You keep moving the finish line, and each time you cross one you feel about four minutes of relief before the next one appears.
Write down everything that is currently part of your life. Relationships, health, work, money, skills, qualities you have, experiences you have already had. Keep going past the obvious ones. The small things count: the coffee you like, the walk you take, the friend who answers.
write faster than you evaluate. The censoring voice that says "that hardly counts" is the exact voice this practice is built to interrupt.
Go back through your list. For every item, write the sentence out in full: "I desire and love the fact that I have this in my life."
The full sentence matters. "I am grateful for my health" leaves you outside it, looking in. "I desire my health" puts you back in the position of someone who wants something, except that this time you already have it.
skimming the list and thinking the sentence instead of writing it. The friction of writing it out is doing most of the work here.
Pause on each item long enough to feel something. Close your eyes if that helps. Picture what your week would look like without it, then open your eyes and notice that it is still there.
Some items will feel hollow. Leave them. They are telling you something you can look at later.
The first pass usually feels mechanical, and that is expected rather than a sign it is not working. Repeat it for a few days, shorter each time, five or six items instead of the whole list. You are looking for the moment the sentence stops being a formula and starts being true.
How did it feel to desire something you already own?
Which items appeared on your list that you had completely stopped noticing?
Which ones felt hollow when you said the sentence, and what does that tell you?
What would change in an ordinary Tuesday if you started it from this list instead of your to-do list?
Revisit this when you notice yourself striving hard and enjoying none of it, or at the start of any period where you are about to push for something new.
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Source Based on Rabbi Hyman Schachtel's maxim from The Real Enjoyment of Living (1954), later tested empirically by Jeff Larsen and Amie McKibban. Adapted by Mat Dufour.