ahead and take it. Share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in at robdial Junior. R O B D I A L J R. That helps us spread the word. The word. I love that this podcast has grown to what it is. It's grown to what it is without any big backing behind it. Any big companies, any of that type of stuff. There's no, you know, NPR or CBS or any of those multi billion dollar companies pushing this thing. It is literally just through grassroots. And that is from you guys sharing it over and over and over again. So if you would share it, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.
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