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Gratitude is often considered a simple “thank you,” but what if it’s so much more? What if gratitude could fundamentally reshape how you think, feel, and believe? Let’s break down the stages of gratitude into actionable steps you can incorporate into your life today. These stages—appreciation, acknowledgment, and asking—access a transformative process that can help you live a life full of abundance and joy.

Let’s explore the stages together and uncover how gratitude is more than a feeling—it’s a practice that can change your life.

Stage 1: Appreciation – Adding Value to Your Life

Appreciation is the foundation of gratitude. It’s about seeing the value in everything—people, situations, challenges, and blessings. Think of appreciation as the act of adding value. When you appreciate something, you actively look for the light, love, and lessons within it.

The beauty of appreciation lies in its simplicity. Saying “thank you” takes less than a second, costs nothing, and yet can shift your mindset instantly. Science even backs this up! When you practice gratitude, your body releases dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins—what I like to call “doggy biscuits” from the universe. These chemicals are a reward system that encourages behaviors aligned with abundance.

Even witnessing acts of giving or receiving can trigger this response. How powerful is that? In a world filled with worry, fear, and scarcity, why not shift your focus to appreciating all the good around you?

To live in appreciation:

• Find the good in every situation. Even challenges have lessons to teach.
• Say “thank you” every morning and evening. Start and end your day with gratitude.
• Look for small wins. A smile, a kind word, or a helpful gesture can be deeply valuable when you take the time to notice.

Stage 2: Acknowledgment – Acquiring Knowledge Through Loss

The second stage of gratitude is acknowledgment. While appreciation is about valuing what you have, acknowledgment is about learning from what you’ve lost or given away. Here’s the truth: you can’t fully understand what you have until you no longer possess it.

Acknowledgment requires reflection. When you lose something—whether it’s a relationship, an opportunity, or even a material item—you gain valuable lessons in return. Life’s challenges are opportunities for growth, protection, and promotion. When you embrace this mindset, you realize that nothing is truly lost; everything has purpose.

For example, when my mother scolded me as a child for touching a hot stove, it wasn’t punishment—it was protection. That same principle applies to life’s setbacks. Missed opportunities, failures, or heartbreaks aren’t roadblocks; they’re redirections to something better.

To practice acknowledgment:

• Reflect on what you’ve lost. Consider the lessons you gained from these experiences.
• Give generously. By giving to others, you expand your understanding of gratitude and your connection to the world.
• Reframe setbacks. When challenges arise, ask yourself, “What am I supposed to learn from this?”

Stage 3: Asking – Unlocking Your Potential

The third and often overlooked stage of gratitude is asking. You might think asking diminishes your independence or takes away from others. In reality, asking allows you to tap into the abundance of the universe.

When you live in appreciation and acknowledgment, you create space to ask for what you truly want. The universe is infinite, with more than enough for everyone. When you ask, you’re not taking away from others; you’re aligning with the energy of abundance.

To ask effectively, focus on the five levels of intention:

1. Do it: Take aligned action toward your goals.
2. Say it: Verbally affirm your intentions to yourself and others.
3. Think it: Align your thoughts with positivity and abundance.
4. Believe it: Cultivate confidence in your goals and trust the process.
5. Feel it: Experience the joy and gratitude of having already achieved your goal.

For example, if you want to empower others, ask the universe for opportunities to share your gifts. Pray, connect with others, and take intentional steps toward your goals. When you combine gratitude with purposeful asking, the results are extraordinary.

The Gratitude Formula: Appreciation + Acknowledgment + Asking

Gratitude isn’t just an attitude—it’s a formula for success. Here’s how it all comes together:

1. Appreciation adds value: Recognize the blessings and opportunities in your life.
2. Acknowledgment acquires knowledge: Learn from loss, setbacks, and challenges.
3. Asking unlocks abundance: Set your intentions and align your actions with your goals.

When you practice all three stages, you create a feedback loop of gratitude. You appreciate what you have, acknowledge the lessons in what you’ve lost, and ask for what you need to continue growing.

The Power of Gratitude in Everyday Life

Gratitude is more than just a Thanksgiving tradition; it’s a daily practice that can transform your mindset, relationships, and success. Whether you’re saying “thank you” to a stranger, reflecting on a past challenge, or asking for help, you’re participating in a process that aligns you with abundance.

