I Can Appreciate That by  Steven Crane: A Review

“”I Can Appreciate That” toes the line of different genres. I … appreciated (pun intended) … that it doesn’t read at all like a self-help book, though it definitely sparks some internal dialogue and reflection about how one can become a less surly person. It touches on religion and spirituality – topics that are usually a huge repellent for me – without sounding even remotely preachy or sanctimonious” – Krista K

“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” –  Helen Keller.

It’s amazing how a little perspective can radically change your life.

Just a little nudge here, a little nudge there, and maybe the bad isn’t as bad as you think. It’s.

That is what Steven Crane learned in, as he says, marinating his brain and gratitude and appreciation for a year

that the way you view life, the lens in which you view it through changes everything about how you perceive through it. Radically.

Several years ago when I first started my podcast and I first started doing interviews, one of the things I decided, and this is in season 2, 2021, I had only done the first season, was I think

16 or 20 episodes. My first season, I started late in 2020, in September of 2020 as a solo show on my podcast, which was thing called the Fallow of Man. In 2021, I decided that I would start doing interviews as well. When I decided I would start doing interviews, one of the things I decided was with authors.

I would insist on reading the book before I would do the interview as a standard. That way I could ask good questions actually. And well, for lack of a better term, not talk out my ass about this book and pretend that I understood what the author was trying to do

in early 2021. Or I met Steven Crane, who is the author of the book that we’re reviewing today called, I Can Appreciate that.

Now, you guys all know that.  I read a lot of books. I read a lot of books for my various podcasts. I read a lot of books personally and as I’ve been doing reviews here on the site, one of the things I’m trying to do is start with books that have had profound impacts on my life.

And Steven Crane’s book, I can appreciate that is definitely one of them. From the perspective of a person who thought that I was pretty good at practicing gratitude in my life, I learned so much reading his book. I can appreciate that the byline is replacing negative space with the hidden blessings of challenge, which right off the bat makes you understand that.

Steven wasn’t talking about just appreciating things. They come easily in the good times. In fact, the book shares some incredibly painful stories as he experimented with this. Now, for all of you on the too long didn’t listen list. Here’s the short version. I can appreciate that as a game changer. It is a five star book that is my priority, is sharing books that I believe will have the most impact on your life and make your life better when I do these reviews.

So spoiler alert guys, all the ones I actually bothered to sit down and do a review on are probably gonna be five star books because. These are the ones that I’ve experienced that have had profound impact on my life, and I believe they’ll have the same kind of profound impact on your life. This went to the point where I’ve actually not only read the book and appreciated it myself.

I’ve actually maintained my relationship with Steven and promoted his book several other times.

The show since I interviewed him back in 2021. Now, for all of you who wanted to catch the interview, it’s season two, episode 27. It was released July 7th, 2021 in season two. So if you’d like to experience the interview with Steven, I will try and put a link in that, because the older episodes are not on the website.

The website I had them on is finally closed. I’ve closed it after half a year of having the new website for business purposes. So you’ll have to catch this either on YouTube, where you can find it on my YouTube channel, or you can find it on any podcast platform if you wanna catch the podcast.

Where I actually talked to Steven about his book and went in depth on this, but I’ve actually promoted this book more than once because the proceeds from I can appreciate that go to fighting Cancer. So Steven’s got a good, good mission with it as well. Now gratitude is one of those things that, so that’s the short version, guys.

Great book. It helps fight cancer with the proceeds from the cells of the book. And guys, it will absolutely change your perspective on living with gratitude. That’s the short version. There you go. Five stars. Bye-bye. See you later. Now, for all of you who actually want a real review on this book, that’s what we’re gonna do now.

Epictus one said “He’s a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has now”

That is a prelude to what’s to come, guys, because Steven experienced this firsthand, but I’m jumping the gun. So I can appreciate that was written by Steven Crane in, I believe, yeah.

2021, early 2021. I actually caught him early in his book tour. It hadn’t been out very long when I did the interview with him

and it was, it was an incredibly insightful book. It came about because his son challenged him.

His 15-year-old called him out for being a pessimist. Now, as all of his pessimists, like to say, we’re realist, not pessimist, uh, which sounds nicer than pessimist, but that, that’s how Steven saw himself as a realist, right? His son, his 15-year-old, called him out and seen it as something very different. He said, you’re always so negative.

You always see the glass half empty

and challenge him like you know, for once, can you like look at the positive side of things. And it really was upsetting for dad to have his hosting year old call him out on this. And so he committed to spending a year in gratitude and appreciation. Now, unbeknownst to him, what a year. guys, that was 2020, Steven spent most of 2020 or if not all of 2020, marinating his brain and gratitude and appreciation.

