MAKE GRATITUDE GREAT AGAIN
On Trump, gratitude, and the five things I reach for when the world loses its mind
Before we get into this, I need to be straight with you.
I’m not pro-Trump. I’m not anti-Trump.
I’m pro-human.
The moment we start talking about “them” and “us,” we’ve already lost.
But I am curious. And curiosity means I sit with things I don’t agree with long enough to actually understand them.
Because the world doesn’t feel safe right now—and someone is profiting from that feeling.
The fear you’re carrying isn’t new. It’s been here before. Pandemics, wars, financial collapses—fear is ancient. What’s new is how organised it is, how loud it is, and how many people are being paid to keep it that way.
So I’m not going to add to it.
The changing of the tides…
In 2016, this billionaire reality TV star took the world by storm in one of the greatest upset victories of the modern era.
Then he (along with every other side of politics) stoked racial tension and mused on about identity politics until things came to a head in 2020 when he was pushed aside for a change candidate.
He denied the results, claiming they had been falsified.
Despite his frustrations at ‘the system’, he did move aside (just after gently causing an insurrection).
Political unrest and global violence then proceeded to rage for 4 years as the Biden experiment seemed to fail.
And then, by some divine intervention... big DJT, riding a wave of anti-woke, “isolationist”, America first and anti-establishment rhetoric stormed back into the top job for at least another 4 years.
So Trump has been back in charge for nearly a year now—what are we to make of it?
Rather than get caught up in the fear apparatus, I’m using 5 things to help me stay grounded now (and forever)…
1. Gratitude
Every moment presents an opportunity.
To see what you have and be grateful for it, or to look away in preference of another thing/moment.
This is a fast track to unhappiness.
Many people prefer to acquaint themselves daily with what they wish they had and not what they do have. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it doesn’t have to be.
Fear is rampant, but again, it doesn’t have to be.
By writing 5-10 things you are grateful for every morning, you increase your vibration.
Looking within and seeing what you have been blessed with will lead to a lighter and brighter existence. This is true freedom and power.
Do it for long enough, and you just might change the world.
At the very least, your own inner world.
2. Reading
I don’t read too wide anymore—but I do read deep.
The main topic of study: Stoicism.
Stoicism is an ancient philosophy popularised in modern times by author Ryan Holiday, but it has one of the oldest and most consistent practices known to man.
I generally read 2-3 pages per day of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Like every great thinker of the last 5000 years, his ideas and insights lead me to deep thinking and self-actualisation—ideas on:
Love
Respect
Discipline
Obedience
Selflessness
Acceptance of death
Disregard for material things
Awareness of your responsibilities
Unwavering commitment to his principles
Prioritisation of the community over the individual
You don’t have to read Stoicism, but read something.
Any reading, especially of the classics, will heighten your ability to see the world the way it was meant to be seen.
Centred around love and abundance.
Reading is the key to unlocking parts of you and parts of the world around you that you might never have seen otherwise.
Some recommendations:
Ezra Klein
Johan Hari
Mel Robbins
Eckhart Tolle
Ryan Holiday
Naval Ravikant
Steven Pressfield
Malcolm Gladwell
Yuval Noah Harari
3. Writing
I write almost every day.
Writing is a skill that brings us closer to our actual thoughts.
Where reading allows us to discover things we didn’t know about, writing helps us synthesise our knowledge on the things we do know about.
It helps us excavate deeply held beliefs.
Uncover our true thinking on certain topics, and shine light on the parts of us that the world hasn’t seen
Writing allows you to understand yourself in a new light.
To see the truth and affirm your position.
Using a pen helps (as discussed in this newsletter) because it creates a real connection to the words and invites a deeper understanding and neural pathways on the topic.
If you don’t have time for pen & pad, that’s fine, tap away on your laptop like I’m doing right now
Just take the time to get your thoughts down, journal on where you are and find a way to unpack the thoughts within you. Figure out what is real, what is not real, and what’s been borrowed from an external entity.
4. Curiosity
Curiosity is a superpower.
It is the ultimate superpower against shit behaviour.
Have you ever had someone get angry at you, and rather than reacting, you probed with questions, harmlessly seeking to understand?
It’s a beautiful thing. The target in question has nothing to use as fuel.
Curiosity has a wonderfully disarming effect.
It also allows you to gain insight into everyone and everything.
At our company, we have a motto when dealing with situations that require our undivided attention, things like:
New technologies
Stakeholder disputes
Customer complaints
Teammates with new ideas
Disgruntled/underperforming staff
The motto is…
Seek to understand
This is curiosity in practice. This is the art of being okay with not knowing, but being resolute in your mission to properly understand that you don’t know.
Curiosity leads to deeper connections and stronger foundations to build our views and our arguments around.
Try not to lean on emotion and reaction immediately.
First try curiosity, gain some perspective and then choose an appropriate route.
5. Prioritising humanity
Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m important, but I’m not that important to the point of wanting the world to revolve around me.
So what I have to wait in line a little longer...
So what I can’t have exactly what I want right now...
So what if someone gets a slightly better job than me...
So what I have to celebrate something on a different day...
Instead, I practice gratitude.
And every single day, I am grateful for the way of life I was born into, the people I am friends with and the pocket of time that I occupy.
The average quality of life is remarkable.
We are alive in the greatest period of time by any possible measurement—we are so blessed.
Just in the last 100 years alone:
Access to electricity rose from 10% to 90%
Global literacy rates rose from <40% to 86%
Extreme poverty has dropped from 75% to 8.5%
Access to clean water improved from 25% to 74%
Life expectancy doubled globally from 34 to 73 years
Infant death/birth ratio dropped from 150/1000 to 27/1000
There is so much work to be done, I know.
But we have so much to be grateful for and so much to celebrate, let’s focus on what we do have, rather than what we don’t have.
The next 3ish years are going to be tricky.
I do recognise that.
Quite simply, with Trump in office, the extreme right has been emboldened.
Important note: I originally wrote this piece a few months back, before Trump’s coalition of right-wing influences started falling apart and his handling of Epstein and Iran has revealed his true identity, leading to unprecedented unpopularity.
But again, ultra-nationalism and Judeo-Christian values are frameworks an individual can hold up without feeling the need to ostracise members of our community that we don’t understand or agree with.
Fear usually comes from a lack of understanding.
The more we feel like we are lacking, the more likely we are to look for someone who is causing this lack.
Someone who is ‘taking from me’ and ‘making me lose’.
Gratitude stops fear in its tracks.
It diverts the gaze away from what you’re missing out on and illuminates what should be celebrated (i.e. what you should be grateful for).
Final thoughts…
Fear is a tool.
Someone is always trying to sell it to you.
The answer has never been to fight fear directly. It’s to have something inside you that makes the fear irrelevant.
Gratitude does that.
Every single day, I make it my mission—regardless of what’s happening out there—to be thankful for this life I was born into.
We can all win; we can all have a piece of the pie.
Be grateful for what you have, and don’t be afraid to share; there’s plenty to go around. Just remember, we will all die and be buried in the exact same earth (so who gives an eff).
Stay vigilant and keep your heart open to everyone, always; it is our only hope.
I believe in us—together we can...
MAKE. GRATITUDE. GREAT. AGAIN.
With gratitude,
SAV
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Matt - a great read
What you need now is to create an APP - WWMD
With David, put all the teaching of Marcus Aurelius into AI and ask it questions as to What Would Marcus Do !!!