Episode 37- Unleashing the Power of Gratitude: Appreciating Our Moments and Legacies

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to this episode of Evolved Mastery. I'm your host, princeton Clark. I'm gonna welcome you guys back to another amazing episode where we're gonna be diving into the topic of the power of gratitude. That's right, the power of gratitude, the thing that we hear so many people talking about, but yet it seems to elude the majority. Gratitude is so important to our journey because, in order for us to truly be present in every single moment, we have to learn how to truly be grateful and open to every single moment, understanding that every moment is a gift. So in today's episode, we're gonna dive into how to honor the gifts of each moment, utilizing the power of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Rhonda Byrne, in her book the Magic, talks about gratitude being the magic of life and you know, this is something that I learned early in my journey, because in the beginning, when things first started changing for me you know, if you guys have followed my podcast, you know my life, you know the things that I have experienced. I won't regurgitate it here, you know, but in order for me to make a lot of the changes that I made in the beginning of my life, it started with me really understanding the importance of every single moment, because for most of my life. I had wasted my moments, I had played the victim, I had set back, waiting and hoping things were gonna change, people were gonna show up, doors were gonna open, people were gonna understand, so on and so forth, not realizing that every moment that I let pass was a moment that I would never get back. Every moment that I let pass would be another moment in which I lost the opportunity to create something new. In that moment, every breath that we breathe is a gift, and this is something that I deeply realized after my failed suicide attempt in 2003, because from that moment I knew you know, after trying to make that decision to end my life, when that gun misfired next to my temple, it changed my life, it changed the way that I saw myself, it changed the way that I saw my story. In that moment, my story changed because, whether or not I was fully connected or even fully aware of the fact that something greater than me call it spirit and universe, god, source, whatever pronoun you wanna use something beyond what my finite mind could understand, had stepped in and said not now, not now.

Speaker 1: 2:34

And even as I think about that right now, I get emotional because there are so many moments in our lives where that now moment could have been the last moment, but, for whatever reason, we are still here. There are so many moments in our lives when we look back that we know that every moment that followed a particular moment has been a gift. Those moments of depression where you were considering ending and all but something in you wouldn't allow it. That moment where you barely missed a car accident, that moment where you got sick and you thought that was gonna be it, whatever it is. There are so many moments that happen in so many of our lives that are pivotal moments.

Speaker 1: 3:20

But what I want you guys to think about today, but I want you guys to think about today is the fact that, whether something crazy has happened that you've avoided or not, it's a miracle that we wake up every single day and we continue to breathe and experience this existence that we call life. It's a miracle that we get to wake up and we get to create, if we so choose, another life. You are always one decision away from change, but change for so many never comes because they're never grateful, they're never present, they're never honoring the moment. So, moment after moment's pass, and before you know it, we're older, more mature, looking back on life with regrets, all the things that we shoulda, coulda and would've done. But I challenge you, guys, today, don't let that be your life. Don't get to the point in your life where you're looking back wishing that you could've done something different, because at some point for all of us it's gonna be over. There's gonna come a time where this life is gonna cease to be, and I don't mean to make this conversation morbid, it's a fact. It's a fact, guys.

Speaker 1: 4:31

We sit back and we focus and care and worry on things that add no value to the moments of our lives. My friend, christopher Rausch, often says it's all about the moments. It's all about the moments and we must learn to pause in these moments and say thank you. These moments are not promised to us. They are gracefully given to us and we get to choose what we do with each moment. We get to choose how we show up, what we create or not.

Speaker 1: 5:05

But I want to dive into this topic today because it's been something that's really been on my mind lately. Looking at the state of the world, everybody is so externally focused on things that they can't control, and yet they are given lives every single day that they can control, but they refuse to control, they refuse to take their power, they refuse to take every chance and choice that they are given, in every breath, to create something new. And we have to begin to ask ourselves why is this? Why is it that we are given moment after moment after moment, and we waste our moments, ultimately wasting our lives, wasting the experiences that we could have and could create, wasting the opportunities for manifesting something new? Why do we do that? It's because we've been programmed to only focus on the past or tomorrow, the future, and so much of our lives is consumed by one of those two, if not both, depending on what we're experiencing in our lives. But how often are we truly present? How often are we truly giving ourselves permission to be in gratitude?

Speaker 1: 6:18

Gratitude, for me, was a very transformative experience, because it challenged me to look at how I chose to show up in my life. It challenged me to look at that one fate filled moment where I could have been gone, but yet I was still here. And it led me to ask some very deep questions, questions that I would have never thought to ask before, questions like how do you want to be remembered? If you were to go today? What would your kids remember you from? What experiences would they have of you that they would carry on with them? Do you really want that to be the last memory? What are you creating in the world that will never be forgotten? What are you adding to the experience of your life that will outlive you? Then and on and on, the questions kept coming, and even as I'm thinking about it, as I'm speaking about it right now, I can't help but be emotional, because these are questions, as simple as they may seem, that a lot of people never ask themselves. A lot of people are so focused on what they don't have and what's not working and what they want and all these things, that they never just stop and ask the deeper questions.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Often, I'm asked how did you grow so fast? How did you go from being where you were to being where you are now, being positive after being and living such a negative life? And the truth is it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work reprogramming myself. It was a lot of work reprogramming my thoughts, in the way that I saw the world, the way that my experiences had told me the world was, because, in truth, the world is just what the world is, but nothing is anything until I give it a meaning. And I realized that I had given the world and different experiences so many different meanings that those meanings had impacted me at such a deep mental level and emotional level that I carried the energy of those meanings with me everywhere I went and those things affected my perspective of the world, my perspective of relationships, my perspective of my potential, my perspective of my purpose, my perspective of so many different things.