Here are some practical ways to live in gratitude every day:

• Start Our 14-Day Gratitude Challenge. The 14-Day Gratitude Challenge is your first step to unlocking joy, abundance, and a positive mindset. It’s simple, free, and life-changing.
• Perform acts of kindness. Give a compliment, share a resource, or simply listen to someone in need.
• Reframe negative experiences. Look for the lessons and opportunities hidden in challenges.
• Ask for what you need. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others or the universe.

Final Thoughts: Gratitude as the Ultimate Life Hack

The stages of gratitude—appreciation, acknowledgment, and asking—are the fastest, easiest, and least expensive way to change your life. It’s a practice that costs nothing, takes moments, and yet delivers profound rewards.

When you live in gratitude, you align with the universe’s abundant energy. You receive “doggy biscuits” of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, confirming that you’re on the right path. More importantly, you unlock your potential to help others, achieve your goals, and experience true joy.

So, what are you grateful for today? Take a moment to appreciate, acknowledge, and ask. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your life begins to shift.

Remember: gratitude is free, but its impact is priceless. Let’s start practicing today.

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Heading into 2024, we must ensure that our mindset, heartset, and handset are aligned with the future we want to manifest for ourselves if we want to achieve our greatest goals. Without these three components working in harmony, it can be even more challenging to get to where we want to be in the future. Here are six different strategies to achieve more growth this year and get even closer to our true potential.

Work to shorten the distance between action and the outcomes we want or better

While we don’t have the capability of understanding or knowing the instant result that happens from our actions, we do have the ability to close the distance between our actions and the outcomes we desire. Seeing the progress that we’re making, good or bad, is nearly impossible, so we must utilize two tools in order to stay on the right track. The first of these is wisdom, which we get from surrounding ourselves with the right people and the right ideas, as long as we listen and ask for help. The second tool to shorten that distance is to have faith that there’s something bigger than us that is omniscient, all-powerful, and all-knowing that loves us, protects us, and promotes us even more than our own family members.

Be careful what we say, because we are always listening

We need to take an intentional approach with what we say, think, do, and believe in order to build a healthy mindset over time. Negative self-talk is something that we are all confronted with, but we must take a positive approach and “cancel” the negative repetitive thoughts that we have or the negative things that we repeatedly tell ourselves. We have to be very aware of whether the actions, thoughts, and beliefs we have are in alignment with where we want to be or better. If they are not, we must make adjustments to the phrases we’re telling ourselves and shift toward a positive perspective.

Today’s impressions are tomorrow’s expressions

Our repetitive behavior creates neural pathways, which makes it even more important to pay attention to our current perspective. Since the language and words we use for ourselves today can have an impact on our tomorrow, we must emphasize repetitive positivity and not negativity. On the conscious level, we need to build a habit machine to control our conscious nature as human beings to effectuate a more positive trajectory. When we combine positive thought with positive action, we are much more likely to achieve our goals.

Focus in on getting closer to our own potential

Happiness is not an end result, it comes from the enjoyment of the consistent, persistent pursuit of our potential. When we focus on taking care of ourselves first and getting as close to our potential as possible, we are also positioning ourselves to better take care of the people around us. We can’t give to others what we don’t have for ourselves, so prioritizing ourselves empowers us to serve others with the most skills, knowledge, and resources possible.

Forgiveness is one of the most powerful tools we possess

People are almost always well-meaning when they give us advice, so we should never hold their advice against them if it is not aligned with what we want for ourselves. This is especially true for the closest people to us who give us advice, such as our parents. By utilizing forgiveness as a reflection of the love we have for those people, we can remain appreciative of their efforts, even if we do not agree with their advice.

Surrender to the past and have faith in the future

We can unknowingly create resistance for ourselves as we pursue our goals when we attach our emotions to specific outcomes in the past or expected outcomes in the future. Instead, we must first surrender to the past because it’s infinite and we give meaning to the past, which should be aligned with where we want to be or better. We must also surrender to the future by increasing or expanding our self-image, because our self-image is not something we can out-achieve. Having faith reduces the resistance that’s caused by not knowing the progress that we’re making each day and not understanding the outcomes that occur, allowing us to continue on our pursuit.

Many of us know Rob Dyrdek, entrepreneur, media magnate, and founder and CEO of Dyrdek Machine, as one of the most productive people in Hollywood, but there are many layers to his approach to life. Here are six strategies that Rob utilizes to strike the right balance between his personal and professional life, while achieving his greatest goals and staying connected to happiness.

