the power of gratitude
Edition #065
Hey friends - I hope you've had a good week!
It's been a pretty rough week for me dealing with some personal things so this Filter will be a short one. The normal format will return next Sunday.
One positive to come out of this week is an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.
Near enough everyday for the last year I have journaled first thing in the morning. One of the prompts I use is writing down 3 things I'm grateful for, and for a while it felt like I was just going through the motions.
Every day I'd write some variation of the same 5-10 things. But, after a couple months, I noticed that I was actively looking for more things to be grateful for.
Instead of just reeling off the same old things day after day, I'd add different things I'd notice. No matter how small.
This shift has had a huge impact on my mentality and the increased feeling of gratitude really came to a head this week.
It's amazing how doing something as small as writing 3 lines per day can completely change your outlook on life.
What are you grateful for?
Three Favourite Finds
Write to Give Yourself Advice: The best creative work is usually done for yourself. The writer who talks about habits does so because he struggled with forming habits for years.
The filmmaker who distills complex topics into simplified videos does it because she wishes those videos existed when she was learning.
Lawrence Yeo makes the point that the best way to figure out what you should write about is to take a topic you're interested in and give yourself advice on that topic.
As Lawrence says " Writing is the act of giving yourself advice about the problems you care about most."
If you're struggling for ideas, start with the topics you love giving advice on.
Putin will lose, here’s why: There’s a lot happening in the world currently and it’s difficult to understand why.
This video from Johnny Harris is the best overview of what’s currently happening in Ukraine, why a crazed dictator thinks Ukraine is his and how in many ways he has already lost.
Principles of online marketing: This thread on the new age of digital marketing is fantastic.
End note
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I’d love it if you could share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up or share it on Twitter.
Have a great week!
- Stephen