When you consider how everything around looks, how the economy is, the state of the nation, the state of your own personal life and how everything sometimes feel like an uphill battle, it’s not do difficult to lose sight of the important things.
One of those things is gratitude.
I made it a habit to always write down something I’m grateful for in my daily journal entry but after reading a couple of books, I realised that there is a difference between writing down something you are grateful for and actually feeling grateful for that thing.
You could look at your life and have the head knowledge that you have a family that loves you while some don’t have that privilege, and you know you should be grateful for that, you might say you are grateful for that, but it’s not the same as actually feeling that gratitude flow though you. It’s not the same as living that gratitude.
John F. Kennedy said, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
I recently finished a book by Oliver Sacks, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical Tales” and couldn’t help but realise how ungrateful I have been.
I have problems. But on the scale of problems, they do not weigh enough to tip the scale significantly. People have problems.
Look at the human body for example, if you knew how much diseases and sicknesses and disorders exist, you would be grateful for every headache you’ve had and every fever, knowing that they are nothing more than that, and that they would pass. Some people have incurable diseases. Some people are born blind, some are epileptic and have to live with seizures everyday. Not just that, some people are born idiot savants. They don’t get to choose this, they can’t just take drugs and feel better. They are confined to that life. Some people have lived through hell, the kind of hell you can only read about and shake your head, but you can’t fully understand because you don’t have to live through.
But you know the crazy thing? Some of these people who have lived through impossible conditions and some who are living through it have come to accept these things and still find reasons to be grateful.
You have real reasons to be grateful and it’s not enough to say you are grateful or to know those reasons, you have to live it. You have to BE grateful. You are required to embody gratitude as a lifestyle in order to really tell yourself and the world that you are indeed grateful.
Brian Tracy said, “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
Most times we are where we are because we can’t see beyond what we are in. We believe we have it worst of all and no one understands what we are going through.
Okay, maybe no one really does, but what does it matter? You don’t understand half of what others are dealing with too. Everyone’s got a burden to bear. That is not an excuse to dig yourself deeper into whatever situation you are in.
Maybe you are thinking, if only I can have such and such, if only I can have this big break, I’ll be forever grateful. Tony Robbins said, “Trade your expectations for appreciation and the world changes instantly.”
Gratitude is a token you pay to access something greater than what you have now. It is a key that unlocks the door to happiness. It is the light that shines around you to see the beauty and opportunity around you, beyond that very situation you are in.
You can be anything, just don’t be ungrateful. It is the illest thing you can do as a living person. Be grateful for everything–not just the good things, EVERYTHING. Then watch as the world changes before you.
According to Melody Beattie, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
That big break you are looking for is just on the other side of gratitude. So remember today, tomorrow and everyday that to show that you are grateful, you have to BE grateful.