Focus in to find happiness

Chasing a bunch of different dreams and ideas all at once may sound fun, but that approach will never yield the results we desire. When we do not have clarity about what we want in life, it becomes hard to focus in on what it takes to get it. Taking the time to think about what we want, as well as who can help us (and who we can help) in order to achieve it, should be a part of our everyday routine.

We can reverse-engineer the outcomes we desire

By taking an intentional approach with our personal and professional goals, we greatly increase our probability of achieving them. Connecting the dots backward from a desired outcome allows us to consider the steps we need to take from beginning to end, as well as the milestones we need to hit along the way. This way, we can set ourselves on the right path towards our goal and stay on that path.

Simplicity leads to consistency

When we make plans that are too complex or detailed, we are unknowingly creating more resistance for ourselves. Our plan of action must be clear and we should always have an understanding of what we’re doing now in alignment with the future we desire, as well as what we’re doing next. A plan with simple steps allows us to get into a flow and build consistency, which leads to greater momentum towards what we want.

Measuring and tracking how we’re feeling is helpful

Knowing our baseline or starting point is an essential part of tracking our progress as we pursue our goals. Having a system that allows us to measure and track things such as our emotions helps us to identify patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. From there, we can make adjustments to our actions and habits to ensure that we are acting in ways that are aligned with how we want to feel.

Perfection isn’t achievable

We can never set ourselves up to have the “perfect life” and attempting to do so is likely to drive us crazy. Instead, we should strive to find a healthy balance between our personal and professional pursuits. One idea that can help is looking at how we are investing our time and the return we get on that investment. If there are areas in our lives where we are investing a lot of time and energy but not receiving results, we can choose to invest those resources in areas where we do receive the results we want.

Our body and mind need to work together

Without a strong mind/body connection, we are limiting our ability to get close to our true potential. This makes it imperative for us to institute practices that strengthen this connection, whether it is exercise, yoga, meditation, or some other practice. When our mind and body are working together instead of working at odds with each other, it makes everything in our lives easier.

Please remember that the greatest way you can help me is to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on my podcast. Thank you for your support!

Although Pro Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey and entrepreneurial superstar Gary Vaynerchuck have excelled in different pursuits, they both share profound insights into teamwork and leadership that will boost our progress and allow us to create an even greater impact. In a world filled with challenges, the values of gratitude, teamwork, authenticity, and mentorship offer a powerful framework for individuals to navigate life’s obstacles and be their best on and off the field. Here are four strategies that Champ and Gary shared which will help you to be the best leader and teammate possible.

Take a step back and put things in perspective

Obstacles and adversity inevitably find us no matter who we are, but we must be able to take a step back and remind ourselves of the blessings we have. Gary Vaynerchuck puts his challenges into perspective with gratitude, guilt, and the ability to scare himself. No matter how bad the situation, he’ll think of the worst case scenario, as it puts his current circumstances into perspective. While fear may not be the tact for everyone, the overarching practice of gratitude always prevails. Gratitude will help us see our circumstances more clearly and positively.

You can have one great player, but he won’t change the game

Teamwork is everything, in football and in life. Growing up with his brothers, Champ Bailey learned the value of working together and sharing early on. In football, this same lesson holds true. Success is reliant on all 11 players on the field – no one can do anything by themselves. Good teammates must listen, appreciate each others’ strengths, and trust one another, whether in sports or in business. No matter the endeavor, striving to be a connected team where everyone feels valued will help everyone to achieve their goals.

Be as genuine as possible

Building lasting relationships that are authentic and not transactional is vital in business, sports, and life. In order to create those lasting connections, we must be our most genuine selves. It is important not to step out of ourselves just to please others, as everyone involved in the relationship will soon realize it has no authentic foundation. When we are genuine and honest, we must accept that people will either gravitate toward us or not. Having the fortitude to believe in ourselves and trust in our values is what empowers us to attract the right people and build genuine relationships that support us along our journey.

Be the person who wants to teach and give back

Sharing the knowledge we have acquired along the way is a pursuit that will benefit others as well as ourselves. When we are able to teach something, it confirms that we’ve truly learned the information. Giving our knowledge away to others creates an environment where everyone learns from each other to succeed jointly. In addition to providing people who are younger or less experienced with the tools they need to succeed, we must open the door to learn from them too. When we choose to be the person who doesn’t keep their secrets to themselves, we can help everyone around us flourish.

Quote of the Week

“We’re not held back by the mistakes we make, but by our inability to let them go.”

