I want to share with you a practice that has transformed my life. I have been doing it for more than two years. It makes me happier. It helps me make sense of a bad day. It gives me a sense of clarity.
This practice is a five-minute daily review. The method is inspired by an exercise called the examen, developed many centuries ago by St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. I further simplified the practice and made it my own. Every morning, I answer three questions and note my answers in a journal.
1. Gratitude
The first step is to look back at the last 24 hours. Then ask: What are you grateful for right now? Doesn’t matter what it is. Note it. Some examples:
- A delicious meal with family
- A fun get-together with friends
- A comfortable bed
- A sense of peace when seeing the clouds in the sky
- An inspirational line from a book
- Kindness from a friend, a co-worker, or a stranger
- Produced work you are proud of
- Did vigorous exercise that made you feel alive
- Tried something new for the first time
Gratitude is one of the most underrated superpowers. It shifts our focus from what we lack to what we have. Gratitude affirms that good things exist. We are free to enjoy them as they are given to us.
“If you’re grateful, you’re not fearful.” Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast once said. Gratitude casts out fear. That makes it easier to experience joy with what we already have. It’s simple. It’s free. And it’s powerful.
2. Reflection
The second step is to review the challenges in last 24 hours. What do you see in your day? Sometimes we go through a hectic crazy day without being aware of what happened. This step gives you space to observe.
Pay attention to what you did, how you felt, and what left an impression. What was difficult? What made you sad or angry? Did you feel tense, empty, or discouraged? If something didn’t go well, what could you have done differently?
3. Resolution
The last step is a natural extension of your reflection. What are one or two things you will commit to doing (differently) today?
Did you feel grumpy working in front of the computer all day yesterday? Perhaps a short walk after lunch today will improve your mood. Did a comment yesterday hurt someone? Maybe you should say sorry. Did you waste too much on your phone? You can try leaving your phone in another room for a couple hours so you can focus the most important work.
You don’t need to come up a laundry list of complex, overhauling changes. One or two simple things are enough. The point is not to be hard on yourself, but to see the possibilities within your control. Think of this as making small tweaks in the system. You can get creative, experiment with a tiny change, and see if it works. Then resolve to doing it.
Putting It Together
This three-step program—gratitude, reflection, and resolution—is not complicated. Yet it could be the best five minutes you spend on a given day. It allows you to make sense of what’s going in your life. It gives you a holistic perspective. At the end, you arrive at small actionable steps you can take.
There’s no success or failure in this exercise. You simply learn to see things as they are. You experiment and see what works. Every day you learn something new. Not from other people, but from yourself. You can’t find better, more relevant lessons from anywhere else.
Once you do this for a few weeks, the benefits will become even more obvious. Things that seemed like a big deal on a particular day will look trivial after a while. You will start to see patterns over a timeline. You will gain a better perspective of your life that no one else can offer you.
You will be surprised by how much you can learn from yourself.