I had a pretty crummy day on Sunday.

I went to start the car in the morning – and it would not start. Flat battery! So that meant I had to cancel my Sunday morning plans… and wait an hour and a half for the car guy to come around.

In the afternoon, I went out to put the garbage out… and tried to come back into the house, only to find that my key would not work. So now I’m locked out of the house.

Good thing my wife was in the house… so she could let me in. We tried her key… and it didn’t work either. So now we’re both under house arrest as it were – we can’t both leave the house at the same time because we can’t get back in. And it’s Sunday which means that locksmiths charge double, so we decide to wait until Monday.

I want to go the gym… but my knee starts playing up. So I’m left to sit on the couch… put ice on my knee and think about how nothing was going right.

None of these things are life threatening… but don’t we all have those kinds of days where everything just seems to go wrong… where you can’t seem to get anything right and the whole world seems to be against you.

Well that’s exactly how I felt on Sunday… and I would have probably felt that way all of Sunday if I had not consciously decided to make a change.

And how do you change your attitude when you feel so crummy? In my post, “how to change your attitude”, I outline 7 tips on how to change your attitude from negative to positive.

But what did I do on Sunday that changed my attitude in a matter of minutes from crummy to contented?

I got grateful!

Grateful? That sounds strange, right?

I mean, how on earth are you supposed to get grateful or invoke the power of gratitude when everything around is going wrong?

It’s a simple 2 step process.

Step 1: Ask yourself – what am I grateful for in life right now?

Often when we feel so down in the dumps, it’s because we are focusing on the few things that are going wrong… when there is actually so much that is going well in our lives.

However, the problem is that when we are so focused on the negative… it is almost as if we are determined to feel miserable so this question won’t always work. If it does not work, go to step 2.

Step 2: Ask yourself – what could I be grateful for right now, if I really wanted to be?

This question is probably one of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself when you are trying to change your attitude.

When I was financially destitute, desperate and disheartened, the only way for me to keep going was to try and find things to be grateful for. For those of you who don’t know my story, I was over $100,000 in debt, unemployed, single, fat and I would have been homeless if not for my parents allowing me to live with them – rent free!

So I had to keep asking myself this question – and here are some of the things I came up with that were on my list… when I was at my lowest point.

• I have a roof over my head
• I have a warm bed to sleep in every night
• I still have my family
• I can experience the beauty of sunshine, fresh air and nature.

Sounds corny right? Maybe… but when you have nothing going for you, you need to start somewhere.

So when you are feeling a little down – ask yourself, this question.

And by the way, when I asked myself this question on Sunday, what did I come up with?

• My car battery went flat while I was at home… rather than when I was out in the middle of nowhere or on the highway. Wow, I’m lucky.
• My house key stopped working when my wife was home… thank goodness. Otherwise, we’d have both been locked out.
• My knee was sore while I was home on a Sunday… so I could just sit on the couch with some ice without having to be anywhere at any particular time.

When I started looking at things this way, I realised just how lucky I was.

So start using the power of gratitude, ask yourself the question: “What could I be grateful for right now, if I really wanted to be?” … and start enjoying the benefits of a positive attitude and a more positive outlook on life.

Let me know if you agree with the power of gratitude by leaving me a comment below.

To your success,

Niro

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