Continuation of Appreciation

Appreciation as a Secret of Success
An important reason for being in a state of appreciation as often as possible is that when you are in such a state, you are in one of the highest emotional states possible.
When you are in a state of appreciation and gratitude, you are in a state of abundance. You are appreciating what you do have instead of focusing on, and complaining about, what you don’t have. Your focus is on what you have received… and you always get more of what you focus on.
And because the law of attraction states that like attracts like, the more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract, and the grateful you will feel. It becomes an upward-spiraling process of ever-increasing abundance that just keeps getting better and better.
Think about it. The more grateful people are for the gifts we give them, the more inclined we are to give them more gifts. Their gratitude and appreciation reinforces our giving. The same principle holds true on a universal and spiritual level as it does on an interpersonal level.

Keeping Score
When I first learned about the power of appreciation, it made total sense to me. However, it was still something that I forgot to do. I hadn’t yet turned it into a habit.
A valuable technique that I employed to help me lock in this new habit was to carry a 3” x 5” card in my pocket all day, and every time I acknowledged and appreciated someone, I would place a check mark on the card. I would not allow myself to go to bed until I had appreciated 10 people. If it was late in the evening and I didn’t have 10 check marks, I would appreciate my wife and children, I would send an e-mails to several of my staff, or I would write a letter to my mother or stepfather.
I did whatever it took until it became an unconscious habit. I did this every single day for 6 months—until I no longer needed the card to remind me.
Excerpted From Jack Canfield