The richest human isn’t the one who has the most, but the one who needs less. Wealth is a mindset.
NOTE: This post has been updated for 2020 and moved to here:
40 Simple Yet Beautiful Moments You Forget to Appreciate
Also, our next annual Think Better, Live Better conference is taking place February 18-19, 2017. You can get a discounted early bird ticket right now, while they last. Note: you can watch short clips from our 2016 event here, here and here.
Beth says
Thank you.
Robert Williams says
Yes. Wonderful!
Jmie says
Robert Williams !
If anyone with LIFESKILLS can help; it is YOU !
Go Man !
Angel Chernoff says
Thank you for giving back, Robert. You are an inspiration!
Angel Chernoff says
Well done with the daily gratitude ritual, Beth! It’s inspiring to hear about the positive impact it has had on your life and relationships. 🙂
Jason Daily says
Wonderful.
Angel Chernoff says
Looking forward to meeting you in February, Jason! 🙂
VD says
🙂
Angel Chernoff says
Thank you for supporting our work, Valencia. 🙂 It’s great to hear that our book resonates so deeply with you.
Eileen Light says
A very simple pleasure I had the other day:
Standing beneath some trees while the leaves gently floated in the wind and fell around me, just like new fallen snow.
PA says
I want to write you both a MUCH longer email/ message about my thoughts and to express my deepest gratitude for your incredible work, but for now may I ask who did your photography/ where you got your photos taken? They are beautiful and really capture the magic and compassion of who you both are. Thank you!
Peter says
Great reminders for all of us. Thanks again Marc and Angel for the inspiration.
Bruce Weber says
The feeling after you have taken an entire weekend afternoon to decorate the front outside of your house with 1.000 Christmas lights ! You can’t wait for night to come to turn the switch on and see people pass by and admire ?????
Ruth Ezra says
Marc & Angel, thank you for these tips and got it printed out too!
Letting you know, every day this month, I am doing a 15 minute chair time and wrote down what I am grateful for and supported with a bible verse. I am now in my [21/30] for deep joy. Psalm 30:11 -You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
I try to memorize these verses every day and it sets my tone for my day…and my go to when I get distracted and use it too as my centering piece.
Shirley Keller says
My perfect moment? A quiet summer morning with a hot cup of coffee, the sun on my face and my dog at my feet
Yvette Thompson says
Along with many on the list, some of my personal favorites: a warm, soft purring cat in your lap. Watching a puppy throw themselves into play. Listening to a flock of birds. Hearing the music of an untamed river or creek. A loved one calls and asks, “do you have a minute?”
The more we acknowledge things we’re grateful for, the more we find opportunities to be grateful.
Your articles have such an awesome impact on my life. Thank you and Happy winter holidays!
Kylie says
This made me smile on a very grey Monday morning, after an exhausting weekend… here are a few more to add:
– Sharing the last bite of cheesecake
– Your child reading a whole sentence by themselves and smiling
– When the pizza arrives faster than you expected
– You give up your seat on the tram for an elderly lady, and this prompts the guy behind you also gets up for her husband, and the whole tram smiles at you
– the full moon
– a purring cat
Thanks for the nudge into a more positive mindset!
Richard Melnick says
Sharing a poem I recently wrote:
Title: Sunrise over La valle di Oaxaca
waiting now for sunrise here in Alta California
memories
waiting for sunrise over the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca
a wooden match
heating water on the old kitchen stove
filling a large wooden bowl with the warm water
placing the bowl on a small table
an altar
by the window
lighting a candle
a small mirror propped up
morning chill
morning mists across the distant fields
bathing with a simple cloth
shaving as the sun would rise over the high mountains
the fields
of Southern Mexico
the healing had begun
a journey
that continues
now
Stan says
41. When I tell people that right now is the favorite time of my life.
Nancy says
Yes! I agree.
Avigail says
O how true! We tend to forget the small moments of life to appreciate…
Thanks for the reminder and inspiration!
Tamara Grammer says
A perfect moment was snuggling with my four year old son and thinking about how much I love him. It brought a lasting smile upon my face. Thank you for all the positivity. These are awesome moments!
VCEE says
Thanks! I really love to enjoy my breathing in after a good, long breath out and a pause. That’s my perfect moment.
ileana says
Thank you for such inspiration and widsom. True happiness is within. Personal growth and giving is what makes us feel special and grateful. No money in the world can replace that.
Adriana Rodz says
Marc and Angel,
Happy Thanksgiving and I’m grateful that I wake up everyday, put on my gym clothes and go work out. You see, I suffer from RA, Lupus and Fibromyalgia. The pain and tiredness is a constant in my life. The exercise program I’m on is challenging, fun and the best mental medicine I’ve ever experienced. I’m grateful for a strong body and a stronger mind.
