For nearly nine years, I’ve started my mornings by writing down five things I’m grateful for. It’s one of my favorite habits. But this spring and summer, life got hard, and one morning I realized five wasn’t going to cut it.

So I did something a little extreme. I started writing down 100.

In this episode, I’m sharing what happened when I took my gratitude practice further than I ever had. I also talk about the meditation practice that helped me get there and a morning tea ritual I borrowed from a woman in The Connect. Then we look at what the research says about gratitude, and why I believe it’s one of the stepping stones to joy.

Because joy isn’t something you wait for until everything is perfect. JOY is the strategy. Not the consolation prize.

🔑 3 Key Takeaways:

1.Gratitude Changes Where Your Attention Goes

• When life feels heavy, our attention drifts toward what’s going wrong and what we’re trying to fix.
• Writing 50 to 100 gratitudes a day brought my attention back to what was already working.
• The hard thing didn’t go away. It just lost its front-row seat in my mind.

1. You Don’t Have to Wait Until Life Is Perfect to Choose Joy
• As ambitious women, we’re wired to look at what’s next.
• The life you’re living today is one your younger self once dreamed about.
• Gratitude brings you back to what you already have.
2. Your Practice Can Grow With You
• My five-a-day practice has served me for nearly nine years, and it was still okay to change it when I needed more.
• You can write your gratitudes, speak them into your morning tea, or simply pause and notice. Showing up matters more than the format.
• Gratitude makes room for joy, even in seasons of uncertainty or grief.

🔎 Mentioned in the Episode:

• The Extreme Gratitude Practice: my practice of writing 50 to 100 things I’m grateful for each day when five no longer felt like enough.
• Transcendental Meditation: the meditation practice that helped quiet my mind and bring more clarity.
• Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough’s 2003 gratitude study: research on gratitude journaling and its effects on well-being.
• The morning tea ritual: inspired by a woman in The Connect, I now speak my gratitudes into my tea before I drink it.
• The Extreme Gratitude Practice 30-Day Program: my new program and workbook. Join the waitlist and get one day free. https://www.loripine.com/extreme-gratitude-waitlist 

✨ Reflection Prompts:

• What are five things you’re grateful for today?
• What would happen if you pushed yourself to find 50, or even 100?
• What would your younger self be amazed to see in your life right now?
• When life gets uncomfortable, where does your attention go first?
• What small daily ritual could bring more gratitude into your mornings?
• What would it look like to choose joy before everything is sorted out?

🧠 Who This Episode Is For:

• Ambitious corporate women who are always focused on what’s next.
• Leaders walking through a hard season while still showing up for everyone else.
• Women who already have a gratitude practice and sense it’s ready to grow.
• High achievers who want more joy and perspective in their everyday lives.

📩 Want to Go Deeper?

If this episode inspires you to explore your own gratitude practice, I'd love to do it alongside you.

• Explore Lori's coaching, retreats, and community at loripine.com.
• Join the waitlist for Lori's Extreme Gratitude Practice, a 30-day program with a workbook. You'll receive one day of the practice for free when you sign up. https://www.loripine.com/extreme-gratitude-waitlist 
• Follow Lori on LinkedIn or Instagram to continue the conversation.

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