Growing up, February 2nd marked the day where some well-dressed gentlemen in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, would pull a groundhog out of his winter home to predict whether we would have an early spring or if we’d be stuck with more winter.
The significance of the term “Groundhog Day” changed in 1993 when the movie starring Bill Murray was released. He plays a TV weatherman, also named “Phil,” who’s sent to cover the festivities at Gobbler’s Nob. He’s not happy about it. To make things worse, he gets stuck in a time loop where he must repeat February 2nd again and again and again. For a very long time. “Groundhog Day” became synonymous with days being tedious, ordinary, and repetitive.
What better time to talk about gratitude?
When teaching at the FBI National Academy, my very first class each session was on gratitude. It was unexpected, and I did it intentionally for a few reasons. One reason was its strong correlation with happiness, serving as a counterbalance to our hardwired instinct to easily find the negatives. At the conclusion of that first lesson, I’d give my class an assignment to journal about three good things every day for two weeks. This is an evidence-based strategy to build resilience, improve health, strengthen connections with others, and increase optimism, among other things.
The first couple days, the three good things were often big things – a great PT class, meeting amazing new people, a wonderful call home. Quickly, though, I would begin to hear a similar refrain: “…this place is like Goundhog Day…everything is the same each day…how can I possibly find something new to write about each day?”
So, I'd encourage people to look small. Someone held the door, there was no line for coffee in between classes, they found an ice machine available 24/7, they saw the most beautiful ray of sunlight breaking through the clouds, they naturally awoke 5 minutes before their alarm.
The more we practice this act of seeking things to be grateful for, the more it becomes an orientation. We realize our abundance, embrace what we have control over (and what we don’t), improve our sleep, increase our patience, and begin to see what really makes life good.
Whatever the Groundhog Day of your life, try to find a few things that make it good, nonetheless. You might find that it’s not despite the lack of grandness – but because of it – that we discover what matters most.
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