How to use gratitude to magnetize your dreams

This post was written by life coach, blogger and writer Chloe from One Infinite Life. A week ago Vienda Maria did a video interview with me to talk about our upcoming festival, #RadLivin. In the video I spoked about how one of the key steps I’ve used to manifest my dreams is gratitude. Seeing as Chloe’s speciality is in gratitude, she’s the founder of The 28 Day Gratitude Project, she hopped onto the blog today to give you insightful tips on how to hone in on gratitude to amp up your dreams and magnetize them towards you even quicker. Take it away Chloe…

Over a decade ago now, I started practicing gratitude (with a rock!) and ever since, I’ve discovered how gratitude can truly make you feel like what you have right now is enough. I’ve also witnessed, in both myself and others, how appreciating what you have can make you feel happier, more positive and more optimistic.
Ultimately for me, I continue to practice gratitude because of this:

Through my experience of practicing gratitude, I’ve discovered that it can help you love what you’re doing (and where you’re at) right now, but it’s also useful for helping to move towards more.

So, you can actually use gratitude to help you achieve your dreams. Doing this is seriously some powerful stuff!

Here’s 5 ways you can use gratitude to really AMP UP the pursuit of your dreams and magnetize them towards you:

​1. ​To appreciate where you are right now.

Start with using gratitude to cultivate appreciation for where you are right now, no matter how far away from your dreams you might be.

As Melody Beattie said, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough and more.” Doing this will make you happy with where you’re at right now, no matter where that is.

I truly believe that there is always something to be grateful for. You can use this as an opportunity to appreciate all the things you have in your life that you’re grateful for, more specifically, where you’re at in relation to your dreams.

For example:

If your dream is to run your own Mexican Food Truck (first call me because I’d be your best customer!) You might start off by cultivating gratitude because you have an amazing vision for what you want your business and life to look like. Your friends always ask you to make your secret guacamole recipe when you get together, you already own a tortilla press that you could use and you already have a job where you get to cook Mexican-Inspired food etc.

Or if you’re working a job you don’t absolutely love to support your dreams, you might start by cultivating massive amounts of gratitude for the resources that it’s providing you for your dreams.

Cultivating gratitude for where you are right now will help you to be okay with where you’re presently at. But, it’s totally okay to appreciate what you have now AND still want to work towards more.

​2. ​To call in what you want more of.

Esther Jno-Charles said, “What you focus on expands. So focus on what you want, not what you do not want.” You can use gratitude to focus on what you want more of in your life in relation to your dreams.

Once you’re clear on what your dream is, you can cultivate some mega appreciation for how parts of your big dream are already present in your life.

For example:

If your dream is to go on an epic overseas adventure to explore the Amalfi coast, you might focus on cultivating gratitude for the exploration and adventure you already have in your life. Such as, appreciating when you spend the day at a beach you’ve never been to before, or when you explore your local area, or when you go on a micro-adventure, or when you discover a new hiking trail, etc.

You can use gratitude to help you focus on, and invite in more of, what it is you really want.

3. To propel you into taking action.

Taking action is so crucial to pursuing your dream and making it happen. Gratitude can be really useful in motivating you into take steps towards it.

When you have an action you need to take to move you forward and you’re feeling unmotivated to do it, you can ask yourself: Why will I be grateful I did this? Use your response (your why) as rocket fuel to help you get it done.

This can be useful for getting something relatively simple done (like finally completing your passport application) and even more so if the action you need to take is filled with fear.

For Example:

If you want to start a blog, but are really feeling the fear in regards to putting it live, asking yourself why you will be grateful after you’ve done it can help you to get it out there.

I’ve found that this future-tripping gratitude exercise has given me the courage and motivation I’ve needed to take action and do things I was really afraid to do.

 4. To keep you motivated while you pursue your dreams.

Anyone who’s ever achieved a dream will properly tell you that they got there by taking it one step at a time. Dreams don’t happen overnight and you can use gratitude to help you stay motivated to keep moving towards your dream.

You can do this by taking the time to acknowledge and appreciate the steps you’ve been taking along the path to your dreams.

These stepping stones may seem small, but in the end every single one of them will have helped you reach your dream. Plus, cultivating appreciation for them can help you celebrate the mini (and big) milestones along the way.

For example:

You might acknowledge and take the time to appreciate when you get your first client, or book your overseas flights, or sign up for that course, or get your passport, or quit your job etc.

Cultivating gratitude for the mini, and not-so-mini, milestones along the way gives you an opportunity to celebrate yourself as well as keep you motivated to keep on pursuing your dreams.

5. To appreciate your dream as if you had already achieved it

This is my absolute favourite way to use gratitude to help me achieve my dreams.

I’ve mentioned earlier that being grateful for what you have right now can make your current circumstances enough, which is awesome. However, I totally believe that it’s (more than) okay to appreciate what you have now, while still working towards (and wanting) more.

You can use gratitude to help you really AMP UP your dreams and keep them alive while you pursue them by being grateful for your dream — as if you had already achieved it.

Ask yourself: How would I feel when this dream is my reality? Why would I be grateful for it?

For example:

If your dream is to become a life coach and work for yourself, you can practice being grateful as if you are already one — as it was your current reality, such as…

I’m grateful for being a life coach because it’s a privilege to do this work and I’m grateful that my career inspires me so much. I’m grateful for my clients because seeing them achieve their dreams inspires and I’m fulfilled by helping them to do this. I’m grateful that I get to work for myself and be my own boss, because it means I get to make my own rules and do things my way. I love that I’m so excited to get out of bed each day and do this work.

Being grateful for the things you want to call into your life as if they are already your reality is so powerful and will help you to, “Meet the universe halfway” as Danielle Laporte says.

​So

Cultivating gratitude can help you to…

• Love and appreciate where you’re at right NOW (no matter where that is) and what you already have.
• Intentionally focus on what you want and invite more of this into your life.
• Propel you into taking action towards your dreams — so you can make it happen.
• Acknowledge the mini and big stepping stones along the way to help you celebrate and keep motivated.
• Imagine what it will be like when you achieve your dream to keep it alive while you pursue it.

And

​Ultimately, ​using gratitude in these ways will help you to make your dreams your actual reality.

Want to learn more about Chloe’s Gratitude Project?

The 28 Day Gratitude Project is a free email series that was created to help people discover and experience for themselves how powerful gratitude can be. Based on my own experience and learnings with gratitude over the past decade, this project guides people through 28 days of gratitude where they will experiment with different methods of practicing gratitude, and ultimately discover that practicing gratitude can be super fun and enjoyable.