money challenge day 6

Money Challenge Day 6:
Build Gratitude
by Noah Clyman, LCSW-R

Congratulations — you’ve made it to the finish line! Today’s task is to acknowledge what money can’t buy.
 
Recall the handful of best moments in your life. Odds are, these times don’t include the time you bought a car or found a designer sweater that you liked. The old saying is true: The most enjoyable and precious things of value can’t be bought.

The following statement should go without saying, but I must say it, because too many people act as if it isn’t so: Money can’t buy happiness. It’s tempting to think that if you could only make 20% more or twice as much money, you’d be happier because you’d have more money to travel, eat out, etc. right? Not so. A great deal of thoughtful research shows that little relationship exists between money and happiness.

“Wealth is like health: Although its absence can breed misery, having it is no guarantee of happiness,” says psychology professor Dr. David G. Myers, who has written and researched happiness across cultures for decades. Despite myriad technological gadgets and communication devices, personal computers, and all the other stuff that’s supposed to make life easier and more enjoyable, Americans aren’t any happier than they were four decades ago, according to research conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. These results occur even thought incomes, after being adjusted for inflation, have more than doubled during that time.
 
Homework: Keep a gratitude log… but here’s the clincher: you must NOT write anything involving money (e.g., expensive trips, high-priced items you own, your new home, etc.). The aim here is to expand your awareness to things you appreciate beyond money. Here are some tips:

1. Make it a rule to write down a certain number of things you are thankful for per day. Avoid repeating the same things. This will make writing in the journal more challenging as time goes on, but that’s how your awareness and thankfulness will grow. You’ll be challenging yourself to find new things to be thankful for that perhaps you never noticed before.
2. Think about your abilities. Think about skillful things like dancing, singing, writing, and features that make up your character like your listening skills, your skills in cheering up people, your skills in being a good friend.
3. Consider the people in your life. Think about all the people you care about, like your parents, your friends, your significant other, your pets. Write why you are grateful for each person and how they make you feel. This helps you to appreciate them and see only the good in them. It’s also good to write about the people that you don’t really like and find a reason to appreciate them. This can be difficult as we don’t really appreciate people we don’t like but it can be very uplifting. There is good in everyone and it’s very mood shifting to find the good in even people we dislike and feel grateful for them.
   
4. Write about free situations and experiences. There are always free situations that have made us happy. For example, you may be grateful for a fun party, a sunny day, time spent volunteering etc.