Author: Michael Kreiling

Thankful for 3,000 Days of Gratitude: Lessons Learned and Beyond

Today marks an incredible milestone—3,000 days of introspection, appreciation, and growth. As I reflect on this remarkable journey, I’m compelled to share the invaluable lessons these daily reflections have bestowed upon me.

The Genesis of Gratitude

It all began on September 29, 2015, a decision to pause, reflect, and document at least one thing I was grateful for each day. What started as a year-long commitment grew into an integral part of my life, shaping my perspective and mental landscape.

Embracing the GAP: Growth, Appreciation, Presence

The ethos of Growth, Appreciation, and Presence became my guiding compass. Through daily musings on personal growth, moments of profound appreciation, and the power of being present, I’ve nurtured a deeper connection with myself and the world around me.

Top 10 Lessons from a Million Words

  1. Daily Practice Builds Consistency: Small, daily goals culminate in significant achievements. How can we harness the power of consistent, incremental efforts in our own lives?
  2. Create Space: By minimizing “dead time” and dedicating moments to reflection, I found ample time for gratitude amidst the hustle.
  3. Reflection Soothes the Soul: In silence, clarity emerges. Time spent introspecting has been invaluable in navigating thoughts and emotions.
  4. Give Myself Grace: Imperfections aren’t stumbling blocks but stepping stones for learning and growth.
  5. Journaling is Timeless: These daily entries are a gift to my future self and loved ones, an autobiography woven with gratitude.
  6. Appreciation of the Mundane: The mundane holds profound beauty when seen through the lens of gratitude.
  7. Proactive Gratitude Creates More: Actively seeking moments of gratitude amplifies their presence in our lives.
  8. Appreciation in Adversity: Choosing gratitude amidst life’s storms empowers resilience.
  9. Appreciation Creates Intentionality: Observing recurring sources of gratitude helps shape a life aligned with joy and purpose.
  10. Choose Growth, Appreciation, Presence: This triumvirate fuels an upward spiral of fulfillment even in life’s toughest moments.

The 11th Lesson: Endless Gratitude

There’s an abundance of gratitude in the world waiting to be acknowledged. It’s not just about seeing these moments; it’s about pausing to embrace and appreciate them.

Embracing Choice and Intent

Amidst life’s uncertainties, our response remains within our control. Choosing intentionality, growth, appreciation, and presence allows us to bridge the gap between who we are and who we aspire to be.

Join Me in This Journey

To all who have supported this odyssey, your encouragement has been the wind beneath my wings. As I look forward to continuing this voyage, I invite you to share your own stories of gratitude and embark on this journey together.

Let’s choose joy. Let’s choose gratitude. Here’s to 3,000 days and the countless moments of appreciation that lie ahead.

With heartfelt appreciation,

Mike

Thankful for This Journey, Dinner with Friends, & Fires and Moons

Day 2,999(b)

Growth:

Almost 3,000 straight days of blogging! So many memories, starting to think of the best way to do day #3,000 and enjoying bonus smiles thinking ahead while thinking back. Once again I’m in awe of how much additional joy this practice has generated through the years. More details tomorrow I’d bet 😉.

Tonight I’m grateful for the night of my 39th birthday, 8+ years ago, when I took the first step down this path. What an awesome journey it has already been!

Appreciation:

OMG – such an amazing dinner with friends this evening!!! So many old memories, new ideas, and beginnings of future adventures! Spoiler alert, Iceland will be visited again soon 😉. For sure, beyond grateful for sharing dinner with close friends and sharing life!

Presence:

Such a beautiful day today! What really jumped out to me were two moments involving the outdoors. 

The first was as I drove past Perrot State Park. A plume of smoke rose from the bluffs and when I looked close I could see a line of flames running a ways up the bluff. There must be a prescribed burn going on tonight to help the grassland restoration. 

The second was while I was driving to the La Crosse office. As I drove the sky was slowly darkening, but the sun was just low enough below the horizon to totally light up the ittty bitty teeny tiny sliver of a thumbnail of a moon. It was gorgeous! So simple, so beautiful, so chill. 

Two little moments, so glad I caught them both!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Lessons on Advice, Awareness of Binary Shortcuts, & Presence with Becky While Running

Day 2,999(a) – Due to a small accounting error I am officially one day off and will re-calibrate by calling today Day 2,999(a) and tomorrow Day 2,999(b). Back to our normal numbering on December 15, Day 3,000!

