Maybe you've heard: giving thanks makes you feel happier and more fulfilled. There are at least 7 scientifically proven benefits to practicing the “attitude of gratitude”. And right now, as we enter the Thanksgiving Holiday season, the media is filled with heartwarming stories of all we should be thankful for.

Today, I'm going to suggest you be thankful for the bad stuff. The challenges. The tragedies. The pain.

In today's show, we'll discover:

• The shocking truth about suicide rates during the holidays.
• The 3 dangers of “counting your blessings”.
• The 7 scientifically proven benefits of  gratitude.
• The 5 unconventional times to practice thankfulness.
• How the attitude of gratitude makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise.
• Why you can be thankful for the trials, and not just through them.
• Plus, I'll share a tip for how to get your podcast ranked higher in iTunes, quick and easy.

Spiritual Foundations

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
– James 1:2-8

All those things that seem to oppose our goals are actually the raw material for achieving them.
– Dan Sullivan

You can be thankful for trials, and truly count it all joy, not because God is teaching you a lesson, but because when approached with faith, trials always lead to victory. God doesn't cause everything, but He can use everything.

Tip Of the Week

How do you get your podcast ranked higher in iTunes? It comes down to 2 key factors, according to my buddy Cliff Ravenscraft:

1. Recent new subscribers in iTunes, using the Apple Podcast App.
2. Recent new downloads in iTunes, using the Apple Podcast App.

It is my opinion that high star ratings and favorable reviews somehow factor into the equation as well.

Feature Segment:
5 Unconventional Times To Practice Thankfulness (How The Attitude Of Gratitude Makes You Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise)

This is is season for bloggers and podcasters to roll out their “Thanksgiving posts”. And I do believe we all have a lot to be thankful for.

Of course, it's easy to be thankful when you live in a nice warm house, are privileged to indulge in gluttony, and watch multi-million dollar entertainment spectacles piped into your home virtually free of charge. Especially if you're healthy, and are in the top 10% of the world's wealthiest people.

Before you argue that last point, let me assure you that if you live in any modern country, especially in the USA or Canada, you almost certainly are. Check for yourself. I'll wait.

Just in case you didn't check, according to the Global Rich List website, if you make $14,000 per year in the USA, you're in the top 9.52% of the richest people in the world by income. So get grateful.

The Shocking Truth About Suicide Rates During The Holidays

Normally, this is where a blogger or podcaster would tell you about suicide rates surging up dramatically during the holidays. The convetinal wisdom is that we should exercise great discipline in being thankful during this time of year, because otherwise, we may, like so many, slip into depression.

The problem with this is that it's simply wrong.

Suicides do not go up during the holidays. They are, in fact, at their lowest rates of the year. But don't just take my word for it: The Health Central website says:

There is a well known reduction in the suicide rate on major public holidays (including non-religious). Many studies in different Western countries have found the drop is even more pronounced during the Christmas to New Year's stretch.  Read the whole article here.

The Wall Street Journal looked into this a few years ago, and their conlusion is that suicides dip in the winter, and peak in the spring. They back it up with solid reearch:

Studies from around the world suggest the key factor is climate, rather than the calendar. In the U.S. from 1999 to 2004, the six highest months in terms of suicides per day were March through August, not in that order, with a peak in July, according to my analysis of numbers provided by the CDC. (The seasonal variation isn’t extreme; the daily averages range from 76.3 suicides in December to 87.6 in July.) Other northern hemisphere countries such as Switzerland and Lithuania exhibit the same trend as the U.S. Suicide rates rise in England and Wales on hotter days, according to a study this year. In Singapore, near the equator, there was little seasonal effect. In the southern hemisphere, suicide rates peak in December. Climate’s role isn’t totally understood; some researchers have linked suicide’s seasonality to the amount of sunshine.

What do we conclude? One obvious possibility is that becuase people are practicing gratitude more intetionally during the holidays, they are less likely to kill themselves. So that's a big point in favor of “the attitude of gratitude”. However, don't skip this next part, because I want you to know…

The 3 Surprising Dangers Of “Counting Your Blessings”

1. Denial and gratitude are not the same thing. If you're swimming in the alligator tank, all the gratitude in the world is unlikely to keep you from being some lizard's dinner.
2. Giving thanks only for the “good stuff” can bottle up poisonous thinking and emotions. It suppresses, refuses to deal with, and thereby strengthens, the power of unresolved pain.
3. Your glib attiude and lack of empathy can hurt other people. You must be sensitive to what is happening with the people around you.

Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.
Proverbs 27:14

A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
Proverbs 18:14

The 5 Unconventional Times To Practice Thankfulness

1. When you a depressed.
2. When you are lonely.
3. When you are ill.
4. When you lose someone you love.
5. When tragedy strikes.

How has “the attitude of gratitude” helped you deepen your faith… how has it make you healthier, wealthier, and wiser?

How To Help

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript now. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.

When it comes to productivity, there is no shortage of advice. The problem is it's often the same advice, repackaged with a bright new wrapper. Nothing new inside.

And there's no problem with that. Often, we need to hear the same advice presented differently, at different periods in our life, before it “clicks” and we finally “get” it. But sometimes, we need something truly different, something that rises above the normal, and begins to look more like a revolution than an evolution.

