What is the healthiest emotion?

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad number 1,146 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. And this message is dedicated to Lincoln Francis, in celebration of his birthday. You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at www.fromchad.com.

Here’s the upgrade.

You can feel entitled to what you have, but upgraded thinking knows there is Someone to thank for all of it.

Here’s the story.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, teachers walked into their classrooms and hit a wall. For seventy years the state had taught children to be grateful to the Party, grateful to the system. “Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for our happy childhood” was the phrase kids were taught. And it had spent those same seventy years erasing God. So when the whole structure fell, teachers went looking for a way to teach gratitude and couldn’t find the ground to stand on. One researcher interviewed educators who told him flatly, “We are looking for moral answers right now, because we do not have any.”

The Russian word for “thank you” — spasibo — comes from “May God save you.” The Soviets pushed it out and replaced it with “Thank you, comrade.” But you can feel what got lost. Because a person who never learns to be grateful will never understand there has to be a transcendent reference point. There is Someone he owes his existence to — his breath, his family, his morning, the whole gift of being here at all.

That’s the trap of entitlement. It quietly deletes the Who. And once there’s no one to thank, there’s nothing left but demand. Zig Ziglar use to say: “The healthiest of all human emotions is gratitude.” If that’s true, then entitlement is the disease, and gratitude is the antidote.

Years ago my mentor Bill Calvin — one of the most joyful men I’ve ever known — told me he ended each day by naming five people he was grateful for. So I started writing five things I’m thankful for every morning. Today is day 4,700 in a row. And I’ll tell you what it does: it keeps the Who in view. It keeps me from believing I earned the air.

The better story to tell yourself is, “I’m not entitled to anything; I’m grateful for everything.” Tell me a story of gratitude to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and tell them, “I’m thankful for you today.”