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Hal Urban's book, "Life's Greatest Lessons, 20 Things That Matter," is a special book to give as a birthday gift to a teen. This little jewel, originally self-published as "20 Things I Want My Kids To Know," is now a best-seller.

As stated in the book, Urban's topics, gathered from a lifetime of teaching both teens and adults, span a wide range of understandable concepts, including attitudes about money, understanding the real meaning of success and the importance of having fun."

My favorite chapter is: "Being Thankful Is A Habit - The Best One You'll Ever Have." While teaching Urban would ask his students to practice thankfulness by practicing an exercise: go 24 hours without complaining. The important part of the exercise was the discussion that followed when students' reflections fell into two categories: how much we complain and how little we really have to complain about.

This discussion would lead Urban to invite his students to identify on one page in three different columns the things, people and other items for which they were thankful. After creating their lists, students were asked to read their own list four times in 24 hours before returning to class. Over the years of doing this exercise and having a follow-up discussion in class, the kids always revealed an insight they discovered from their two-part lesson: "When we focus on what's right instead of what's wrong, life improves considerably."

Years ago, someone told me it's important to find the good and praise it. This adage, if practiced daily, is like a vitamin that breathes happiness and meaning into one's life. Yes, it's easy to wallow in our gutter of complaints, finding endless disfavor with the behavior, ideas, and motivations of others. In contrast, how extraordinarily invigorating it is for our emotional outlook to find and then acknowledge the good in others.

The outcome of such thinking and action helps build a muscle of thankfulness that is invaluable to the lives of children, youth and adults.

You just might want to try out Urban's lesson on thankfulness. I promise you, it won't be painful.