April's theme is Gratitude

Choosing a focus for 30 days helps you improve in your chosen area

📸Gabrielle Henderson via Unsplash

In December I watched Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning masterclass and it instantly changed the way I approach goal setting.

Hal recommends that we focus our morning routines on one specific area of our lives for 30 days to see tremendous improvement in this area.

In January, I learned that I was about to lose my job, so I decided to spend 30 days on job searching, reading about resume crafting and using LinkedIn purposefully. A few weeks later, I secured a position that was better paid and more exciting than my previous job.

Then after that came February and I decided to dedicate it to Finances as being in between two jobs can be precarious. I went on and enrolled in Gretchen Rubin’s No-Spend February challenge and read books money and finances all month. I managed to save 33% of my income that month and I felt that it was a huge success.

In March, I started my new job, with a substantial raise and a bonus for past performance. I decided to focus that month on transitioning into my new position and learning as much as I could about the IT world I was getting into.

When April rolled around, I kept asking myself what I should focus on this month and I was drawing a blank. No area of my life seemed lacking. I’m happily married, I love my new job, finances are going great, and I've rekindled my art practice in the past few weeks. What more do I need?

And then it dawned on me. I have it all! What if April was just focused on appreciating what I have and what I have accomplished?

So that’s how April became Gratitude Month.

If you have tried the Level 10 Life exercise I recommended in a recent article, you could look at your life wheel and know exactly what area of your life needs work now, and choose to dedicate your month to that area like I did this year.

Or, maybe like me, you feel that your life is pretty awesome at the moment and choose to revel in it by doing a gratitude month in April. Which one will you choose?

Apply it to your daily routine

If you practice meditation, you could choose a series of guided meditations about gratitude and follow them all throughout the month.

If you keep a journal, you could riff long-form about the positives in your life. Are you satisfied with your relationships? Do you love what you do for a living? What parts of your life bring you joy? Focusing your writing on those things for a month will greatly improve your well-being and outlook on life.

Or you can simply list 3 things you are grateful for before going to bed, in a journal or just mentally.

You could read books about the science of gratitude, and visualize some of the magic moments you’ve experienced recently to fully relive those positive emotions.

You could also send thank you notes to people you love for acts of kindness they provided, recently or a long time ago. I keep a stack of cards in my dresser for that purpose. In this digital age, there’s nothing like receiving a snail mail keepsake in which you poured your heart out! And April is National Card and Letter Writing Month, two birds one stone!

There’s just so much you could do!

What will be your focus area in April? Let me know in the comments below!