Lesson from a Christmas Song: “Count Your Blessings”

Tagalog Version (Click Here)

If there’s one lesson about goal setting and visualization that I keep forgetting, it’s remembering to do them at night before going to bed. I just recently found out that there was an old song about it called “Count your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” by Irving Berlin (also sung by Jose Mari Chan) and that it’s traditionally played during Christmas season. It was quite a coincidence that I heard it playing at a coffee shop last Sunday (Sep. 24*), and thanks to that I managed to think up this lesson for you today.

*That’s because Christmas season in the Philippines starts in September.

Read the lyrics for the song and the rest of the lesson here:

“Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” by Irving Berlin

When I’m worried and I can’t sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small

I think of when I had none at all

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads

And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

So if you’re worried and you can’t sleep

Count your blessings instead of sheep

And you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings

This is a very important lesson. Instead of worrying or complaining about your problems and troubles all night, try counting your blessings and all the good you’ve received in life!

Jack Canfield, the author of The Success Principles and the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series said that you should “set aside at the end of the day—just before going to sleep—to acknowledge your successes, review your goals, focus on your successful future, and make specific plans for what you want to accomplish the next day.”

It’s because everything you do and think about at the last 45 minutes of your day before bed “will get processed up to six times more often than anything else your experienced during the day.” Canfield also mentioned that it’s why watching a late night horror movie can give you nightmares or why cramming for tests the night before might work.

Orison Swett Marden, the author of Prosperity: How to Attract It also taught the same thing in that book. He said that “the interior creative forces are more active during the night than in the day time, and especially susceptible to the suggestions they receive before we fall asleep.”

He mentioned that we should not fall asleep in a doubting or despondent mood because doubt is a “great enemy” that’s “killed the success of multitudes of people”. We still have control over our thoughts, so why not prevent potential disaster from happening in the first place, right?

Remember the lesson here before you go to sleep tonight.

Count your blessings, visualize your goals, and think about your prosperous future. Try thinking about these questions later tonight:

What are you thankful for in life?

What good, no matter how small, did you accomplish today?

What do you want to accomplish tomorrow?

What do you want to accomplish 5 years from now?

What are your biggest goals in life? What would your life be like if you completed them all?

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