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I’m 52 Today · The Daily Writer

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, today is my 52nd birthday, and it seems like just yesterday that I was 25 years old, and then I turned around, and today I'm 52, and I want to ask the question that so many of you have probably asked, which is, where did the time go?
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, as the great theologian Ferris Bueller once said, life moves pretty fast.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And man, isn't that true?
0:31
SPEAKER_00: So, in that spirit, today I'm celebrating my birthday by sharing a lesson on gratitude for each decade of life that I've been given.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: So let's jump right in.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I'm grateful to be alive.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I know it sounds corny and syrupy, but it's the absolute truth.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: At this stage of life, you start to lose more friends and family.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'm grateful every single day that I get to live on planet Earth and enjoy the abundant blessings that are all around us.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: The truth is that it's so easy to take our lives for granted.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: But by all accounts, it's a miracle that we're even here, isn't it?
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the chances that you and I would exist in the first place is so tiny that it's nearly incomprehensible.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, sure, it's easy to get frustrated by the everyday complications and frustrations of life, but we've got to pause every single day and appreciate all the wonderful things that we get to enjoy about life, because the truth is that someday it's all going to come to an end.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: And that's why every day truly matters.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Number two, I'm grateful for my family.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: My wife, Melanie, and I have been married for 30 years as of last month.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: To be more specific, it was June 15th.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: That was our anniversary.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And over the years, we've had our ups and downs, just like any longtime married couple.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me so happy to say that we are more in love and more committed to each other than ever before.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful for her patience with me over the years, as I have fumbled the ball too many times to count, trying to build a business and a career that I enjoy, and also one that supports our family.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: And now it makes me even more happy to be able to support her as she's building out her own business as a travel planner who specializes in Disney trips, and she's also working on our own first book, which is really, really fun.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm also so incredibly grateful for my son Ash.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: He is fun, intelligent, creative, and honestly, Ash has the kindest heart of any human being that I've ever known, and that's no exaggeration.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I feel so lucky and blessed that I get to come home every single day to a family who I love and who loves me.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: We love spending time together, we have a blast, we laugh constantly, and we goof around, and I just absolutely love my family, and I'm so grateful for them.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Number three, I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have as a writer.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's never been a better time to share your ideas with the world.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: We can do that through self-publishing, social media, blogs, emails, and podcasts, and I take advantage of many of those, and I hope that you do as well.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Most of those distribution channels are free or they're very inexpensive compared to what it cost even just a couple decades ago.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to build an audience, you have all the opportunities in the world right there at your fingertips.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's pretty cool.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Number four, I'm grateful to live in a country that encourages entrepreneurship.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: We are so fortunate that we all live in a time and a place where we can freely build a business.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that I have a lot of listeners who are outside of the US, and I hope that wherever you live, you also can take advantage of opportunities to build a business as well.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, no country is perfect, but you can either spend your emotional energy on trying to fix problems that you have no power to fix, or you can take advantage of all the opportunities around you.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And I choose to take advantage of those opportunities rather than spending emotional energy worrying about stuff that I have no power to control in the first place.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And finally, number five, I am so grateful for you.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: I am extraordinarily grateful that you've taken the time to listen to this podcast or if you read my emails.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Either way, you're supporting the work that I'm doing, which includes books, this podcast, obviously, email, and lots and lots more good stuff coming in the next few months and the next couple of years.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: When you engage with anything that I've created, you've given me your most valuable possession, which is your time and attention.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I appreciate that more than you could ever possibly know.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So today, as I turn 52, it's my birthday today, it may not be your birthday, whatever your age and whatever stage you are in the journey of being an author, take a few moments today to think about all the things that you have to be grateful for.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: These are just a few of mine, and I appreciate you helping me celebrate my birthday today with gratitude.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.