Growth:

This is what I saw when I checked the weather for our run this morning. 🤷‍♂️ Yup, it was too DANGEROUS for outdoor activity even though it only felt like 15 degrees. Huh???

I did the right thing and ran outside, in shorts. I survived and the run felt great!

There’s a huge lesson to be learned in here. Yes, we should heed advice and be smart, BUT we should work with a combination of advice AND our experiences. In this case I know I’ve run and been fine in temperatures below -10. I know how to bundle up safely for a cold weather run. The advice was likely focused on someone who does not.

Take advice, but act on a combination of that AND personal experience.

Appreciation:

While running today be my and I got into a conversation about how much easier it is to think when focused on a binary idea rather than one with a variety of solutions. When the choice is This or That it is so simple to decide which result you think is correct. When there is a scale of 100 options to choose from our brains struggle exponentially harder. What’s interesting is how many things should be more of a variety than binary (politics?). Yet we often choose binary so we don’t break our brains.

What I’m grateful for today is the awareness of my mind’s desire for easy. After our conversation I have been watching for the times when my brain attempts a binary shortcut and have been working on pushing for more variability in my thoughts.

Presence:

Running with Becky and diving into topics like the two above segments was an awesome ongoing string of moments of presence. Our run pushed us physically and we also talked throughout which led to those insights. Our time together is so much more impactful and meaningful when I’m fully present like today.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Taking Pictures, Waking Up for Future Mike’s Hiking Habit, & Being Moved by Music

Day 2,998

Growth:

Remember to take pictures – lots of pictures! The key is in capturing a brief moment to bring back all the memories afterwards, but not in a way that distracts from the moment. 

This picture from 12 years ago brought back soooo many memories from my night of playing with Legos with Gavin! We had a BLAST!!! While the pic took about 5-10 seconds to take in total the smiles it has created were well worth the investment in time.

Don’t miss life by looking through a camera, but remember life by occasionally snapping a future memory dividend.

Appreciation:

Where to go with appreciation today? There have been a handful of different directions to go and my mind has already started about four different posts but none of them have felt right. So now what? Go with my gut.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty stiff and sore from the workouts yesterday. It was sooooo tempting to just shut off my alarm and go back to sleep. Instead I got up, got on my bike, and got a nice little biking session in. Nothing crazy, but just enough to get a sweat going while loosening up my legs and body. As I think about it, the rest of my day was built on that foundation, the decision to get out of bed. My body felt better, my head was in the right place, and the rest of the day was improved as a result of that exercise.

Why did I get up? Because future 90 year old me wants to be hiking whenever and wherever he’d like. Present me has to keep getting his butt up and moving in order to let 90yo Mike reach his dreams. Here’s to dreaming big and making short term decisions based on long term goals!

Presence:

For whatever reason I happened to notice a recommendation that Apple Music put in the middle of my app yesterday – Instrumental Motivation Boost Soundtracks. What really got me this morning was the sensation of driving in the early morning with my moon roof open to allow the cool fresh air in while I listened to Time by Hans Zimmer from the Inception soundtrack (click here to view a live performance of the song).

The song is hauntingly mesmerizing and deeply moving. As I drove I just soaked up all my surroundings, gave thanks to be in that moment, and savored the moment. It was beautiful.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Trusting My Ability, a Wonderful Gesture, & Brothers

Day 2,997

Growth:

We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for sometimes. Today I was reminded of how much physical activity can be done in one day – and I’ve just started to scratch the surface! Between our morning run, a small group strength training, and our yoga date night I put in three workouts and am now feeling pretty exhausted. As of last week I would have though this was a ridiculous idea, but now I’m reminded of how much better I feel when putting in that much work into my fitness. That is the core of so much of everything else in my life and should be given more focus like that. Even though it may have seemed crazy a week ago and I would have questioned my ability to do it I did it and did it well. Excellent reminder for myself to just suck it up, trust that I can do it, and get after it.

Appreciation:

Several years ago our team started the “Christmas Wish Express,” a holiday themed opportunity for us to help others in the community. People are asked to nominate people who deserve a special gift on Christmas for all the awesome they have done throughout the year. Each day for two weeks we read one (sometimes two) on the radio and award a gift card to the nominee who is also then eligible for the $1,000 main prize we offer up to the top nominee. I want to share that backstory as it is the impetus for my gratitude today.

