The Power of a Gratitude Journal

Today is a Hit Splits episode for Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show. The podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Hello and welcome to this edition of Hits Blitz. I am so, so thankful for each one of you, my listeners on my podcast. I have been able to do amazing things with technology this year and in the years past, you know, even with my books and print on demand technology. But right now, if you could see me, you would kind of smile because I'm on vacation. So I brought my little microphone, my IRIG mic cast and I have my iPhone set up and I'm recording this in my brother in law's home. So it's really amazing what you can do with technology these days. And I'll have to record a video or an episode later that I share this mobile podcasting system that I have and that I can record a podcast for you anywhere. At the time of recording this, it's Black Friday, so we just celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. I took the day completely off and didn't even check email. It was really nice to spend time with family, but it reminds me of the Power of Gratitude. One of my best selling books is on the topic of gratitude. It was in 2012 that my husband and I moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. And just to be really honest, I was struggling. I was struggling with a lot of things and just self pity, a complaining attitude, discontentment. And it was 2012 that I sensed God asking me to take my own personal gratitude challenge. At that time I had no intentions on publishing a book on gratitude. I just needed it for myself. I did 21 days because they say it takes 21 days to form a habit. And whether it's exercising, eating right, doing something in your business, or developing a spirit of thankfulness. So I embarked on my own 21 day gratitude challenge and it changed my life, literally. I mean some people, you know, say that and it's, it's an over exaggeration, but it really did make a huge difference for me. It was a turning point for me. I love this quote by Alan Cohen. It says, appreciation is the highest form of prayer for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts. So where are you shedding? Where are you shining the light onto your thoughts? Are you shining the light onto the things that you don't have? Those negative things or things that you think, oh, if only I could have this. If, you know, if only my husband was more like this if only my wife did this. If only we had this much money. If only we. If only, if only, or are you shining the light on the things you already have, the things that you have to be thankful for? This week was kind hard for me. I have lost two cousins to car accidents. Different years, different accidents, but the same small immediate family on my mom's side of the family. I lost two cousins during the week of Thanksgiving previously. And like I get teary eyed just talking about it because it's been really, really tough Then, you know, Thanksgiving represents a reminder of those losses in our family. And that used to be our big time to get together with that side of my family. And we would celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas and it would be a big to do, but we just have never, it's never been the same since. And my. I have another cousin on my dad's side of the family and this very week, this very year, her husband is in the hospital, very critical condition. And it just triggered me and I thought, oh man, what if we lose him this week too? And I know all of us are going through different things right now. We're all going through different stuff.

And in this edition of Godly Gain, I want to encourage you to put your focus on the eternal. We all have circumstances in life that are not what we want. Whether it's something little, whether it's something big, whether it's something that just really, really is weighing heavy on our hearts right now. We all have things that could get us off track.

And I encourage you to put your foot focus on God, the one who can bring joy into your life despite your circumstances. Believe me, I know I have been through so many things, and yet whenever I put my gaze back on Christ, it's like I am refocused and able to find that peace and that joy again that comes from His Holy Spirit. Psalms 100, verse 4 says, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name.

You know, I wrote this book gratitude journal in 2012, and yet I've had to revisit this same concept over and over. And so this year I've been writing three things, things each day that I'm thankful for. I haven't done it every single day, but I encourage you today to consider.

Starting a Gratitude Journal.

And so your take action tip today is, would you consider a small challenge of gratitude maybe 21 days or maybe it's something that you will do over this next year. You could do it where you write three things that you're grateful for in a journal somewhere. You could actually download my printable journal. You can go to your gratitudejournal.com or I would love for you to join me in the Gratitude Challenge. You can get the book on Kindle or audiobook and you can find it at Amazon and you can just download the book. There's a link to join our Facebook group and you can start posting in that Facebook group the things you're grateful for each day. So there's so many ways to do it. But I encourage you, especially this time of year as we're thinking about Thanksgiving and gratitude, to really take the effort to find what are you thankful for this year? One of the things that I did during my 21 days of gratitude Challenge is to write a handwritten thank you note to people who have made an impact in my life. And I know I'm talking about gratitude. And so I want to thank you, each one of you. You are my driving force. You are the reason that I spend the time, I invest the time. I I tire tirelessly work on creating content for you. I'd love to hear from you and hear what kind of content would you love to hear in this coming year? If you submit it to shellyhits.com ask? You can even submit your audio question or audio suggestion and you may be Fe on my podcast this upcoming year. It's S-H-E-L-L-E-Y-H-I-T Z.com ask. Love to hear from you. There's nothing that's more rewarding for me than to hear from you and to know that you're getting value from this podcast. So if you have a minute today, I would love for you to express your gratitude for this podcast by just posting a quick rating and review on itunes. Thank you so much and I will see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.