Today, I’d like to announce a new project that I’ve been working on and keeping a secret for over a month now. It’s called “365 Letters of Gratitude.”
The concept is simple: every day, I spend a few minutes writing a letter to a different person whom I’m grateful to have in my life. Usually it’s just a few paragraphs detailing why these people mean so much to me and the ways they’ve affected my life, large or small.
It’s been hard, but I’ve kept it going for 45 days now. And I’m so grateful that I’ve done that, too. While reminiscing, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried (a lot), and mostly just been really happy for everyone in 26 years of life.
Here’s more on the project.
Why am I doing this?
There are a few reasons why I created this project:
- I wanted to be and feel more grateful. In the past, despite always feeling like I live an awesome life, I’ve felt like I’ve wanted or expected more from life. This is my way of calling “bullshit” on myself since it makes me think every day about who and what I’m glad to have in my life.
- I’m terrible at expressing my thanks to others. There’s a lot of times I’ve wished I could say something to someone in person, but I just never find the right words to say it. By writing a letter, I can put my true feelings out there. So far, it’s worked as I haven’t really been afraid to say anything in letters I’ve written.
- I wanted to do something challenging yet fun and rewarding for every day for a year. Truth be told, I just thought this would be an interesting project to take on for a bunch of reasons. I’ve already wondered if I could do it every single day (and I have, for 45 days and counting). I’ve also thought: How am I really going to come up 365 people? That’s definitely going to be a creative challenge to tackle. For now, I just wanted to get started and concentrate on taking it a day at a time rather than getting overwhelmed with the details.
Where’d the idea come from?
In September, I caught a talk by Noah Scalin who created the skull-a-day project. He challenged everyone listening to be creative and make something new every day. If you know me, you’ll know I’m much better with words than I am visual art, so 365 Letters of Gratitude was born the next day after hearing Noah’s idea.
What you can do
Just like Noah challenged me, I’d like to challenge all of you to do something like this. It can be really simple and take just a few minutes, but the idea is to do it every single day. Some of the other crazy ideas out there:
- take a napkin mustache photo
- create a skull each day
- Other cool ideas
If you don’t want to commit to a full year, try doing something for just a month. See how it makes you feel, and maybe you’ll find you enjoy it enough to keep going for another 31 days.
This has been an amazing experience for me so far, and I truly believe I am more grateful and happy with life now. I know I have a long way yet until I’m done, but I’m loving the journey to get there.
If you’re curious about my project, you can read all the letters on 365 Letters of Gratitude. You can read more about why I’m doing this and some of the FAQs by checking out this page, too.
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