~David Meltzer

OFFICE HOURS SEASON 4, NEW EPISODES WEEKLY

The fourth season of Office Hours features a new cast of thought leaders, billionaires, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, and entertainers to share their insights on dealing with success, failure, and everything in between.

The list of guests includes Alex & Leila Hormozi, Co-Founders of Acquisition.com, Grant Cardone, CEO of Cardone Capital, Eric Thomas, acclaimed author, speaker, educator, & pastor, Marc D’Amelio, CEO of D’Amelio Brands LLC, Dr. Joe Dispenza, New York Times best-selling author, researcher, lecturer, and corporate consultant, legendary comedian Dane Cook, Erika Ayers, CEO of Barstool Sports, Sanya Richards-Ross, 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist & Founder/Co-Owner of Mommi Nation, Adam Schefter, NFL Insider at ESPN, John Hennessy, chairman of Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), and many more!

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Featured Upcoming Keynote

Free 2-Day Guiness WorldRecord Live Event to help elevate your life and financial future AUGUST 18-19th from 3-8 PM EST

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Upcoming Keynote: The Mental Toughness Forum

30+ of the world’s highest performers in sports & business sharing systems & skills on how to think bigger, drive action, overcome adversity, & build mental toughness to reach peak performance.

Click here to learn more.

Upcoming VIP Dinner: An Intimate Night with David Meltzer & Special Guest in Santa Barbara, California

I’m thrilled to be hosting an intimate VIP dinner in Santa Barbara on August 17th. This evening promises profound discussions on personal transformation and growth. I hope you can join us for this unique and exclusive event.

Email me david@dmeltzer.com to learn more.

Upcoming Keynote: Blue Collar American Dream Conference

I’ll be in Florida on September 1st at The Blue Collar American Dream Conference speaking alongside Brad Lea, Nick Santonastasso, Wes Watson, and more.

If you’re in Florida or want to attend, click here to learn more.

Podcast EPISODE OF THE WEEK – Leadership Expert Scott Jeffrey Miller

David and Scott Jeffrey Miller, WSJ Bestselling Author and Host of the World’s Largest Weekly Leadership Podcast, discuss leadership and mentorship. They talk about how leaders, teachers, and coaches’ roles can change based on the mentee’s goals. They also discuss the need to accept change, keep learning, and the power of validation using examples from industry leaders like Anne Chao and Gary Vaynerchuk.

Office Hours Episode of the Week

Join the conversation every week and watch live on any of your favorite platforms.

Executive Football Talk:

https://t.co/VHlWMWAWiW

— WagerWire (@WagerWire) August 5, 2023

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Inside and outside the octagon, UFC lightweight fighter Michael Chandler lives fearlessly and strives to achieve his greatest potential, bringing gratitude and passion to all that he does. In this podcast, Michael shares four strategies that have helped him to dominate the obstacles he has faced in his life, from his time inside the cage, to coaching on The Ultimate Fighter, and beyond.

Eliminate Fear by Being Prepared

Even stepping into the ring at Madison Square Garden, the world’s most iconic arena that hosted greats from Mike Tyson to Muhammad Ali, Michael Chandler didn’t let it shake him and you must strive to have the same level of comfort. By leaving no stone unturned in our preparation, we can prevent ourselves from feeling fear when it comes time to perform. If we prepare to the best of our abilities, we gain the confidence needed to excel and it leaves no doubt that we could have done more to produce a better outcome. It’s up to us to put our best foot forward, and our hard work will pay off.

Operate in Gratitude

As humans, we are prone to have our minds wander and we can get used to the many blessings that we have. When we lose touch with gratitude, these advantages may no longer seem like blessings, because they now seem commonplace. We must recognize when we begin to feel complacent and continuously adjust our perspective to one of gratitude. Saying “thank you” every morning and every night for our blessings or even reminding ourselves not to take for granted what others are wishing for are just a few practices that can help us to remain grounded.

Seek Out the People, Places, and Things That Make Us Feel Alive

We must continue to search for the people, places, and things that fill us up with happiness and inspiration. We can all get caught up in day-to-day problems and struggles, but we must remember that we have an infinite amount of happiness, peace, and joy at our disposal. We have happiness inside of us and all around us, and we have the ability to tap into it. By doing so, we can keep positivity in our lives and remain steadfast, even when the road to our goals gets a little bumpy.

