The Thankful Project

WHAT & WHY

Every year my friends and I get together the weekend before Thanksgiving and we have our own pre-Thanksgiving party. We all take turns talking about what we are thankful for. I leave the party feeling great. It's not just because I've reconnected with friends, but I've taken stock of my life and realized that I'm doing OK. I decided to try to create that experience all year long by starting the Thankful Project.

THE THEORY

The premise is simple. I find something I'm thankful for and tweet about it. It's harder than it sounds. I guess if I wanted to call my Twitter account, "I Love My Cat," it would be easy to tweet about his antics on a daily basis, but I wanted more from the experience. I want to find new things all the time, rather than recycle old thoughts. I want to find mundane things that make me happy. The fact that I'm making it harder on myself makes the project better. It forces me to actively look for things that make me happy, rather than letting the mundanity wash over me.

I MADE IT PUBLIC

I chose Twitter for the home of my Thankful Project because I wanted it to be open to everyone, but also to post automatically to my Facebook page so I didn't have to double post it myself. I wanted it public because I wanted people to share it with others I had never met, in the hopes that it might make them happy. My Twitter account is dedicated to the thankful project which gave it a hidden benefit. Anytime I'm feeling down I have a resource that is 100% positive. I like Facebook, but it has a lot of negativity. My Twitter account is a warehouse of positivity waiting for me to once again relive my happy memories.

NOW ITS YOUR TURN

I'm not interested in followers. I'm writing this post to inspire everyone else to do what I have done. Make a place for your happy thoughts that is only happy thoughts. Put it on the web, write it in a book, or scribble it on your shoe. It should be a place that you can update at any time and is always top of mind. Trust me. It will make your life better.

Do it.
Now.
Go.


If you want to see what I've done, you can see it here : @thankproj