Many blessings
Emily Brittain says
That’s an amazing testimony! I would love to know more about what you are doing in your workout.
Sunipun Das says
Thank you so much Marc & Angel for this wonderful reminder. We are often busy and forget to slow down and enjoy life. It is going to be one year when I started gratitude posts every morning. Now I write something positive every morning. At first it seemed tough to find something to be positive about, to feel thankful for. Now it has become a habit to see the good and be thankful for.
We can see the life’s simple pleasure only when we slow down. Today morning I enjoyed the goosebumps from the chilly morning wind.
Thank you once again to both of you for your awesome work. 🙂
Kim Henninger says
I am grateful for you and Marc and the email you send me daily. You are making a very big difference in my life and I am happy to share with whoever will listen. A recent perfect moment that I am grateful for … last week I was sitting outside at work taking a break. I was looking at my cell phone. I then thought of your words and stopped and looked around to be in the present. What did I see? It was, I feel, a miracle. Across the street were a bunch of people about to sing to a store owner. I thought it was early to Chistmas carole. But it was not a Christmas song they played. The small group of people sang, “Home” by Phillip Phillips. It was absolutely beautiful and sounded like angels. They sang the song very slowly and it was amazing. What hit my heart hard was that I would image God singing this song to me when I was lost a few years back after my husband left me and left me with three kids, a house, and all the bills. But somehow I managed to keep it all together and still find a new life for myself. I use to think, this is my home and I am not going to lose it. I am still here and I stand taller now and the words you write and send me each day make a big difference in my life. I thank you very much!! Peace and love … Kim
Brian Kakusu says
This was wonderful! Great work.
Nicolette Skenjana says
Thank you so Much. Today is a real Gift. Tomorrow promises us nothing. I count my blessings everyday.
Barb Ehrmann says
Love this, but I have to omit #29. I’m NEVER ” in the fastest moving checkout line at the grocery store.” 🙂
Ayesha Sheikh says
Just going through all these things is so peaceful. Life can be beautiful even if we have little and it can be equally torturing even when you have everything. It is just your perspective
Diana Reid says
So much truth in this post. We are so busy these days we forget to be grateful for the little things!!
I’m grateful for my children, it can be difficult to be a parent sometimes. But in all honesty, I embrace the moments we share together as that experiences we have will never be repeated.
Great post.
Denise says
Thank you for your inspiritional and wonderful words of wisdom. I love your blog. It helps me to try to keep going when everything looks dark. Like you and these reply people that have written I need to realize that there positive things in this wourld and be thankful for what I have. A couple of weeks ago I found out 1 of my dogs is dieing from cancer. It’s tearing me apart and have been very depressed with everything in life. I’ve had my baby dog for over 12 years. She is 12 and has been with me since she left her litter. Reading your blog I realize that that are things in life I should be thankful for. I’ve been deeply depresses with this news of cancer she has. I have given up on just about everything. I love her so much. I also have another dog her age that i need to be strong for. This blog has inspired me to try to look at the positive things in my life. And there are plenty I have to be thankful for if I stop and think about it. I thought my life was over with her passing away. But thru your blog and the replys you received I now realize that i have many things to be thankful for. I need to start liveing my life again. Your blog has been very inspirational for me. You are so helpful. Thank you so much. Your blogs are very meaningful to me and help me out alot. Thanks you guys for being you.
Lizzo says
A positive moment from last week: seeing a good friend performing a song she had written for a competition, the verve and enthusiasm she put into it, and the fun everyone else had in watching. It was a funny song! – and she is not usually that confident a performer, but this time she nailed it!
Steve says
Standing under a just-right temperature shower.
The first bite of a favorite dessert.
The feel of wearing fresh socks at the end of a long work day.
June Rowbottom says
Thank you for your wonderful reminders. After a run of bad luck recently it has been difficult to recuperate and complete physio goals. I was ill then i fell and awkwardly twisted my ankle. Anxiety set in. A wonderful team appeared and helped in so many ways. Today I walked up and downstairs unaided for the first time without a break and I feel so happy. O.K so the gait probably wasn’t the most attractive but I did it!
Kate James says
Many of these perfect moments are moments I shared with my fiancé. Unfortunately I lost him a few weeks ago to pancreatic cancer. I’m trying to find things to be positive about, but it’s tough. Everything reminds me of him, of us, and how fortunate we were to have found the kind of love we shared.
Sam says
So terribly sorry for loss Kate. That condition has taken many fine people including your loved one. Sometimes words cannot ease the pain but time certainly does. Your present pain will not last. Treat this period as preparation for the joy and happiness you will enjoy in the future.
Angel Chernoff says
Sending prayers of strength your way, Kate.
Angel Chernoff says
Thank you for all the insightful and vulnerable comments, everyone. Marc and I just read every one of them together. We appreciate all of YOU. 🙂