I’ve got a ton to be thankful for in 2019 from ringing in the new year with some of my best friends and one of my favorite bands to traveling to Austin to getting married, just to name a few things. Those are the obvious things to be thankful for when reflecting on 2019, but there are so many things that most of us probably don’t think about on a day-to-day basis that we should be grateful for as well.
I try to start every day off by thinking about what I’m thankful for. Literally everything I have and every opportunity available to me is something that most people in the world don’t have.
Every day I think about people who have never seen clean water, who don’t have food to eat, and who don’t have a place to live. I have all of these things and I try to remind myself every day how grateful I really should be for all of it.
As someone who helps others with their personal finances, it can sometimes be frustrating to see how much people can spend on things that aren’t necessary for survival, or even comfort, but who feel like they don’t spend enough and still want more. I sometimes want to remind people how fortunate they really are and how most of the world lives, but…
This Thanksgiving, I encourage you to reconsider all the “stuff” that you have as well as all of the opportunities that are available to you that most of the world will never see or experience.
Think about all the money that you’re going to spend on holiday shopping and ask yourself what a better use for that money would be – whether that’s for yourself or someone else. How many of the things that you bought or received last year do you really still have, anyways?
I’m not telling you not to spend the money, I’m just asking you to think about it and be thankful that you have the opportunity and resources to do it. The “first-world problems” that we face are those that most people will never even dream of having.
