Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Doug Gertner

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brook, that gratitude guy with another special guest on the gratitude

podcast interview. And today I have a good friend of mine, also known as the Grateful Dad, which

definitely connects with me as that gratitude guy. But met Doug, oh gosh, a dozen or so years ago

he's a great guy. We think very, very similarly. And so if you'd welcome to the podcast, Doug Gertner

Doug, how are you? Brooker, I've got no complaints. When I look at the state of the world, I realize I have so much to be

grateful for. That's a theme that you and I ping pong back and forth every day almost

And I'm well. Thanks for asking and thanks for inviting me here

You bet. You bet. So as we look at this sort of unprecedented aspect of the coronavirus COVID-19

what has been your best coping mechanism to kind of deal with this since this all started about five or six weeks ago

Well, you know, setting aside or just including the theme that brought you and I together

that my daily gratitude practice is the foundation, if you will, of my coping

I find that the basic sort of planning that I add to my day

My gratitude practice starts every day. The thing that I do right after I count my blessings by writing in my gratitude journal is to plan my day

And I do that, you know, almost seven days a week. And certainly during this, you know, sort of endless week that has turned into months that we'll see, you know, how long into this year we're going to need to really change our lives to stay safe and keep others safe

planning each day having a plan for it, something to look forward to knowing what I'm in for

has made me not just more sort of calm and satisfied, but frankly, you know, as hard as it might be

for some of us to stay motivated, it's helped me be more motivated and productive too

So what I end up doing on a daily basis is kind of knowing what's ahead from the time I get up

until the time I'm ready to go to bed. Great tip. And that being organized and treating it like a business day

somebody said something about, I remember the first few days, I didn't even take a shower

I just got to go into sweats and watch the TV on one of these podcasts

Somebody said, gosh, make sure you treat it like a business day and get up and take your shower and shave

put your clothes on, put your shoes on, and so forth. And that really helped. So that's been really good

So as gratitude is such a big part of your life and mine

as we know, have you noticed since this started, what are you most grateful for? Has it changed from what you were grateful for before this

Is it shifted as you've gone into this in terms of what you're really focused on with gratitude

I'd say it's added. For me, you know, I count my blessings daily and, you know, like you and I say

sometimes it's thankful. I mean, it's always grateful for things like my basic comfort and

and you know the good fortune I have to be healthy and to have a roof over my head and food on the table and you know that the water that comes out of the shower every day is hot and

you know, so much to be thankful for. And then I'm always grateful for, you know, the things that

happen during every day that make every day different. And while there's a certain, you know

sameness to my days, as I said, I'm in charge of planning that

which means I plan to have, you know, something different for dinner than I did last night

or do something a little bit different with my time as I'm working and connecting with people

and all the rest. But I do think that I'm adding to this daily gratitude with, you know

I don't think it's selfish gratitude to say I'm grateful that I have so far avoided

becoming a victim of the virus. Right. I'm grateful, certainly, that my loved ones are

And again, I'm grateful for, you know, a handmade mask. Nice. That someone was able to provide me with

And I'll be grateful tomorrow when I acquire my second handmade mask because it's a good

thing to have when I leave the house. So in a sense, I'm sort of adding layers of gratitude during this virus

I have a little more time, and I would say in some ways a lot. more to be thankful for even though days are not all that complex

Right, right. I like that layering. That's a good way to look at it as well. So knowing you as well as I do and the amount of balls that you juggle, you do a lot of

different things, you wear a lot of different hats and so forth, what would you say to the

person maybe that doesn't quite know as much to do? They're kind of housebound

There may be some thoughts or ideas around things that they can be doing during this sort

of downtime, if you will, by everybody's housebound. Well, let me address that if I could, Dave, by actually describing how I plan my day

And that will, I think, give us an opportunity then to think about how do I plug in some things to make my day more robust and more satisfying

I think of my day as an arc. I don't know, you know, how many stats classes you ever had to take

I took the minimum number of statistics classes and barely got through them

This is not about statistics, but the thing I learned, the thing I would marvel at in that

class was Professor Shaw would draw the normal curve, what is it called the bell curve

Right. And I can draw my day in that same arc. Oh, I like that. At one end, I label the, you know, six, seven, eight o'clock hour that I get up in

and then at the other end is the hour that, you know, I'm getting ready to retire

And there's hash marks along the arc for each hour of the day

And then I start to draw in. For instance, today has a part blocked out for the time I'm spending with you

I know that I'm not available to anyone else during that time. Right

Block in time for when I'm going to eat, when I've got a commitment

something that I may want to do for pleasure. you notice I at the other end of the arc here where I know at five six or seven o today that one of my favorite musicians is going to stream a live concert from their living room