This morning was my opportunity to select the daily winner and read their nomination on the air. One of the nominations rocked me right in the feels for its simplicity and beauty. It hits upon the spirit of giving in such a profound way. The nomination was something along the lines of:

“I would like to nominate this family as they have taken me into their home and given me so much even though they don’t have much to give. I am nominating them as I want to give them something to show how much I appreciate them.”

Presence:

Last night there was a moment that keeps playing over and over in my head. Becky and I talked about it on our run and we both agreed that it was a pretty special moment, though it is one that probably has happened more than a handful of times and we were never in the right place at the right time.

Before I took Gavin to his concert last night he and Dominic said their good byes as Dominic’s train was leaving before Gavin’s concert was over. What we experienced was this:

“Love you Bro!”

“Love you too Bro!”

Followed by a hug.

Parenting gold right there. Might be one of my all time favorite memories of the two of them ever.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Body Awareness, Scarcity Creating Abundance, & Gavin’s Trumpet Solo

Day 2,996

Growth:

Awareness of my body and how it responds to different stimuli can be a very powerful tool when I pause to be attentive to it.

  • Which foods cause me to not feel well and in which ways?
  • What happens when I have a very sedentary day like yesterday versus a very active day like Friday?
  • How is my sleep impacted by eating after 6pm as opposed to eating later?
  • What happens to my resting heart rate when I get less than 7 hours of sleep?

So many little nuggets of info my body attempts to share with me. Easy to ignore, profoundly impactful when heeded.

Pause and listen to your body, it is trying to tell you everything you need to know.

Appreciation:

Nothing quite like a restriction to help us appreciate what we have but not quite as abundantly as we would like. When there is a limit or a clear definition of the finite-ness of something our minds seem to focus on it with more clarity. In many ways the shortage or scarcity causes us to pause and be more attentive. What a gift! It often seems as if we want infinite this and unlimited that, but when we have that – or, more accurately, we PERCEIVE we have that – it becomes so easy to take it all for granted!

That mindset was on full display today as I did my best to soak in and appreciate each of the limited moments we had with Dominic while he was home from school. Between lunch, our hike, and our dinner I did my best to be focused in each moment shared together. While I would of course like to have more time with him it was the restriction of how much time we had together that helped me make the most of the time we had together.

Not only did this mean I was more present with him, but I was also more present with my entire family and even with myself when I was alone with my thoughts. The clarity of scarcity kept me more focused in the moment for longer today than I would have been without it.

Scarcity created abundance. Such a beautifully simple yet complex paradigm. How can I create a sense of scarcity more often to help me better stay in the moment? Finding a way to harness the benefits of scarcity in a positive way like this would significantly improve my ability to be more fully in the moment more often.

Presence:

I was going to go in a different direction in this post as I was writing most of it while waiting for Gavin’s band concert this evening. In an effort to get a clear spot to shoot video of his duet and solo I arrived quite early and utilized the bonus quiet time I’d created for myself. When I heard his solo it changed the topic of this section.

Listening to him perform his solo was awesome on so many levels. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as he knocked out the notes on his trumpet. It was amazing! To have the courage to play all by himself for a brief moment in front of a crowd, to have worked hard to earn the opportunity to do so, and then to execute in the moment were all reasons I was so proud of him in that moment. While Gavin played I was enraptured. Such an awesome moment!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for an Incredibly Full Day

Day 2,995

Totally breaking from my normal routine today. I am exhausted. Today saw 7-ish hours of car time, a funeral, some vacation planning, a Christmas party, and some knife throwing. It has been full of good stuff, difficult stuff, fun stuff, and lots of reflection. Throw in a lot of conversation with Becky throughout the car rides, conversations with family and friends during the funeral, and time with teammates at our Christmas party and it been awesomely interactive day.

Now I lay in bed and my thoughts swirl thinking back to all of the conversations from the day…. and my heart is full.

What an amazing and full day!

Thankful for Working Out While Warmed Up, Workshop Time, & Lunchtime Walks

Day 2,994 – short one tonight, had a family movie night – Dumb Money

Growth:

Rather than trying to squeeze in a workout later in the day I decided to go right after our run while I was warmed and feeling loose. Perfect timing! Why put off what can be find right away?

Appreciation:

Gavin has a project that he needed some tools to complete. Up in my workshop we proceeded to joke around and have some laughs. That space is like magic – so many amazing memories we’ve made and continue to make in that workspace!

