Episode 91 – Attitude of Gratitude

In my opinion, the biggest difference between a practice that is growing and one that isn’t growing is if you have an attitude of gratitude. My hope for you this year is you end up at the end of the year in a place you never expected you’d be able to be. Today, I want to talk a little bit about using gratitude to set the table for your success in 2021:

• Why gratitude matters so much
• 4 topics to focus your intent
• How often you express gratitude

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2021. Amazing, good grief. I am so glad 2020 is over. But what is your attitude of gratitude. And that’s what I’m going to be talking today about is, is an attitude of gratitude, even through going through this past year. With the pandemic and with, you know, all the things that have happened in this past year, I look back and I have to say I have a lot of gratitude. I did lose several friends to COVID, which is really difficult. But I also am glad that I had multiple family members that got it and no one, no one has succumbed to the virus in this past year.

I know we’re still in the midst of a of a difficult time right now. And so I say my prayers that all of us will stay safe for this year. But what’s my attitude? My attitude for this year is I have an attitude of excitement. And I’m ready for this new year to start. And what’s yours? What are you thinking about? What are the things that you’ve done to prepare for this year?

I talked about this on the last podcast, what things in your practice did you do to prepare for this year to prepare for success, to set the table for success. And those are the things that I think make the difference between a practice that is growing, and one that’s not growing. It’s every day we get up and you know, we have this attitude that things are going to be it’s going to be a good day. Now, that doesn’t mean every day is going to be a good day, it just means that we have the attitude that nothing that can happen to us today, this week, this month, is going to set us back from our ultimate goal, which is whatever our ultimate goal is.

You know we’ve talked about the one three and five years ago, well, this is, you know, you’re now starting 2021 with the opportunity to with a clean slate. And it’s kind of neat, you know, a lot of people will get out and, and I will say it’s probably the first year in Gosh, I don’t even know that I’m actually starting the year out in good shape. You know, usually it’s this first part of January, and I’m Oh, I don’t want to start exercising. And you know, I know I need to lose weight. Well, you know, this past year, I stuck with it all year, I lost weight. I’ve been working out five to six days a week, taking a rest day, now and again. But I’m starting at a year in the best shape of the last 20. And so that gives me some excitement.

What things are you excited about? You know, and maybe it is time to start exercising and it doesn’t take it doesn’t take a an amazing amount of exercise to start feeling better. It could be simply getting up and going for a walk. It could be simply getting up and saying I’m going to do some jumping jacks or I’m going to you know, do I’m going to move I’m going to move I’m not going to just sit around. And so we have all different different people that are listening to the podcast. And so wherever you are, what things are you going to do for your fitness this year and commit to it. And by committing to it I mean commit to yourself and that’s that’s what they are I’ve always thought integrity has something to do with how I did things when no one else was watching, but integrity, personal integrity means I’m going to hold myself accountable to do those things.

And what about family this year? You know, what things are? What things do you have planned for your family this year? Hope? Is it? Are there trips that are on the horizon that you’re looking forward to? If not, start thinking about that, let’s plan some trips, have When was the last time you said to your spouse or to your significant other, how much they mean to you, you know, now would be an amazing opportunity and an amazing time to start this year out by just putting little notes out. And just by saying, saying to your wife, or your husband, how much they mean to you? How about your kids? Do they get to ever hear that? Is this the time? You know, there’s never a bad time to tell your kids? How much you love them and how proud you are of them. Even if they’ve struggled, it’s okay, I’m proud. You know, because I went through struggles, and I’m sure you did, too.

And so when I think about those things, now’s the time when we look at family, you know, we have fitness and we have family, Dr. Jeff Buski, my partner for the last 16 years, has started a new group called the Fire Four formula, which is fitness, family, finance, and I’ll remember the other one here in a minute. But so what things are we thankful for? It’s that attitude of gratitude. What about your finances? What things are you going to do this year? What things are you going to read? What things are you going to? due to increase your level of confidence in your finances? Are you going to finally pay off those credit cards? Are you going to do the, you know, you know, in the practice finances a big thing, are you going to start your QuickBooks and start to actually do the things that we talked about this past year, by literally having a budget to actual and starting to run your business as a real business? No better time than the present, you know that the new year brings fresh feel, it brings a fresh way of doing things.

