Purim is approaching, and we have somebody in our Megillah named Haman. He has everything in the world. He has all the money, a big family, everything he possibly needs. And he only focuses on the one thing that he's lacking, which is the respect of Mordechai. And that makes him miserable. And that made him fall terribly from the high position he was in. So we see that by focusing on what you don't have, you can make yourself happy. You can make yourself terribly miserable. You need to focus on the so many things that you do have, and that will make your life ecstatic and exciting.
Now, Rabbi Miller says that Pirkei Avot says, Eizehu ashir, who is the rich person, the one who is happy with his lot, he is truly rich, the one that's happy with what he has. So how do you become happy with your lot? Rabbi Miller says, “How do you do it? You focus and you count your blessings.”
Now, somebody once told me that Rabbi Miller had more suffering in his life than most people. He had no suffering than most people, and still, he was such an excited person, always with a smile on his face. So when my friend told me this, I said, “You never would have guessed.” He told me, “It's all because he focused on what he does have. Instead of focusing on what you don't have, that will make your life or it will break your life.” It will make it or break it.
I saw a nice statement that said, “I don't fix my problems; I fix my thoughts, and my problems fix themselves.” So once you fix your thoughts, your problems automatically fix themselves.
So, to focus on what we do have, what are we going to do? At least twice a day, the program is that we are going to express our gratitude towards Hashem in whatever we're doing. For example, let's say we're in bed and we wake up in the morning. We're going to tell Hashem, “Thank you for this nice, big, comfortable bed, which makes me warm,” and add in lots of detail. That's number one scenario. Number two is when you're drinking your coffee. Say, “Hashem, it smells so nice, tastes so good, and has the power to relax me.” So those are two examples. We can figure out what's the same every situation. So at least two times a day, we're going to do this.
I myself started today when I was eating a pizza for lunch. And I was saying, “It's cheesy the way I like it. It's nice and salty, and the more the better.” If a person is able to do it more than two times, the more excitement he will put into his life. Thank you for having me speak. Have a great Purim. Purim Sameach.