This time of year, it’s easy to focus on what you have to be grateful for.  The holiday reminders are everywhere – greeting cards, plaques, cards, posts – Thankful is the theme.

But what about the rest of the year?  How do we make gratitude a strategy we can employ everyday of the year?  It’s easier than you think.

Several years ago, I started a gratitude jar.  Each week, I’d jot down 5 things I was grateful for that week – occurrences, happenings, people, places, accomplishments, etc.  I’d fold them up and add them to the jar, week over week, for the entire year.

On winter solstice, I empty the jar and reread all of the gratitudes I’ve collected – and most of them I will have forgotten about completely, in just the course of a few months. It’s so easy to focus only on the challenges we face each day.  Keeping track of the highlights reminds us how much good we have in our lives – and hopefully, how much good we’ve done for others.

So, this coming year, maybe start a gratitude jar of your own – or a box, or a basket, or whatever fits your lifestyle – just somewhere to collect them up for year’s end.