What is gratitude?

Gratitude means living your life with a grateful attitude.

There are two ways to approach life and the blessings in it. You can look at your life and blessings as your right or as something that other people have played a role in securing you. The approach you take determines your capacity for gratitude.

The so-called self-made men have difficulty expressing gratitude because they believe that everything they have was worked for by them and they therefore owe no one any gratitude. Such people disregard the efforts and contributions of the people they have met on their way to the top. Whether you like it or not, people have been there in one capacity or another to help you make your life what it is today. That word of advice you received when you weren’t too sure which way to turn might look like nothing much today but when that person gave it to you, it changed the trajectory of your life.

The bible has an interesting phrase where St. Paul asks ’what do you have that you did not receive?’ When you think about it, all you have done has been as a result of certain things being aligned in your favor. You would have fallen sick at any time in your rise to the top and the story would have turned out differently. There are other people who have made investments similar to yours but courtesy of wrong timing which you had no way of telling they burnt their fingers. Where does intuition come from? Some of the moves you have made which have yielded significant results in your life did not make logical sense. You therefore cannot claim that you knew where they would lead with certainty yet you still made the move. How different are you from those who attempted and it turned out badly?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for people to sit back and do nothing expecting miracles. I am also not belittling the good work you have done to rise to the top. I am cognizant of the sacrifices you have made, the sleepless nights and all. All I am saying is you need to understand that all your wonderful efforts don’t tell the whole story. There are variables you had no way of controlling yet they worked in your favor.  A grateful attitude will help you take note of these things.

Gratitude happens when you know that your circumstances are not all as a result of your action/inaction. You have to realize that there is a lot that has happened behind the scenes to get you to where you are.

It begins with acknowledging the little things that happen in everyday life. It is appreciating all the things we take for granted. With gratitude you walk and work with an abundance mindset and not scarcity.

What do you need to be grateful for in this moment? Pause and enumerate the things you are grateful for in your life right now. Make a habit of noting down things to be grateful for every day.