The Abundance of Gratitude

“Consciously give thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life.  The more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.”

Sarah Ban Breathnack

Gratitude can be a powerful force in our life if we allow it to be.  Those who are grateful receive extra strength to endure, find peace, and enjoy abundance in their life.  Unfortunately, too many of us are too spoiled to give thanks and we fail to slow down and see all the good that exists in our lives.  Being ungrateful or simply lacking gratitude is a human tragedy because of how it robs each of us of the satisfaction and happiness we could otherwise enjoy. 

Sincere gratitude is a powerful force that doesn’t hurt, cost money, or require great sacrifice.  It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what you are doing, or whether you deserve it or not.  The power of gratitude is always available to all of us, all of the time.  And why we all don’t take full advantage of it is hard for me to comprehend however I know I am probably guiltier than most at failing to be grateful! 

If we can learn to live with an attitude of gratitude always, abundance will increase in our life, we will be happier, and we will have a greater chance to reach our full potential and bless the lives of others.  I believe when we abundantly give thanks, we are abundantly blessed. 

I hope each of us has a wonderful, and most especially a highly grateful Thanksgiving Day!  And let us be grateful always...        

Underestimators

I must confess, I am an understimator.  Nearly every day I underestimate the impact of everything I do, say, hear, and see.  I walk around believing very few things have much of a lasting effect on me but I know better.  Today is my confessional.  I am wrong and I confess that I am an understimator.  To be honest, you probably are too. 

Instead of underestimating, we must accept the fact that we are influenced by everything.  Whether we believe it or not, we are, it’s true.  The thoughts we have, the words we say, the people we hang out with, the things we are involved in, the media and entertainment we choose to listen to and participate in all impact our life.  It is impossible for it not to.  Being underestimators can be dangerous and can have a negative impact on our life.  Though extremely difficult, we must do our best to overcome this innate flaw.  

Now it’s true that some of these things may more heavily influence us than others but that doesn’t change the fact that everything has some sort of impact.  I’ve heard many times the famous words “if I do it just once it won’t hurt” or “occasionally participating in this is not a big deal” or “it is ok for me to be around these type of people because I will never become like them.” The truth is, it just might hurt and it can very well be a big deal, and most likely you will become much more like them than you may want to admit.  It is hard to decipher or measure just how much things impact us but I can tell you they do.  We are impacted by everything around us—it shapes us, changes us, and effects who we are as a person.  This is the bottom line and there is no reason to deny it anymore. 

So what do we do?  Though we are not in complete control of everything around us, we do control a lot.  And of those things we do control, we need to always make sure it is things that will uplift us and help us to be better people. 

I have to confess something else.  I’m also an overestimator and you may be too.  I overestimate my personal strength and ability to overcome and withstand being negatively influenced by things that surround me.  I allow those negative thoughts to fester about my spouse thinking “it is ok this one time, I have a right and she really ticked me off today”, only to find myself with real and strong bitter feelings toward her all created on my own.  To my dismay some inappropriate commentary that I casually listened to on my drive in to work that I knew was probably below my values is now replaying over and over again in my head disrupting my concentration on an important project. Disappointingly I find myself losing my temper with my children over silly things, something I’ve observed others do and vowed I’d never do myself. Shockingly, I hear myself use the same inappropriate and offensive language that my closes friends use whenever we get together after I had assured myself I would never go there…  Yep, it is true, I am an underestimator and an overestimator too. 

We are influenced by the world around us and what we allow ourselves to think, say, hear, see, and do has an effect on us.  It is unavoidable.  And I have yet to meet a person who is completely immune and strong enough to withstand completely the negativity that surrounds us.  It is true, we will never be able to always avoid “bad influences”, it is simply part of living but being vigilant and putting ourselves in the best possible places to succeed will really help us.  We do control a lot—how and where we spend our time, who we associate with, what we say, think, and do. Rather than underestimating the impact of things around us and overestimating our personal strength to withstand, we should try to do the reverse.  If we can exaggerate the impact the negative in our lives will have on us, and underestimate our personal will to overcome, we will put ourselves in a better place to reach our potential.  This is not easy to do, but I know the best of us can do it.      

2 Simple Things to Make Us Happier in Life

There are many ways to be happier in life.  Most boil down to simple things that can have a profound positive impact in our life.  One such strategy I heard the other day is to simply retell the stories of our positive moments in life as well as our stories of our ability to bounce back from difficult ones.  This act alone can help us succeed the duration of our lifetime.  

Reflecting on the positive and telling stories of our positive moments will do two things for us.   First, when we talk about the positive, we automatically feel more positive the moment we are speaking about it.  It is nearly impossible to retell a positive story and somehow feel negative about life at that same moment.  Therefore reflecting on the positive will make us almost automatically more positive.  Second, when we reflect on the positive, I believe we attract more positive things in to our life.  Often simply retelling positive stories will help us look for them and we will become more aware that they are all around us.  

Retelling stories of our ability to bounce back from difficult times will do a few things for us as well.  First, it will give us the courage and confidence we need to move forward in life as we are reminded that we can overcome hard things.  When life throws us a curve ball, we will know we can successfully handle it because we have in the past.  Second, it will help others who are facing challenges or difficulties know they can conquer them too.  When we tell stories about the difficult things we’ve bounced back from, it gives all who hear it hope.  

These two simple acts, retelling the stories of our positive moments in life and retelling the stories of how we have bounced back from difficult ones will provide balance and sustain us and help us thrive for in life.  This is a simply strategy that can help pave a pathway to success and increased happiness in life.  Stories are powerful reminders in our lives.  We all love good stories and we are all shaped by them.  I encourage all of us to be story tellers, if not for our own benefit, than at least for the benefit of those around us.