Today's “7 Shocking Productivity Hacks” may not seem new at first, but the extremes to which I will advise you to take these measures is, at least, something outlandishly more radical than what most would recommend. When you listen to today's show, you'll discover:

• How you can finally conquer your overflowing email inbox, once and for all, guaranteed. For free.
• The devastatingly effective method that ensures you never receive another unwanted phone call.
• A radical, but powerful method for getting rid of “dead weight” friends and acquaintances who are dragging you down… without making them feel judged, and without hurting their feelings.
• The almost magical technique to prevent writer's block, plus multiply your creativity, energy, and productivity by a factor of at least 7 … maybe 10.
• How to eliminate – totally and permanently – the #1 way other people waste your time.
• How to slash unwanted interruptions, meetings, and junk mail from your life, with one simple, bold “directive.”
• The single sentence (that you will come up with) that will erase any excuse you have for wasting a single minute of your time on someone else's priorties, for the rest of your life.
• How God can set you free from self-destructive habits,
• Plus, I'll share a resource that helps you improve your marketing.
• That's all comin' up on this week's show!

Spiritual Foundations

If you're breathing, you are tempted by various kinds of self-destrcutive behavior. It may be overeating, drinking, drugs, sex … or seemingly “lesser” sins like compulsive gaming TV watching, or even being “grumpy” all the time. God will set you free from these and any other self-destructive behavior, also known by the less popular term, “sin”. How do we know this?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
-Romans 8:1

Don't get tripped up if your Bible says, “who do not walk accoirding to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Some translations, such as the New King James, include that line but it isn't in the oldest, most reliable Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. (NOTE: Sean thought it might be a good idea for me to point out that not everyone agrees that those are the most reliable manuscripts…. I explain more about this in the show.)

Now. Back to our topic – that verse. Notice the tense: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

So don't get all filled with guilt when you are tempted to sin. Just don't engage in the self-destructive behavior. Having the thought is not a sin. Acting on it is. As it was explained once to me: “You can stop birds from landing in the tree, but you can stop them from building a nest.”

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is inside you now, and that means you have the power of Christ to resist the temptation. And lest you fall into a “shame spiral”, just remember that even when you do give in, when you fail, you are still “the righteousness of God” in Christ. And there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As you become more aware of how Jesus has cloaked you in His righeousness, and you see more of the Spirit living in you, you will not keep on sinning. You will not keep up the habits that destroy you. You have the power to “go and sin no more” – but only after you experience the reality of His Grace.

Tip Of the Week

Get your tickets early for Social Media Marketing World 2016. I'll be speaking there this time around, and right now you can save a lot of money on your ticket.

• April 17-19
• San Diego, California
• Networking party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier.
• You’ll choose from 100+ expert-led sessions and workshops in multiple social media marketing tracks (you get access to all).
• Mari Smith, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Mark Schaefer,Michael Stelzner, Jay Baer, Brian Solis, Amy Porterfield, Michael Hyatt, Cliff Ravenscraft, John Lee Dumas, Joel Comm, Pat Flynn, Chris Ducker, Dan Miller… and so many more!
• Great information, inspiration, and motivation … in a no-pitch zone!

I want to “storm the gates” with our own little cohort. See you there?

Feature Segment: 7 Shocking Productivity Hacks

1. Delete your email account. (How you can finally conquer your overflowing email inbox, once and for all, guaranteed. For free.)
2. Change your phone number. (The devastatingly effective method that ensures you never receive another unwanted phone call.)
3. Move to a different city. (A radical, but powerful method for getting rid of “dead weight” friends and acquaintances who are dragging you down… without making them feel judged, and without hurting their feelings.)
4. Don't share your email address, phone number, and mailing address. (To anyone. How to bring unwanted interruptions, meetings, and junk mail from your life, with one simple, bold “directive.”)
5. Never return another phone call. (How to eliminate – totally and permanently – the #1 way other people waste your time.)
6. Stop consuming content. (The almost magical technique to prevent writer's block, plus mutliply your creativity, energy, and productivity by a factor of at least 7… maybe 10.)
7. Ask the “desert island” question. (The single sentence that you will come up with that will erase any excuse you have for wasting a single minute of your time on someone else's priorties, for the rest of your life.)

Do you have some ‘shocking produdctivity hacks' of your own?

How To Help

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript now. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.

Would you like the closest thing to a “silver bullet” when it comes to marketing your business? Here it is: tell good stories.

But you must tell them in a very specific way, or this tactic can backfire. Fear not! This week I'm having a conversation with Donald Miller, who knows how to tell a great marketing story. Don shares some of his very best techniques with us in this interview. You'll learn…

• How Don discovered the power of story to sell products.
• The single most important character in your marketing story.
• How to use story in your marketing to sell more of … virtually anything at all.
• And much, much more.

The Storybrand Online Workshop

Click here to find out more about the “no-travel-required” online version of Don's Storybrand workshop.

How To Help

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript now. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.

Does you marketing make it past the trash can (or the delete key)? Probably not. Here's how to fix that.

• 5 Ways To Have Your Customers Want To Receive Your Marketing
• Why I Take Communion Every Day.
• Why we say stupid things… and how to stop!
• And much, much more.

How To Help

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript now. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.