Speaker 1: 8:17

But when I finally learned the practice of gratitude and the power of gratitude, little by little, I had to put that work in every single day. I would start my days and I wouldn't do anything without saying thank you. Sometimes, in all honesty, I didn't know what I was saying thank you for. I was just saying thank you because it was another day that I had never seen before, a day that, once it was over, I would never get to experience again. And I promised myself that I would never waste another moment, because every moment was a gift.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Somebody didn't wake up to experience another moment, just as today, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people have left this existence. Yesterday they had so many plans, they had so many ideas, so many concerns, and today they're not here. Think about that. We think that we are going to live to see a ripe old age and prayerfully I hope that is the case for everyone listening to this podcast. But truthfully it's not Truthfully. Tomorrow, the next moment, the next breath is not promised If we are lucky and blessed and gifted enough to experience tomorrow. Let it be that we show up grateful, not complaining, not focused on yesterday or the moments that haven't even been created yet. Let it be that we wake up and say thank you for the honor of this breath, this day, this now moment. Guide me and show me what's for me today. Give me peace today. Show me, teach me, guide me, how to have more joy today. Give me eyes to see more love in my life today. Give me eyes to be more hopeful in my life today. Give me the power and awareness of power to create a life that's driven by purpose, to create something and to give birth to something from within me that the world has yet to see.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Yet. Pause when you start your day and throughout the day, pause. My friend Lolita says there's power in the pause, but so many times we don't pause. We're constantly go, go, go, go go. From one thing to the next. One worry to the next fear, one doubt to the next concern, one business deal to the next business deal, one level of financial goal created and manifested onto the next financial goal. But how often do we actually pause? I'm going to challenge you right now, as you're listening to this podcast Pause in this moment and just say thank you. Just say thank you, thank you for all the past moments, thank you for all the experiences that have guided you to this point, without labeling them as a positive or negative. They were just experiences. Experiences that you had the power to navigate through and you are still here. Experiences that brought you wisdom, experiences that led you into the path of other people. So many different experiences, but now you're here. Now you have this moment.

Speaker 1: 11:48

If we can just learn to be more grateful in every single moment, if we can learn to harness the power of gratitude, if we change the way we see things, the things we see will change. I will continue to repeat that we have to start with gratitude, because if I can be grateful for every experience, understanding that every experience is just that, an experience that I get to choose to define, that I get to choose to grow from or fail from that. I get to choose to rise from or decline from. Every experience is just an experience that I get to make, whatever I choose to make it. But when we learn the power of gratitude, we can simply say thank you. If we must cry the tears, feel the emotion and let it go in the moment, process it through the moment, but find a way to say thank you because you're still here, you're still able to make a different decision. You're still able to create a new experience. You're still able to love yourself in a new way. You're still able to build a new foundation. You're still able to have different experiences if you so choose.

Speaker 1: 12:53

And what I decided to do years ago was make a positive choice. I knew that I had created the mess of a life that I had created because I wasn't grateful. I was always complaining or focusing on things that made me depressed or frustrated or angry, constantly blaming people, constantly holding on to unforgiveness, constantly living in fear, and I knew that that didn't work for me. So I had to start being grateful for each moment and I had to start asking myself what is the most powerful thing that I can do right now, in the midst of the challenges that I am facing? What is one way that I can love myself in this gratitude today? What is one thing that I can do today to show those that I love, those that are closest to me, that I am grateful for them? What is one thing that I can do to honor the vision that I've been given for my life? What is one new thing that I can learn to show my mind that I am so grateful for the power that it gives me to create my soul, for the power that it gives me to step fully into manifesting the things that I desire. That's one thing that I can do because I'm grateful.

Speaker 1: 14:01

So many people live their lives and they never do this and understand this in the beginning. When you first start doing it and you first start cultivating this practice of gratitude, it's not going to be as easy as we hope it to be. There are going to be moments where you wake up and something happens and it throws you completely off of the last side of the bed and you're stuck there for like an hour. There's going to be some days you wake up and everything just flows fluidly. But honor the moments the more you do that, the more consistent it becomes, the more things begin to change, the more you get to see new experiences and create new experiences.