There's still a lot of hours in the day. And what do I plug in there

More food preparation and healthier and more diverse food preparation than I might have

if I were more on the go. Nice. Physical stuff. I've already done yoga once today with a teacher live

And I'm going to meet up with that same teacher. in a Zoom class later for restorative yoga

something to kind of bring me down at the end of the day. I also found, by the way, if you don't have an online teacher

that my cable TV has great exercise classes. Oh, great. And, of course, I won't show you

but we've got going on seven inches of snow on the ground falling right now

so I won't be going out for a walk today. But I encourage folks, if you're not eating more and better

I mean, by more regularly and better. You don't have to eat more and exercising more

There's two great opportunities. And I plan it into a whole day that allows me chunks of time

whether it's to meet with a friend, to talk through stuff, or to work on my business, which is something I like to do

And, you know, let's be clear, there's social media to distract us at every turn

Absolutely. Absolutely. You mentioned, too, that you're down in Colorado. I'm up in Seattle and you've got six or seven inches of snow

We've got clear blue sky and no cloud. So it's not like a Seattle day, but just show us how the geography makes a difference

So a couple more questions. You're somebody, again, who does a lot of different things

What have you thought, Doug, so far about what you may do to so-called hit the ground running

where this ends? Because it's going to end. We don't know when. Maybe it's a vaccine

We're not quite sure how they're going to restart the country as they use. But have you thought of things that might be you're thinking of now in this so-called downtime that might be big things that you're going to start really with a bang when it does end

Well, very early on, you know, there's a refrain that I knew we would all start saying

And so I put quotation marks around it. That phrase being something to the effect of when this is all over, I'm going to

on the one hand, your question is a great one. And yes, I want to be planning and thinking ahead and hit the ground running

At the same time, I don't want to say, oh, when this is over, I just crave

Well, it's great to crave and I will get those cravings met, but I don't want to spiral into, oh, if only I had something that I can't have until I can

So I'm looking forward to those things that I really enjoy. and getting back to restaurants, to live music, the things I really enjoy

But what I'm thinking, Dave, is I'm laying the foundation. As I reach out to people who, in my case, I want to do business with as a seminar presenter

as you know, I do workplace seminars all around the region, I'm simply laying the groundwork and saying to folks

I have a catalog full of classes. Here my brand new catalog Take a look online seminar that I going to give to you for free Use it as you will And I think for me it really let plan now Let use the same planning that I do to make sure

that my days are somewhat prescribed and don't just get away from me. I'd like us, you know

to think about the future in terms of what are we prescribing for ourselves and let's make sure

that the future doesn't get away. So hitting the ground running, I think, is I'm laying that foundation again, just as I do

daily with my gratitude and my plan, I'm reaching out to folks

I'm letting folks know, you know, if June things open up or July, here's my available dates

Let's do business. Yeah, that's good. That's good. And I really like that

I love your bell curve, too. I've never thought about that terms

And that's really good. So that's neat. So last question, does Doug have sort of a mantra, a quote, a philosophy, or something that you would say kind of describes your approach to life, but certainly through something that has this level of unprecedentedness, if you will, sort of something that kind of represents your overarching view of things

You know, I think so many of us work for a living and sometimes, as you know, in my persona as the grateful day

one of the things that I always wanted to encourage other fathers was to not become so wrapped up

in their role as provider and breadwinner and the person who was supposed to bring home the

bacon that they lost sight of the fatherhood part of their job and the gift of being a father

So I was quoted once as saying, be grateful like it's your full-time job

And I think, you know, I just want people to remember that most of us are going to have a job for, you know, a while longer, even people looking at retirement, you know, or especially need to think in terms of what's next

All of us might feel a little bit retired, even though we're trying to work at our jobs as well

And so I come back to the thing that brought you and I together about gratitude

And I would just say be grateful like it's your full-time job, which is just really to do it every day and make sure you take it seriously, even though you might do it with a lighter heart and a more open heart

So there you have it. Be grateful like it's your full-time job

I like that. And I think, too, if you were to make a list of all the things that Doug Gertner has accomplished in his life

if I put down all my list of things and hopefully it's a long list and made a big contribution to a lot of things

at the top of the list, it's never changed is the thing I'm the proudest of is being a father

And so that's the grateful dad. And that's what's so neat about it. It's just you and I share that

And I don't know if you and I'd have the same. Well, I don't know for sure. We wouldn't have the same relationship if one of us hadn't had kids

It just makes such a big difference. So, well, as I'm not surprised at all, some tremendous tips, including the bell curve, which is my favorite among many

So, but thank you so much, Doug. I really appreciate you being on the podcast

Thanks for having me, Dave. You bet