Fight for Our “Why”

Despite the rigor of fighting and having it all – wife, kids, and economic success – Michael Chandler continues to come back to the cage. If we still have passion, purpose, and the “why” connected to it, we have the drive and the urge to keep going. For Michael, his “why” is his family. He wants to be his kids’ superhero, and every fight is a brushstroke on a masterpiece that they will one day see. By keeping our “why” in mind, we find the motivation and inspiration to keep fighting and be the best that we can be.

Please remember that the greatest way you can help me is to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on my podcast. Thank you for your support!

We are all more powerful than we think, but our mind and body need to be working together, so we can be our most effective. It’s easy to understand that when we are balanced, we are our strongest. When we are out of balance, we are inviting stress and disease into our lives. Here are five different strategies you can use to find a greater balance between your head and your heart.

Regulating our thoughts and feelings are essential

Now, more than ever before, we have tools to help us better measure and understand the thoughts and feelings that we have, as well as their physiological impact. Since we have these tools, it makes it even more important for us to heighten our awareness of our thoughts and feelings, working to make adjustments for the times that we are being more negative. This is especially true for the negative thoughts and feelings that are the most common or repetitive in our lives. We must be willing to be introspective about the root cause of those fears that we experience regularly.

Be willing to explore and be curious

One of the most important parts of improving the connection between our brain and our heart is following our curiosity. We need to experiment with new ways to create more alignment between our hearts and our head. Humans tend to respond to our environment, so we should look to surround ourselves with activities, thoughts, sounds, and people that cause us as little stress as possible.

Nothing changes in our life until we change

In order to create a new reality for ourselves, we must place our intention and attention on making progress with our mindset each day. By consistently improving our thoughts, words, actions, and our level of self-belief, we are opening ourselves up to even greater opportunities and possibilities in life. It is only after making a change within ourselves that we will see a lasting change in our exterior results.

Ego is healthy (when it’s in balance)

It’s important to remember that sometimes, our ego can act as a protector and help save us from potentially dangerous situations. The problem comes when ego and stress get in our way, and prevent us from being accountable or learning lessons from a particular situation. Rather than allowing the selfish needs of our ego to cause interference, we must practice the Stop, Drop, and Roll approach. Stop feeding into the negative emotions, breathe and drop down to our baseline or center, and roll by taking action in a positive direction.

Our mental victories add up over time

Each time that we are willing to confront our fears and negative emotions, we are strengthening our level of brain-heart coherence. We can build a much stronger connection between our brain and heart if we have the fortitude to put in consistent time and effort. Just like exercising a muscle, greater repetitions will lead to more strength and power over time, making it much easier for us to confront issues that may have been difficult for us in the past.

One of the greatest determinants between success and failure is whether our mindset is helping us towards our goals or whether it is impairing our progress. Our mindset can be the difference between just having a dream and making our dreams into reality. Here are four tools that will empower you as you chase your biggest goals, ensuring that you stay on the right track.

Have a strong foundation of core values

Everything in life, from the construction of a building to a relationship, requires a solid foundation, or it will crumble. Our foundation is a support system as we pursue our success, and we want that foundation to be as solid as possible. Strong core values such as gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication are what provide that foundation, and we must have daily practices that reinforce these values and their importance to us.

Never lose sight of the simple things

What’s easy to do is also easy not to do, so we cannot take tasks like saying “thank you” for granted. This idea means that we must place our attention and intention on making sure that we do the easy tasks and simple positive habits, which are what sets us up for success when facing even greater challenges. When we place additional focus on the five areas of intention (what we think, say, do, believe and feel), this will also make it harder for us to forget the simple but important tasks. Doing this consistency is also an important part of the equation for success.

Be humble enough to ask for help

There is so much value in mentorship, especially learning from people who have walked the path that we are currently walking or one that we are wanting to pursue. What can be a challenge for some of us is having the humility to ask for help from others along the way. Remember that if we are making a connection with someone, they can be either a sponsor of ours (someone who knows someone else who can help us) or a power sponsor (someone who can help us themselves and who knows someone else who can help us). Asking for mentorship, help, and guidance will only accelerate your success as you pursue your goals.

Prioritization is the antidote to procrastination and feeling overwhelmed

Having a clear idea of our priorities is a major key to achieving greatness. Knowing your priorities and what you most value is what empowers you to act. And if we know what we want to prioritize now and what we want to prioritize next, we are able to take very swift action. The more decisions we can make that are based on our priorities, the greater chance of success we have. Knowing our priorities is also an immense help when our plans need to change, as they can help us determine our new trajectory for the future.