One Step At A Time

Today’s Topics

• Easy Does It 🕶️

• A Simple Measure 🥃

  5 Mins Read Time

Easy Does It 🕶️
By Jo

Gratitude is supposed to be simple, right? Say “thank you,” appreciate what you have, stay humble… the basics.

But the older you get, the heavier gratitude becomes. Not because you’re any less thankful, but because life stacks itself on top of you—layer after layer—until even pausing long enough to feel grateful feels like a luxury.

As you grow, so does the list of things you’re juggling. Bills. Rent or a mortgage. Food. Car repairs. Job pressure. Maybe kids. Maybe aging parents. Maybe you’re holding yourself together while silently trying to level up in the background. And that’s just the surface-level stuff.

Underneath all that? Relationships. Your health—physical and mental. Your dreams that don’t disappear just because you're busy. Your sense of identity shifting every time life throws a new challenge your way.

It’s a lot. And when you’re carrying all that weight, of course some areas are going to fall short. You can’t water every plant at once. When you’re focused on survival, or on mastering one lane, the others get less attention. That’s just part of being human.

But here’s where gratitude becomes powerful—not as a cute, Instagram-friendly concept, but as a tool for staying grounded in the chaos.

Gratitude isn’t about ignoring the struggle. It’s acknowledging the struggle and still recognizing what hasn’t broken you.

It’s looking at your life and saying: “I may not have everything together, but I’m still here. I’m still pushing. I’m still becoming.”

Gratitude gets harder with age because life gets real with age. And that’s exactly why it’s needed.

Being grateful doesn’t mean you’re not tired. It doesn’t mean life is perfect. It doesn’t mean you don’t want better.

It just means you haven’t forgotten how far you’ve come—even when you’re too busy to sit with it.

So take a second, even if it’s brief. Appreciate the version of you who’s carrying all this and still trying. Appreciate the fact that you haven’t given up. Appreciate the ways you continue to show up—even in seasons where showing up is the victory.

The Golden Rule
Gratitude won’t lighten the load… but it will remind you that you’ve built the strength to carry it.

A Simple Measure 🥃

By Marcus

You can’t save $10 without having $1 saved first. The same goes for saving $1,000; you need to have $100 saved for it to even be possible to reach that $1,000 mark.

A few weeks ago, I was watching an investment podcast. One of the viewers submitted a question along the lines of, “I’m getting started with about $500. Should I buy a couple of shares of this particular stock?” I can’t recall the exact stock name, but it was a blue-chip company where two shares cost about $500.

The comments came flooding in: “That’s not enough.” “You need to invest more.” “Only two shares?” I immediately thought to myself, I hope that person ignores these people and buys the stock. You can’t get to 100 shares without passing the two-share mark first. It’s unavoidable.

I didn’t understand why people assumed they knew the person’s financial situation. More importantly, comments like that can discourage someone from getting started. Fortunately, the host of the show stepped in and explained how unproductive and discouraging those “not enough” comments were. The host then encouraged the viewer to begin building their portfolio with what they had that day.

Why discourage someone who is trying to build with what they have?

A Slight Adjustment

I think the idea of having a positive attitude all 365 days a year is impossible. Sometimes the glass does feel half empty. Sometimes you don’t feel like you have enough. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t had at least one bad day or a period in life where things weren’t going well.

The challenge in those times is not letting that mindset stick around for too long. It may take days, weeks, or months to shake it off, but try your best. Negativity can become a slippery slope if left unchecked.

This year in professional baseball, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees had the highest batting average at .331. The tenth-highest was Josh Naylor of the Seattle Mariners at .295. These players are the best in the world, and they still miss the ball at least 65 percent of the time. If they can be world-class with a success rate under 35 percent, what does that mean for the rest of us doing our best with what we have at least half of the time?

I like to think we’re all one or two decisions away from changing our lives. The change could be good or bad, but it’s always possible.

You may not feel like you have everything you need all the time, and that’s okay. Use what you have. Make the most of it. Do your best to show up more days than not.

Each day is a new opportunity to take your shot at success.

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