The Mindset Mentor - Ep 28 - How Appreciating The Little Things Leads To Happiness

Episode Date: October 23, 2015

We are surrounded by so many amazing things in this world but we see them so often that we take them for granted. Einstein once said "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle." In this episode we talk about how to appreciate the little things in life, and how when we learn to appreciate and be grateful for the little things, we can in turn find happiness. Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Psst, hey, do you want a free motivational e-book called Hack Your Goals, a Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Success? Go to mwfmotivation.com and download it for free like hundreds of other people already have. Okay, now I'll get you back to the podcast. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast, which I am proud to say has been rated the number one podcast in iTunes new and noteworthy in six different categories, including self-help and business, and is a

podcast designed to help you grow into the best version of yourself in 10 to 20 minutes. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we'll take a life topic, break it down, discuss it, and leave you with thoughts to impact your life and mind. My name is Rob Dial, and the podcast starts now. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, however you listen to us. And if you like this episode and you think someone that you know could get some value from it, all I ask is that you please share with a friend. Because we at MWF are trying to change the world one person at a time. And I would appreciate it if you would pass it along.

And speaking of appreciation, that is actually what I'm going to be talking about today. And before I start today, I'm actually going to give you a quote, and it's actually from Albert Einstein. And the quote is, there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. And the thing about that quote that really strikes with me is I think that we take a lot for granted. And one of the biggest keys to being happy is to appreciate what we already have. And I think we take too much for granted.

And I just came back actually last night from vacation and it put a lot into perspective. And I always try my hardest to appreciate the little things in life. But I feel like even this trip alone, I took even another step into appreciating all of the little things that just this past week from the time I was on vacation. And a few years ago, I heard a TED talk. It's called the Three A's of Awesome. It's one of my favorite TED Talks. I would recommend it. So it's called the Three A's of Awesome. And in that TED Talk, he talks about how he tries to live every single day through the eyes of a three-year-old. So live every single day through the eyes of a three-year-old.

And what does he mean by that? The world, if you've ever seen a three-year-old, everything is exciting to a three-year-old. Everything you could possibly think of. They go out into the rain for the first time and they can't help but dance in the rain and have a whole bunch of fun. And everything is exciting because they're literally seeing the world for the very first time. And everything is exciting around them. So part of acting like a three-year-old, well, not acting, but seeing the world through the eyes of a three-year-old is to celebrate and appreciate all of the little things like warm towels that just come out of the dryer or a register opening so you can be the very first person in line after you are in a long line or things like laughing so hard that you don't make a sound or finding money in a pair of jeans

that you haven't worn in a long time or that feeling when you wake up before your alarm and you get to go back to bed. And we all know that that time when you wake up and then go back to bed is the most comfortable you will ever feel in your entire life. So stuff like that, things like getting green lights all

the way home, appreciating the little things and noticing the little things around you. And as we get older and we see things over and over and over again, we see the blue skies, we see the green grass, we've seen everything for 20, 30, 40 years, whatever it is, we become immune to it. It's like wallpaper. We just become numb to all of these beautiful things that are around us. And personally, I grew up in Florida and I now live in Austin, Texas. And I grew up in a place called Anna Maria Island. It's this little tiny island that's just on the south end of the mouth of the Tampa Bay. And I grew up on the island, surrounded by palm trees with the waves, and it's rated one of the best islands in the United States and one of the best beaches in the United States as well. And growing up there as a kid, of course, I loved it, but I took a lot

of it for granted because I was a kid. I just figured everybody was raised in those types of things. So I went back home this weekend to go to my grandfather's 95th birthday party, which is, you know, I can appreciate that so much more now that I have a 95-year-old grandfather and, you know, 93-year-old grandma. That's something to put in perspective and to appreciate all on its own. But, you know, I went back home and I was on the island and I couldn't get over you know after living in Texas now for three years how beautiful things were on the island and you know we rented bikes and we had bikes for the five days that we were there and it's just a little seven mile island and we you know I gave her the tour of the island and my girlfriend had never been there

before so I was able to you know kind of see the island through the eyes of someone who had never been there before and got to appreciate all of the little things again. And, you know, got to appreciate the white sand in the beach and, you know, how the sand feels between our toes because she thought it was so awesome of how great the sand felt. And, you know, it's, it's those little things where I'm, I'm so used to being on the island and growing up on the island that I don't pay attention to those little things anymore. But I was able to see her appreciate those types of things. And, you know, we sat on the dock at night and, you know, we were sitting there and it was completely black except for there was just the moonlight.

You know, we were asking each other what, it was just quiet. And we asked each other, what's, what was our favorite sound of stuff that we were hearing? You know, cause there was crickets and, you know, it was windy, you could hear the wind, and then there was ducks, and then there was, you know, fish jumping and all of these different sounds. And so, you know, we sat and we're asking each other, what was our favorite sound that we were hearing? And hers, she loved the sound of the crickets that were all around us. And mine was the sound of the wind going through the palm trees, which sounded like rain. And so there's these little things that we don't really pay attention to as much unless we slow

down and actually think about these things. So it's important that we slow down and we try to change our perspective. You know, it's very easy to get caught up and not pay attention to the sound of the wind going through the trees or to sit in, you know, the moonlight. We were just sitting just under the moonlight and, you know, it's easy to just look at the moon and not appreciate the moon and all of the crazy... If you really think about it, it's a crazy thing. But it's 238,000 miles away and the moon is reflecting the sun on the other side of us that is 93 million miles away. If you could think about that for just a second, that's absolutely crazy. But if we see it every single night, so it's very easy to just become immune to those things. The moon is 238,000

