Choose Gratitude Even In The Face of Challenge

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”
–Lucille Ball, American comedienne

In Issue #126:

Editor’s Note: I’m hoping that we’ll all be spending more time with our family and friends this weekend – and less toiling away at our computer. So this issue is short and sweet – and it comes with our best wishes for a happy and safe holiday weekend.

Choose Gratitude Even In The Face of Challenge
by Monica Day

It’s easy to be grateful for the more obvious things in life – that you have enough food to eat, a roof over your head, and people who love you.

But this Thanksgiving, I’m also choosing to exercise what I call “radical gratitude.” So…

…for the latest person who didn’t treat me with respect, I’m grateful. I’m learning how to expect more from the people in my life, and take a hard look at why I sometimes settle for less.

…for the latest financial hardship brought on by my divorce, I’m grateful. It’s teaching my ex and I how to work together and forge a healthier new relationship by breaking the habits and patterns that ended our marriage in the first place.

…for the slow process of recovery from surgery and the limited mobility I have in my foot, I’m grateful. It’s teaching me deep lessons about patience and humility and loving parts of myself that are broken as much as the ones that are whole – lessons that are relevant to every other area of my life.

Radical gratitude is when you take a hard look at the challenges in your life – it might be a struggle with your own bad habits, a difficult person who makes your life miserable, financial hardships, or health challenges – and be grateful for those, too.

Every situation in our life stimulates our growth. Often, people who choose to succeed or make a change in their lives do so in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. It is those very challenges that make our success so sweet in the end.

Imagine standing at the foot of Mt. Everest, preparing for the climb of your life. You face many harrowing feet – sometimes with courage, sometimes with fear, and sometimes just crawling on your belly, praying to make it just one more inch. Finally, you reach the top. As you stand there, victorious, surveying the vast country below…is it possible to not be grateful for the mountain?

I think not.

This Thanksgiving, take a minute to appreciate the mountains in your life – as much as, if not more, than the places of comfort and grace—and see for yourself if exercising radical gratitude doesn’t lead you into radical success in the months and years ahead.

Resource Referral: The New Year’s Resolution You Can Start Today

I have a weird habit (well, many, actually), but it’s one of the few I recommend you also adopt.

Rather than wait for a milestone – like a significant birthday or the start of a new year – to make a resolution, I make it early. So that when the big day comes, I’m celebrating my resolve, not making it.

I think we all hate the rush on the season driven by the balance sheet of retailers. But there is something in the spirit of starting to prepare now for the New Year that is healthy and appropriate.

To that end – if you haven’t taken the first baby step towards becoming a copywriter, and you’ve been thinking about making 2008 your year – I’m going to encourage you to move your timeline up a couple notches.

Go ahead and order the AWAI’s Accelerated Program to Six-Figure Copywriting today and get started right away. You’ll see. When you toast in the New Year, the usual apprehension you feel about turning those resolutions into reality will vanish right along with those bottles of bubbly. And your toasts will be that much sweeter.

Quick Career Tip: Use Everything You Learn

You’re not going to like the question I have for you today. But I’m going to ask it anyway…

What if your new career in copywriting doesn’t pan out?

There, I said it. Out loud. And I’m going to answer it, too.

This shadow of a doubt lingers in the back of even the most positive and optimistic thinkers among us. But the truth is: it doesn’t matter whether you become successful as a copywriter or not.

What matters is that you learn something of value from the process of trying, and apply those lessons to all the endeavors in your life. That way, your success becomes the 100% guaranteed outcome for your efforts, no matter what.

Just think about all the things you are already learning:

This is just the beginning of a very long list of things you’ll learn as you try to switch or start a career as a copywriter – or any new venture – that can most likely be applied to any endeavor.

So be mindful as you find your way through this maze of a dream life we call copywriting. You might find it fits perfectly – or it might be more like Cinderella’s glass slipper on one of the stepsisters. But don’t be discouraged by what you discover. As long as you apply every single lesson you learn along the way, your time and effort won’t go to waste. Because the ultimate ingredient for success in any venture is to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep going until you find the right business opportunity for you.