And I challenge you to do that. Because what you’re going to find is and what my hope for you is, is that by the end of this year, you’re in a place you never thought you would be and in every area of your life. You know, Faith is the the fourth and you know, it’s been been interesting, I’ve been been reading different things. And in Ecclesiastes, it’s interesting book, I haven’t spent a lot of time reading that book in the Bible. But I was I was really surprised. You know, from the time I was young, you know, my dad used to say, oh, that guy probably robbed a bank to get that money. And, and there’s a he didn’t put a lot of faith, he was a hard worker worked hard all his life, but he didn’t, you know, guys who had money must have inherited it. And in my career, as I’ve grown, and as I’ve become more financially successful, there was always this little bit of guilt, there was always this little bit of guilt that, you know, I’m doing so well, you know, we started productive dentist Academy 16 years ago, this is going to be going on 17 years. And you know, it was our philosophy is doing good while doing good. And you know, that that helped me because as I was doing good, I knew that I was helping others.

But God wants us to do good, you know, he, he wants us to use our gifts and he wants us to be massively successful. And, and in Ecclesiastes 5 if you if you want to get some, something from the top and it just says it’s okay. You know, as long as we’re, as long as we’re thankful for the right things and in the right places. So, you know, you’ve got your fitness, you’ve got your family, you’ve got your faith, and your finances and those things. Really focus on each one of those this year. And come to every day with an attitude of gratitude. Think about the things that you’re thankful for even even if there are things that you’ve had to struggle very, very massively had to struggle through.

There are still ways to be thankful, you know, I I tend to get you know, and I think People all people tend to have pity parties. And you know, what was me, this happened to me, that happened to me. But people who push through that are the ones who say, yes, that happened to me, however, I’m going to make a difference, I’m going to push through this, whether it be loss and family, whether it be just some of the most traumatic, traumatic things that you can ever imagine, you see, people come out the other side, even stronger. And this is a year of all yours.

In the midst of the pandemic, of all years, this is a year to focus on that attitude, of gratitude. You know, you can’t say I love you too many times. You can’t say I love you to your kids too many times, you can’t say I love you to your spouse or significant other too many times. You can’t, you know, focus on your faith too much, you know, you know, because that is this where a lot of people, whether it no matter what your faith is, that’s where an enormous amount of strength comes from. And your fitness, this is the time it doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to run a marathon by the end of January, you just have to get up and move, you know, walk, you know, I had a situation years ago, I had cardiomyopathy, my ejection fraction of my left ventricle was had dropped to 32%, I was massively overweight, I weighed about 285 pounds. And I found that I was having trouble breathing. And I literally had something that they called idiopathic cardiomyopathy, because I didn’t know what caused it. But if it was to drop another four or 5%, then that would be put on the heart transplant list.

And what I found was, you know, I started to walk and I started to lose weight. And this has been 25 years ago. And I lost weight, I got to a decent weight for me, which is in the 230s and 240s. But I still had to walk up the street. In the mornings, when it was dark. I walked up to mailboxes, and then I walked back. And then I walked up three mailboxes The next day, and then I walked forward. And in a matter of about three months, I was walking to two and a half miles every morning, I was feeling better, my ejection fraction was getting better. It wasn’t until I got my sleep apnea treated, that my ejection fraction now is in the mid to upper 50s, which is I believe, that’s another area that we can focus on is sleep apnea. But that’s, that’s an attitude of gratitude.

It is, you know, I’m thankful that I did those little things took those little steps. So in your fitness, start out by walking up to one mailbox and walk back home, then walk up to the next mailbox, do whatever it takes. But take care of yourself. You know, and so these are the things that I that I really pray and wish for you guys this year. It’s going to be a fantastic year, we’re going to see things we’re going to see things that that are amazing this year, and we’ve got to believe that we’ve got we’ve got up you know, we’ve got so many things to be thankful for.

Let’s focus on the thankful things, let’s focus on our gratitude. Let’s don’t focus on those things that are holding us back. And I think if we can all do that, I think it’s going to be I don’t think it’s going to be I know it’s going to be a fantastic thing. Fantastic. 2021 that’s even hard to say 2021. It seems like just yesterday was the millennial, the you know, it was the that was 21 years ago. So it’s like, I just shake my head, how time how time flies. And so you know, we’re only going to be on this planet for short, just for a flash of time.

Let’s make sure that our time on this planet has meaning let’s make sure that that we leave a legacy of love. Let’s make sure we do the things that we need to do to be successful. And I know you can do it. I’m I’m really thankful for all of you that listened to the podcast. If you enjoy it, please tell your friends. We’re gonna keep doing it this year and and I’m just thankful for everybody. So look forward to talking to you next week. It’s January 4, and things are looking up.