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100 Things to Be Grateful For

It’s always a good idea to sit down and write some things you’re grateful for. Some people even do that as part of their daily routine.

The point is that listing things you’re grateful for is an exercise in perspective. And while I don’t expect you to pore through this entire list of 100 things that I’m grateful for, I do want you to at least skim through it and notice the types of things that I am thankful for.

The definition I used to come up with this list was: these are things that I have that not everybody in the world necessarily has or has access to.

It’s so easy to get caught up in all the stuff in life that sucks, so switching around your perspective is a great way to de-crapify your mood and the way you approach your life.

This list is something of a stream of consciousness. There are no patterns and this was just what came to mind as I wrote.

And off we go…

  1. Indoor plumbing – so I don’t have to use a bucket/outhouse/dig a hole.
  2. Clean, running water that I can drink from the tap if I so choose.
  3. Several computers in my home.
  4. The ability to connect to anyone in the world through the internet.
  5. Two monitors that drastically increase my productivity and make work easier to do.
  6. My old, obsolete, slow-running and fairly crappy smartphone, which at the end of the day, is still a pretty cool and powerful gadget.
  7. Access to any music in the world with Spotify (running right now).
  8. The ability to work and make money from home using #4.
  9. Free, simple, clean Gmail.
  10. Our snowblower to handle the giant dumps of snow that come through this time of year in Wisconsin.
  11. Evernote that organizes my entire life.
  12. The love, support, and companionship of my wife.
  13. My Lasik surgery, that gave me the ability to not need glasses anymore for the rest of my life.
  14. A comfortable bed to sleep in every night.
  15. The ability to look up the answer to just about anything with Google.
  16. Any store that I need within 5-10 minutes of my house.
  17. My back yard, so I can hang out in the fresh air while preserving my privacy.
  18. The ability to sing.
  19. Access to many guitar chords, and a cheap little guitar that helps me practice the craft.
  20. Access to nearly any book I want through my Kindle.
  21. The discovery of Ting Mobile, and the knowledge that we will be switching in July to save a ton of money.
  22. My pocket notebook that captures my thoughts as they come to me.
  23. My recent pledge to break my chapstick addiction, which is going very well.
  24. The ability to fly down to Austin, TX on business a few weeks ago and enjoy the city briefly.
  25. Various digital scrapbooks of our vacations from the past couple years, which we were very lucky to go on.
  26. Functioning legs that can carry me from place to place rather efficiently.
  27. Dave Ramsey and the financial inspiration that he provides.
  28. My faith, which gives me hope and a future.
  29. Brewers Organics, which is a godsend for helping my wife and I focus more on healthy produce choices.
  30. The House of Homemade Sausage, with a great, old-school staff of butchers and high-quality meat.
  31. My friends. All of them. Because they rock.
  32. Recent mini-reunions with old family members and growing closer once again.
  33. My golf clubs, which allow me to get out of the office once in a while in warmer weather to get some exercise.
  34. My feet, which are all any of us need to learn how to run.
  35. DDP Yoga, which keeps my wife and I in shape without needing a single piece of equipment.
  36. The fact that I have put on 10 pounds of muscle in the last few months thanks to #35.
  37. Our new trend of working on more natural solutions to break our brand dependency.
  38. Our working and evolving budget that keeps our expenses under control and remarkably freeing.
  39. Pandora, which gives me effortless music as long as I need it.
  40. Amazon Prime that gets us whatever we need within 2 days.
  41. XBMC, which runs our living room and eliminates the need for cable TV in our house.
  42. A somewhat healthy and open relationship with my family.
  43. Ubuntu, that has kept my computer costs insanely low without sacrificing the things I need.
  44. Word processing programs like LibreOffice and Google Docs, because my hands get tired and sore trying to write with a pen all the time.
  45. Google Reader and the many blogs I can keep track of quickly and efficiently.
  46. My cheap printer/scanner, that cost me about $40 and is so advanced compared to the printers and scanners I grew up with.
  47. My car, which runs well and is almost paid off.
  48. My many nieces and nephews that give me immeasurable amount of joy.
  49. Dropbox that keeps my files backed up and synced all the time.
  50. Crashplan that keeps our important pictures, home movies, and digital library backed up all year round.
