I wrote about the importance of being grateful in one of my posts (link) last month.
Practicing being grateful has become easier after I quit my job. It wasn’t so much the job itself that prevented me from exercising gratefulness. It was the stress from knowing my heart was not in the job and yet forcing myself to work 8 hours a day.
Lately, I discovered a lot of things to be grateful of. Some of these things I could not possibly foresee happening. Perhaps it is true that being grateful attracts good things to you.
- Scored a $4,000 stair lift chair for free on Facebook
I wrote a post about this. Someone deciding to give away such expensive item for free out of good heart is rare. It is even more rare to reach out and be selected among many other people who obviously want the free chair. After I finished installing the chair at home, I sent a thank you note to the seller on FB messenger where we communicated to coordinate pickup. I never heard back. His account is not active. It’s almost as if he was an angel that came into my life to give me the chair and he disappeared. - Found a buyer for my family’s real estate property in tough market
My wife decided to list a small property she had for sale. We were told by our agent that we should expect to sell at a discount as the market is tough for seller. As soon as our listing went live, we got an offer from the nextdoor neighbor. The neighbor wanted to expand their property and needed to buy our unit as we are their only adjacent unit in the building. So they decided to offer at full asking. We listed our place at slightly higher than the market price to account for negotiation but we ended up keeping all that premium. Given the neighbor is a current owner of the building, the sale process has been going extremely smooth. Plus, the appraiser appraised our property at asking price too. I look forward to closing soon. - Found a new tenant to fill my rental property without any vacant period after my old tenant moved out
I have owned this rental property for a few years and I always ended up having at least one month or so of vacancy during each turnover. This year, given I have zero income, I was not looking forward to the cost of paying mortgage for a vacant property. Thankfully, for the first time since I started renting, I found a new tenant to move in as soon as the old tenant moved out. My monthly payment was fully covered by rent from tenants without any hiccup during the transition. - Found a full day program spot for Brandon’s daycare
Covid led to some preschools to shut down and yet a lot of families decided to give birth during that time. Now that covid is over, the schools that shut down are not coming back and there are more toddlers than ever. This created an extremely tough situation for young parents to find a place for their children. In my town, full day program availability is harder to come by than half-day programs. One event led to another and I managed to secure Brandon’s spot in one of the most desirable schools for full day program. He is going to attend full day starting September and I am going to enjoy having time to focus on building a new career. - Tax refund
My wife and I had always paid tax in April. The deductions through our paycheck were never enough. This year, surprisingly, we received $12k refund mainly because the deduction was higher than what we owed. I was introduced to a new accountant this year and his team did an excellent job in terms of answering all my questions. I don’t think they necessarily did any magic to get the $12k refund but I felt our tax returns are in good hands and we received the max refund we deserve. This refund helps us pay for our upcoming trip and some of the deferred purchases. - Rediscovered my intrinsic motivation
I have been thoroughly enjoying building my shop lately. Between my wrist injury and the cold temperature during the winter, the joy of building had been absent for a long time. Now that I picked it up again, it feels really good. It is almost like there exists a set of feelings that you have been missing and now you are feeling them again. This spring could not be more welcomed. The warm temperature, the sunshine, the beautiful sunset and the colors of flowers all make me feel more grateful and energized to work towards my goal.
I could go on and on but they are the main examples that have surprised me lately.
Maybe it’s just I have been lucky lately.
But I know one thing for sure. My mental state for the last 12 months has been in a completely different state than before. I went from having never-ending negative thoughts to not having those at all. I still have some element of doubt and fear but they are the healthy ones I welcome. The bad ones such as
“why am I doing this?”
“I am wasting my time”
“I am stuck”
“Tomorrow is going to be the same”
have long gone.
Not sure if that contributed to good things happening but hey, either way, good things are good!