miles away and it is bright because it is reflecting the sun, which is 93 million miles away. That is freaking mind-blowing if you sun, which is 93 million miles away. That is freaking mind-blowing if you actually take a second to think about it. So, you know, it's mind-blowing that we have those types of things and we can appreciate it. It's mind-blowing that we can actually see, you know, that we can have appreciation for actually having vision and having sight. You know, there's a video on YouTube that I saw a couple weeks ago of a guy who gets these glasses and he sees color for the very first time. And if you haven't seen it, I would recommend Googling it, try to see if you can find it. But it's crazy because this guy wears,

you know, he's been colorblind his whole life. And now he has these glasses and he's never seen color ever before. And, you know, his friend takes him to go see the sunset. And that's never seen color ever before. And his friend takes him to go see the sunset. And that's the very first time that he sees color. And the guy is so blown away by the color of the sunset and the color of the grass and the trees and the flowers that are all around him that he starts crying. And it's crazy because we take those types of things

for granted every single day because we're used to seeing it every single day. So what are we concentrating on? That's what we have to ask ourselves. Are we concentrating on all of the crazy things that are going on in life and all the things that stress us out? Or are we concentrating on all the little things that make this world beautiful and make us happy? When you're grateful for little things like that, it's impossible to be unhappy in those situations. So what do you concentrate on the most? What are you concentrating on? You know, the quality of your life will be determined by the happiness that is in your life. And happiness can be directly connected to what you concentrate on and what you appreciate. And we all know

someone who concentrates on all of the negative things in life and they are perpetually sick because they always think that they're sick. And when you think you're sick, you become sick and they think themselves into sickness. So they think negative and they think unhealthy and they are negative and unhealthy their entire lives. You know, we all get stuck in traffic. And, you know, what I would say is try to make a shift. Start thinking of things differently. We're stuck in traffic all the time. Stuff happens. You know, I was stuck in traffic this morning. And I didn't, you know, I was running late to a meeting and I left my house way more than enough time to get there. But what

actually happened this morning was it was raining. So I was got to my meeting literally the minute I was supposed to be at the meeting. So I was lucky in that case. But what I did was instead of stressing out, I remembered that my friend Hal Elrod always says, can't change it. If you're stuck in traffic, you can't change it. Don't put your body through stress when you're sitting in traffic, thinking about how you're going to be late and all these problems. Just think about all of the great things that are going on around you. So if you're stuck in traffic, think about how beautiful the blue sky is and how nice of a day it is outside and put on your favorite song

and hang out and appreciate the moment as you're in it. For me this morning, I didn't have a blue sky to look at because it was raining. So I tried to concentrate on how great and how amazing it was that there was water falling from the sky around me. Like that's a crazy thing. If you really think about this water falling from clouds in the sky, like that's a crazy thing if you really think about it. But it's something that we see all the time and we become so immune to how amazing of a thing it is. So I thought it sounded really cool. I turned my music off and I was listening to the rain hit the top of my car. So try to appreciate little things like that. You know, when you

get done with your day and you do and you reflect on your day, what stands out to you? What are you concentrating on? Are you concentrating on, you know, how stressful the day was when you're thinking about it, about all of the stuff that you didn't get done, about how bad traffic was today, about how far you are from the top or how much work you have to do when you get home? Or was it that you're thinking about how you're so excited and so appreciative that you have an amazing family or you have an amazing home or you have your health or the people around you have help? What are you concentrating on? So what I want to leave you with and the two things I'm going to leave you with, the first thing is try to make a shift in what you're thinking of. Be conscious of what you're thinking of. If you start thinking negative things, try to replace it really quickly

with something that is positive. Like I said, if you're driving your car and you're stuck in traffic, stop worrying about the traffic. Look at how blue the sky is and how beautiful it is. Like I said, if it's raining, listen to the rain around you and the way it smells when the rain hits the ground. There's so many little things you can pay attention to that are beautiful things if we actually just pay attention to them. Sometimes we just need to slow down. So the first thing I'm going to leave you with is to make a shift. Slow down, appreciate the little things, and try to keep a souvenir of happy moments. This is another thing as well. If you're in a very happy moment, try to see if you could get some type of souvenir from that moment. I'll give you an example of what I did this past week when we were traveling. We were on our bikes, and on our bikes, there was this,

instead of the bike horns, we had these little squeezable toys, I guess you could call them. But when you squeeze them, they would make these honking noises. And on mine, on my bike that I had when we were touring the island, I had a parrot on mine and mine would make the squeaking noise. And my girlfriend had a little tiny baby blue whale. And what I found out was you could actually, she loved the baby loved the baby blue whale. It was, it was, she honked it every time we went by a house that she liked, she would honk it. And that was her signal that she really liked that place. And she really liked it. So what I did was I bought her one of the small baby whales so that she could put it in her car so that whenever she gets stuck in traffic, she can see the blue whale that's going to be on her dashboard and she can honk it.

And it can remind her of a happy time and a time when she was very happy on vacation, Whenever she gets stuck in traffic, she can see the blue whale that's going to be on her dashboard and she can honk it. And it can remind her of a happy time and a time when she was very happy on vacation versus concentrating on the fact that she's stuck in traffic. So try to do that for yourself as well. Try to keep souvenirs of happy moments, just like the baby whale that I'm talking about. So make a shift in what you're thinking about and try to keep souvenirs. That's the one thing I'm going to leave you with. And the second thing, of course, as I finish every episode, make it your mission today to make somebody else's day better. And if you like this episode, I please

hope that you share with a friend. I hope that you subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and I also hope that you have an amazing day. And so that is it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you like what you hear, please share with a friend. Spread the love if you think it's something they could benefit from. If you want the show notes from today, you can get it at mwfmotivation.com, which is also where you can download our free ebook, which is called Hack Your Goals, The Step-by-Step Process to Achieving Success. And if you want to keep in touch with us,

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