  51. A controllable thermostat that keeps us relatively comfortable in our home regardless of the time of year.
  52. My private home office with a door that I will lose once we start having kids.
  53. My comfortable noise-canceling headphones from Monoprice that work just as well as $200 headphones but only cost me $20.
  54. A fridge full of food.
  55. The desire to cook (not the ability to cook – everyone has the ability, they just need to learn).
  56. A roof that keeps the snow and rain on the outside of the house.
  57. My weekender bag from Everlane that lets me carry on almost week’s worth of clothes without taking up a whole lot of space.
  58. My Keurig coffee maker, because I really only need one cup of coffee on any given day.
  59. Headspace that is letting me get in sync with my brain, body, and emotions without being too foofy.
  60. Old Spice cologne, which is cheap and smells great all day.
  61. The ability to see the beautiful world around me.
  62. The ability to hear a child laughing, beautiful music, or my wife’s voice.
  63. My stove and oven, which is all I need to make delicious meals.
  64. The Green Bay Packers, who are endlessly likable and a very good football team.
  65. Affordable and quality clothing options from Amazon, Everlane, Frank & Oak, and The Tie Bar.
  66. The ability to take deep breaths on my own, which are necessary at times.
  67. My loufa, which is kinda girly, but cuts my shower time in half.
  68. My clippers, which let me cut my own hair because I don’t want to pay someone to cut my hair.
  69. My double-edged safety razor, which is finally giving me the ability to shave without hacking up my face to kingdom come.
  70. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other places where we can get quality movies whenever we want without paying an arm and a leg at the movie theater.
  71. YouTube, where I can watch classic TV, commercials, and wrestling stuff. Unheard of when I was a child.
  72. Twitter, which lets me connect to so many wonderful people.
  73. This blog, which gives me a place to publish my thoughts.
  74. Facebook, even though I hate it, because it lets me connect to friends that are far away.
  75. The fact that I am ¾ of the way through this list.
  76. A country that lets me complain openly (and rightfully so) about its government without losing any appendages as punishment.
  77. A country that lets me worship my Lord without fear of persecution.
  78. My space heater that picks up the slack from the furnace when we’re trying to save money on our energy bill.
  79. My cats, who provide seemingly endless entertainment, even if they do wind up waking me up at 4:30am every morning (jerks).
  80. The fact that I slept in a little bit this morning and can write this in my pajamas and shower on my lunch.
  81. Lamps that allow us to read and hang out even after the sun goes down.
  82. Handkerchiefs that give my nose a break.
  83. The ability to deposit checks in an ATM or using my phone so that I don’t have to go into a bank if I don’t want to.
  84. Outright, which is keeping me accountable for my business taxes this year.
  85. Pinterest, which gives us so many great DIY, craft, and cooking ideas.
  86. Wireless internet, because seriously, we’re living in the future and we do not appreciate it enough.
  87. Airplanes, because I can wake up in Milwaukee and go to sleep in Texas on the same day.
  88. Two bathrooms in our house, so my wife and I don’t have to have the “who gets to use the bathroom first?” conversation in moments of emergency.
  89. A shower that keeps me clean.
  90. The fact that, once a week, we can put all our garbage at the end of our driveway, and somebody comes along and takes it away so we don’t have to deal with it anymore.
  91. How I learned to keep lettuce for weeks just using a mason jar.
  92. Mason jars, because they’re awesome for lots of stuff.
  93. A camera on my phone that lets me capture just about any moment without having to say, “If I only had a camera right now…”
  94. My recliner so that I always have a comfortable place to sit when watching TV or hanging out with friends in our living room.
  95. The fact that my cats use litter boxes. Yeah, they stink and can be messy at times, and I hate scooping them, but at least I don’t have to get up and let them outside all the time.
  96. The fact that I don’t have to go to school for 8 hours a day anymore.
  97. My dishwasher, so I don’t have to wash dishes by hand.
  98. The ability to read blogs and articles saved on my phone for when I have downtime while I am out.
  99. Slippers to keep my feet warm while I work.
  100. The fact that the vast majority of the things on this list are not unique to me, and we all have things like these that we can be thankful for every day.

What are you grateful for? What makes the list?

gratitude, lists