grateful 23Over the past few months you may have participated in various activities to raise awareness of an issue. You might have done a 5K run, doused yourself in freezing cold water, completed a set of press ups or such like.

I’ve done all of that and more. I have swum the deepest seas, climbed the highest mountains, jumped out of airplanes souring high and even ran a marathon too – all in the name of charity.

Why am I telling you this? Certainly not to impress you or big myself up or to do down those that participate in other activities. I am telling you this to press upon you that in doing ALL of the activities I do, I am grateful for so much more.

Since gaining a deep understanding of the amazing attributes of your mindset, how we process our thoughts through words and action and create our own experiences, I have come to a huge realisation.

I have realised that I could take on the biggest challenge of my life, I could achieve the highest accolades ever – and none of it would mean anything if I had not got a healthy and empowered mind.

Think about it: what would it matter if I, say, won gold at the Olympics if I still thought about everything that was wrong in the world, or still thought I was not good enough or was fixated on doing the next big thing and not taking any time to enjoy the golden moment.

Having a healthy mind is one of the most underrated things in our society these days. We take so many things for granted we often don’t stop to think about our mindset and how it may or may not be working for us. The thing is – it can be so simple to fix.

One of the simplest ways to change your mindset to a more positive state is to start focusing on what you already have around you that makes you happy and that you are grateful for. These do not have to be big things, indeed, it can so often be the case that it is the little day to day things we take for granted that can give us so much pleasure. Once we put our attention on it of course.

So I have an idea and I have called it Grateful 23. While the title may sound somewhat self explanatory you may be wondering what the number 23 is all about.

The number 23 has appeared throughout my life and holds some significant memories for me.

I was a member of the 23 Engineer Regiment in the Corp of Royal Engineer. I was on selection with the 23 Special Air Service the UK’s elite Special Forces unit when I had the incident that was to change my life.

I have founded a charity named Transformation for Veterans and gained planning permission to build 23 lodges in the idyllic Cheshire countryside to help veterans and their families Transform their lives for the better.

Grateful 23 is about remembering 23 things you are grateful for in your life, for 23 consecutive days.

Over the course of the 23 days it is perfectly OK to repeat some things, that is perfectly natural and will reinforce those day to day things you may have once taken for granted, but which make you happy day after day. As you get into the swing of things you will find that you start to achieve a feel good factor. So much so that you will recall other things you are grateful for which means you are experiencing total empowerment of your mind, body and soul.

What this concept will do is create a world for you where you are always grateful. Scientists have stated that it takes twenty one days to form a habit, so to be sure that we instil the grateful habit, you can go one step further by adding on the extra two days. Grateful 23.

There is another reason for this. I need your help.

Can you help me to raise awareness of our charity Transformation for Veterans and raise the funds needed to build the 23 lodges on our first rural site? With your help we can raise the £150k needed to build the first lodge by November 2016.

Stay tuned and keep an eye out on social media for more updates. Then you can be kept informed on how to get involved and if you would like to take part and donate to our cause please contact me direct.

So just think how your life can be made even better by being Grateful 23 and also the way in which you can spread your joy to others too.

I look forward to learning how you are changing for the better and remember to let me know how you improve.