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Gratitude as an Attitude

This won’t be the traditional gratitude post where I only tell you to journal and recite stuff throughout the day so that you feel warm and fuzzy.

There’s nothing wrong with that stuff and it’s useful in supporting you but let’s look at play a bigger gratitude game.

What does it mean to be grateful?

“The state of being grateful; warm and friendly feeling toward a benefactor; kindness awakened by a favor received; thankfulness.”

The most common perspective of being grateful that I’ve had in the past, “…kindness awakened by a favor received.”

Now I’m not sure about you but many moons ago my perspective would have been, “Well who the hell is giving me something for me to have my kindness awakened?”

If your perspective is that your kindness has to be awakened by someone else, whether through a kind word, a gesture or a gift, then you’re warm and friendly feeling of being grateful would be dependent on something outside of yourself.

Your power to feel good about you and your  life as it stands, would lie outside of yourself and um, that kinda sucks.

My perspective of gratitude is not just being thankful for who or with what I may have in my life, it’s the act of expressing my gratitude that is the secret!

It’s probably a fact, although I’m not sure where to research it, that someone who is grateful for everything within, around and beyond their present life, already is probably a hell of a lot happier and healthier than someone who isn’t. You know why?

It’s because their gratitude is usually in action.

Seeding Gratitude

Gratitude takes nourishment.

Why wait for someone to give you the opportunity to feel grateful when you can start by providing it to yourself today?

Let me explain.

We as human beings have 6 primary drivers that none of us can live without. That’s why when someone say’s quit worrying about what others think of you, it falls on deaf spirit because quite frankly we’re built to experience love & connection. It’s a need!

The top 4 are needs of our personality and the last 2  are needs of the spirit:

  • Certainty
  • Uncertainty (variety)
  • Significance
  • Love & connection
  • To grow
  • Contribution

You and I need to know what we do matters (significance).

We want to fall in love and enjoy the process, not just the outcome that process may provide (uncertainty is a code word for variety).

We need to measure our progress as we do it so we are conscious of our (growth).

We need to feel (loved) as we do it by aligning ourselves with others who we have a connection with.

We need to feel that we (contribute) to something bigger than ourselves.

Finally we have the need to believe in something (certainty) because without it we don’t don’t feel safe or secure.

Questions To Ask Yourself

1. What if you acknowledged right now that you deserve to discover what it is you are meant to give away here in this life time?

Could you feel grateful?

2. Imagine if you acknowledged that who you are and what you’re doing right now in this very moment in time does matter to someone?

Could you feel grateful?

3. What if you made a decision right now to start enjoying the process of doing what matters most to you?

Could you feel grateful?

4. What if you acknowledged one person in your life today that you appreciate their presence in your life? (when you’re dong reading this call them)

Could you feel grateful?

5. What if you started believing with absolute certainty today that your life is a gift just as it is right now?

Could you feel grateful?

You have the power right now to feel grateful, empowered and inspired. You can start today to purposely and consciously align yourself with your primary needs. It’s a lot easier to accomplish when you know what they are. That’s something to be grateful for right?!  Ask questions that lead to feelings of immediate gratitude.

So this is where you write this stuff out everyday and remind yourself of what you’re grateful for. It’s easy to forget and writing in a gratitude journal makes a huge difference.

Gratitude In Action Is Giving

You can’t get past living average if you just constantly keep focused on where you’re screwed up. Somewhere along the line you have to make a decision to go somewhere other than where you’re at.

You have to focus on doing something much bigger with your life. You have to focusing on giving rather than getting.

In Wayne Dyers book Real Magic he mentions the 3 paths to Enlightenment

  • Enlightenment Through Suffering– You have a bad experience, you ask “why me” and you look back and go, “Oh ok I get why I had to go through that now.“
  • Enlightenment Through Outcome– You become aware of not not asking why, but now you ask, “Ok what am I going to learn from his?” You become goal oriented and you begin to seek joy from the outcome rather than through the experience.
  • Enlightenment Through Purpose– You align yourself with your life task. Something bigger than you are. This requires you to give away massive amounts of value in whatever way that looks to you.

You see the first two paths don’t completely suck however they both require you to get before you are grateful.

If you live the “I gotta get before I’m grateful” paradigm you’ll end up living dissatisfied, unhappy, unfulfilled and you’ll always have a little bit of emptiness and remorse in your life.

Through aligning yourself with your purpose you give away value and you cultivate your gratitude over and over. You’re not worried about the inequities of, “Am I getting as much as I’m giving?”

The more you give the more gratitude you seed and cultivate.

I’ll be getting more into these concepts and how to’s in the new book I’m working on From Fear to Freedom. The idea of focusing on a life well lived is your own personal freedom.

Surrender+Gratitude+Being Present

Surrendering to this idea of giving cultivates gratitude allows you to be fully present in the moment focusing on providing value to those around you in the form of products, services, support, coaching or whatever else primes your pump.

What about you?

How big could you play the game of life if your attitude of gratitude was fueled by giving away loads of value?

Leave your comments below.

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