Speaker 1: 14:46

But, as I always say, it starts with you. What are you willing to do to create a more powerful life? What are you willing to do to create the life that you truly desire? What are you willing to do in this moment if you can just be grateful for it? Imagine that, as you're navigating through your life, there is an infinite number of possibilities in front of you, and each one of those possibilities creates a different reality for you. For some people, they stay on the same flow of possibility, or lack thereof, their entire lives. But imagine that there is no blueprint. You are creating one as you go. You are the original blueprint. There will never be another you that can do things the way that you do. There will never be another you that can create the life that you have the potential to create. There will never be another you given the moments that you were given to learn from and grow from, so that you can use them as fuel to change your life and to create a light in the world, so that other people can see that it's possible. You are a powerful creator. You are a powerful life, experiencing life on many different levels. But until you learn to be grateful, you'll never truly understand just how powerful you are.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Allowing yourself to slow down and be grateful keeps you in a state of mindfulness. I love the power of gratitude because when I allow myself to pause and breathe and just think through the moment, become aware of the moment, become aware of what's in front of me, become aware of the choices, become aware of infinite possibilities in the moment, I realize just how powerful I am. I realize that I am not limited. I realize that whatever I have a desire to do, whatever I have a vision to see, it's completely possible if I'm willing to fully step into it. And the more we become grateful, the more we begin using this power. The more we start seeing more positive effects in our lives, the more our mindset begins to expand in a higher state of awareness so that we can see wider and farther.

Speaker 1: 17:09

Imagine that as we show more gratitude and we become more aware, it's like going into a building that has no limit to how high it can go, and we get into an elevator and we begin to go up. As we go up, we get to get out on different floors. These different floors have different experiences, but on every level there's a window facing one side of that building that when we come out of the elevator, we can see. Out of that window. The higher we go, the farther we can see, the wider we can see. This is awareness. This is what happens the more we begin to be more present in our lives. This is what happens when we allow ourselves to be more grateful, we allow ourselves to see the value of each moment, we allow ourselves to see the true possibility of our gifts and our visions.

Speaker 1: 17:55

In each moment, the visions, those gifts, the awareness of it all expands and goes farther, and this is why so many people are short-sighted. They can only see right in front of them, and it's okay if that's where you are right now. It's just an opportunity to be more grateful. You are being presented with an opportunity to be present, an opportunity to give yourself permission to pause, an opportunity to become aware of how you have shown up and how you get to show up. In this moment, there is so much power and gratitude, and so I challenge you give yourself permission to start applying this power.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Give yourself permission to start waking up and just saying thank you. Start waking up and writing down all the things that you are grateful that you get to experience. Start waking up and writing down all of the ideas that you would like to give birth to and, throughout the day, giving yourself place and peace to pause and just say thank you. Go outside, look at the sky, look at the trees. We get to experience this life, people. We get to choose whether we're going to be grateful or miserable. The power is in your hands. What you do with it is up to you.

Speaker 1: 19:06

So I challenge you love yourself enough to honor your moments. Love yourself enough to be grateful in these moments. Love yourself enough to give yourself permission to be peaceful and to pause and to really consider just how special you are. Nobody on this planet is more special than you. I don't care what people say, what people do. There will never be another you. So be grateful for you. Be grateful for this opportunity to simply have a moment. That's your moment, and decide now what this moment will mean for you. Will it mean change and grow and expansion and opportunity, financial increase, or will it mean misery, depression, anger, frustration? What are you giving meaning to, in this moment, find a reason to be grateful and if the only reason you can find in the moment is that you're still here because in this moment and in every moment someone is ceasing to be here and you still are Meditate on this today. I hope that it spoke to your spirit, spoke to your heart and your mind, because I know that it's been speaking to mind lately and I'm so grateful for my life, but I love that life continuously reminds me of just how powerful gratitude is, and I know that I wouldn't be where I am, who I am creating, what I am today, if it weren't for the power of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 20:39

Thank you, guys, for tuning into this episode of Evolved Mastery. As you guys know, I just come to speak to your soul, speak to your heart, speak to your mind, speak to your moments, because you are powerful. We may not always feel like it, but you are. The moment you choose to believe it, the moment you choose to be grateful for it, the moment you choose to step into it is the moment that everything begins to change. You just got to believe it, you got to show up like it, you got to breathe it in and honor it. Continue to follow the podcast. I got a lot of new episodes on the way and I'm just excited for this journey and where it's about to go.

Speaker 1: 21:16

I've been really ramping things up with podcast episodes because I feel that there are so many people out there saying, okay, things are changing, it's time for me to change, it's time for me to grow again. It's time for me to take that next step into the next level and the next experience of my life. I want to give you guys more value, give you guys things to challenge you to think and really process what's happening in your life. As I always say, if you guys want to reach out to me, reach out to me on Instagram or other social platforms like TikTok, twitter at PrincetonClark. You can also visit my website, princetonclarkcom and EvolvedMasterycom If you would like to support the podcast. This is one way that you guys can now support is by going to EvolvedMasteryPodcastcom and you guys can go there and you can actually subscribe as a member and supporter, and it's only $10 a month.

Speaker 1: 22:17

I want to see you guys grow. I want to see you guys evolve. Also, if you guys are at a place where you are pivoting, you are growing, you are evolving and you're ready to have more experiences in your life and you're like you know what I need a reboot. I need to refresh my perspective, I need to refresh my flow. I need to dive deeper into how I'm choosing to see the world. I need to get clear on my vision and my goals. I need to step deeper into my gifts, so and so forth.

Speaker 1: 22:42

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