Presence:

Over lunch Becky and I were able to take Leia for a walk, a particularly rewarding treat on a beautiful day like this! Bonus time together while enjoying the outdoors – I’m always in for that!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Young vs Old, Escalating Positivity, & Body Awareness

Day 2,993

Growth:

I think people get old when they stop thinking about the future. If you want to find someone’s true age, listen to them. If they talk about the past and they talk about all the things that happened that they did, they’ve gotten old. If they think about their dreams, their aspirations, what they’re still looking forward to – they’re young.”

Ric Elias quoted by Peter Attia in Outlive

Truth.

Appreciation:

Stress is going to happen in our lives. Something outside of our control happens, causes an unexpected issue, and we have to figure out how to adapt to it or how to correct it. What we can control is the way we respond, the way we choose our attitudes in those moments. What really stuck out to me today is how inspiring it is to spend time with people who smile and choose joy even in moments of stress. Their positive energy is contagious and help create more smiles for all around them. It is like an upward spiral of joy in the face of stress as one person’s positive response to a challenge inspires another to smile through their stress which in they inspire someone else to choose the same path. So awesome seeing the escalation of positivity like that!!! Seeing teammates in action like this today remind me how important it is to choose the right attitude – to help ourselves AND to help others.

Presence:

When I got out of bed this morning my legs were sore! It took a hot minute to get up the courage to step out of bed and see what I had underneath me… but then everything went very well. My legs loosened up rather quickly! Once I was on my bike and got moving it seemed as if everything was back to normal. My cadence was solid and held right at 90-95 while my resistance stayed put with where it normally is. All in all, it felt pretty good.

The moment of presence I am grateful for was the hyper awareness of the sensations in my leg muscles and elsewhere throughout my body today. In an action as simple as turning my torso I can feel the muscles that were worked yesterday and I paid extra attention to how they were feeling. It is not often that I put that much focus into the sensations within my body, it was pretty enlightening today!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Soreness Creating Joy, Inspired by My Sons, & the Focus of a Workout

Day 2,992

Growth:

Wowza – my body is sore tonight!!! After knocking out the workout I’ll talk about in the Presence section I’m definitely feeling the aftershocks in my muscles. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt discomfort today, there’ve been a handful of moments that were a bit uncomfortable. A difficult conversation. Stiff legs on our morning run. A blast of cold water to wrap up a shower. Throw in a few different types of discomfort during the workout – swallowing my pride & pushing myself to lift with more intensity – and it’s been a day full of discomfort…

…and it has been a day full of joy. I have grown through the discomfort and am better because of it.

Funny how it is easier to be okay with not being okay when I self select the discomfort I am going to accept. When the discomfort is outside of my control I’m much more likely to get frustrated. The funny thing is that it is all the same in the end. There is a challenge, soreness, an obstacle, or discomfort – whether self chosen or not – and I have the opportunity to grow as a result. That’s where some profound joy lives, just on the other side of discomfort.

Don’t mind me while I write a note for Future Mike to help remind him of this…

Dear Future Mike,

Embrace discomfort immediately, whether self chosen or not. Discomfort leads to growth and growth leads to joy. Pause and be grateful for the challenge and immediately move into working through it. Choose the right attitude off the bat. Don’t be a dumbass and wallow in something that is out of your control.

Present Mike

Appreciation:

This morning Becky and I were talking about some of my fitness goals and plans. As we’re talked I realized just how much I’ve been inspired and motivated by the boys to get into better shape. They both have their specific fitness routines and roll through them everyday without being told. Both work on multiple sports, movements, and muscle groups. Neither of them are afraid to try something totally new like wrestling for Gavin last year and rugby for Dominic this year. Because they are keeping themselves in excellent shape they’re able to jumps right into almost any physical activity without any concerns or restrictions.

As I looked forward to hiking and traveling with my sons there are so many memories I want to make with them while we experience all kinds of crazy stuff. In order to do that I need to make sure my fitness doesn’t become the limiting factor in what types of adventures we can go on. I plan on experiencing a lot of life with them for many years, they’ve inspired me to get in better shape to be ready to have more fun.

Pretty wild, I always thought of parents being motivators and inspiring their kids, yet here we are with the boys getting me all jacked and excited!

Presence:

The extreme focus and presence in a difficult workout, especially one that I haven’t done before, is a special thing. There was nothing else in the world while I went from set to set, only focus on breath, lifting, form, and intensity. The world went silent (kind of – I did have some very loud music in my ear buds to keep me pumped) and I had no concerns in the world other than the next rep. One lift after another, after another. The time flew by in a heartbeat and before I knew it my sweat soaked body had completed the round. That felt AWESOME!!!

Thanks!!!