And so he picked one of the most difficult years universally for all of us in recent memory. To dive into learning to approach all things with gratitude, but that gratitude colors things radically.

I thought I was a grateful person. I really did. Until I read Steven’s memoir in the process of this book. Steven shares multiple stories and I highly encourage you guys to read it, but he experienced the passing of his sister in 2020 not from that, but from other things. And he experienced the loss.

He was a little league coach, uh, the young man who was associated with the team that he coached, who had a terminal illness. And greatly impacted his team, but through this whole thing he had committed to, I’m going to live life through the filter of appreciation. One of the profound things that comes out early in this book is a lot of people do not understand that appreciation has multiple definitions. We frequently just. Use the word interchangeably with gratitude without fully understanding what appreciation means.

It’s not exactly the same thing as being grateful. It is not entirely interchangeable, but as Steven was seeking to understand appreciation, he had to dig into what it actually means and how it actually looks. Because that is part of the filter that changes your perspective when you understand what it is to truly appreciate something.

So aside from the four definitions, Steven lays it out. I’m gonna share this directly from the book. This is on page 10, understanding how I can appreciate that. Now that we have our definitions of appreciate, let’s put them to work for this exercise. It helps to boil them down even further. So here’s the simple framework or series of filters through which we can view any situation to fully appreciate it.

Step one: Acknowledgement – I see it.

Step two: Understanding – I get it.

Step three: Thanksgiving – I’m grateful for it.

Step four: Increasing it – I’ll grow what I’ve got.

These are all based on the four definitions of the word appreciate, and that’s what I mean. It changes the filter in which you see the world. Once you understand that to appreciate something, it means you have to grow it. You have to actually see it, get it, understand, like fully understand it. We see how it starts to change the lens of not just being gratitude, but appreciation is not just a passing word.

Steven is a copywriter so he likes words. But what he observed through the four definitions of the word appreciate is they actually form a pathway. They are an active pathway to how to process and filter things.

The book will make you reexamine how you process the world. Like I said, I thought I was a person who was fairly grateful not just for the obvious things, like I, I really thought of my, per myself as a person who approached the world with gratitude.

I did not realize. How much room I had to grow in my ability to appreciate things just like God expects us to multiply our gifts, our talents, that’s part of the instruction in the Bible. Appreciating something the same way. Do you appreciate your spouse? We would all mostly say, yes, we appreciate our spouse, but what are we doing to grow that relationship? What are we doing to evolve the value of that relationship? Do you really understand her? Do you really take the time to listen and understand and see the world through her perspective?

Do you really see her in everything she does in your life? Do you see the little things she does for you? Do you see the efforts she makes? Like do you actually see her as a relationship coach? This is one of the things that I I see with couples that gets missed so often. We say we love our spouse, but do we, do we appreciate them?

Do we see them? Do we really get them? Are we actually grateful for them? And what are we doing to grow that? Right? This framework can be applied to so much more in life, and that’s what Steven did. Passing through a very difficult year with the world going crazy, and the loss of a sibling and the loss of a child associated with his team and helping the young boys on his team process through that, appreciating our wife, while often neglected is a low hanging fruit example.

• Can you appreciate losing the job?
• Can you appreciate the financial difficulties?
• Can you appreciate it in your life when that person you cared about passes away like Steven had too?

These aren’t surface questions. They aren’t easy questions. So if like me, you find yourself looking at life and going, Hmm,

I think I’m a grateful person. I think I practice gratitude well. Well, may I offer the idea that. Just like in most areas of our lives, you and I both have room to grow.

If you are ready to challenge yourselves, to really grow in your gratitude, guys, this is the way. Check out the book. I can appreciate that by my buddy Steven Crane.

You’re supporting a great cause, but really the biggest cause you’re supporting is yourself. It will take you on a journey to new depths of gratitude and new depths of gratitude will a hundred percent change the way you see the world. I started out with a quote about I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no, had no feet.

Gratitude will change your life.

And a lot of us, I know, if you listen to me, probably tried to live a life of gratitude and I really thought I had a good handle on it.

My understanding of appreciation. The depth of my ability of gratitude and the way I approach even the hard times in my life changed drastically after reading this book.

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness” – Dalai La.

Guys check it out. I Can Appreciate That: : Replacing negative space with the hidden blessings of challenge by Steven Crane

I promise it’ll take you on a journey you won’t forget anytime soon.

Thanks for joining us for another review, guys. I hope this helps. See you later.

My Interview With Steven Crane