Welcome to Practicing Praise!

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We are excited to have you as a member of Practicing Praise and a part of the Practicing Praise Million Acts of Praise Challenge! 

You will receive a “daily check-in” that is meant to be both a reminder to Practice Praise today and to record your acts of praise you completed yesterday. The number of acts of praise you enter will be added to the “Million Acts of Praise Campaign”. We will share the progress periodically as we together strive to make a difference.

Here are some tips that others find helpful in being consistent and effective in your journey. While all of these tips are important, pay special attention to the final tip – “YourHow”….members have found that using the paper clip trick is a very popular and effective way to Practice Praise! 

Your "Why" 

Commit to yourself on why you are doing this....Do you believe it is the "right thing to do"? Do you believe it will make you feel better; improve your mood; be more positive? Do you desire to be more active in your faith journey? Are you excited about making a difference to people in need or the "unsung heroes" who are seldom appreciated or held up in praise? Do you want to become a more caring, loving person? Do you want to be a part of a caring community that is trying to make a difference? This is a short list, so think about if you connect to one of these or have a different "why".

Your "When"

As we look to install this new habit of Practicing Praise, it is helpful to find a specific time to check-in and get in the proper mindset for the day. Your check-in email will arrive in your inbox very early in the morning, so I would recommend reading that and completing the check-in survey with your previous day's acts of praise with your first cup of coffee. They call this "habit stacking" - add this morning ritual with another morning ritual....maybe with coffee doesn't work in your routine, maybe it is something you do when you get into your car for the drive to work....the key is consistency and knowing when this will get accomplished. Be forewarned, Practicing Praise isn't easy! You need to have a plan if this is something that you are going to be doing long-term.

Your "What"

Remember, acts of praise include some easy things and some not-so-easy. My suggestion is to start by having a loving mindset and to be on the lookout for people doing great things, people in need, and people who deserve praise and recognition. That is a pretty wide net but could include recognizing a retail salesperson for great service, making a meal for someone recovering from surgery or sending a card of praise to someone after they do something great. 

Your "How"

It's all about the paper clips! Try this and let me know how it works....every morning, put 5 paper clips in your left pocket. Every time you perform an act of praise, move a paper clip into your right pocket. At the end of the day, count the number of paper clips in your right pocket and put them into a jar. I have found this to be really helpful in keeping me in the Practicing Praise mindset and it is pretty fun to move a paper clip from one pocket to the next. Also, the jar is fun to watch fill up and to think about the good things that I have done to make the world just a little bit better.

Thanks for taking this journey with us....TOGETHER, we can literally join to perform a Million Acts of Praise!

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. 

It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, 

to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson