Have you ever gone through a phase where you’re struck with an overwhelming sense of lack of motivation and you’re just not feeling like you can tackle the world, much less day-to-day living? Unfortunately, right now, too many of us feel this very same way and point to the pandemic, a divisive political environment, and the uncertainty of what tomorrow brings as primary culprits for our sense of despair. However, the good news is: it’s absolutely fixable. At the root of these uninspired feelings are all of our negative emotions fighting their way to the top and trying to suffocate our positive inner voice. These emotions eat away at our decision-making, productivity, and overall drive to succeed, leaving us dissatisfied with life, which only refuels the negative fire. So although we all might have dipped our toes into this negativity pond at some point in our lives, the important thing is to not stay there. We as humans have the ability to break out of a negative feedback cycle and actually rewire our brains to think and live positively.
The biggest part of your personality, both in how you feel and how others perceive you, is your overall disposition. This “mindset” is the driving force for either success or failure, so you can imagine how important is it to have it fine-tuned. Your thoughts influence your words, your words influence your actions, and your actions paint the best picture of who you are as a person, and what you believe you are capable of. In other words, YOU and only you are responsible for creating a positive life for yourself.
Learning how to ignore the negative and instead channel an attitude of gratitude can change your entire outlook on life and set you up for huge success in whatever you choose – business, sports, family, or simply just being a genuinely happy person. So, here is the million-dollar question – HOW do we accomplish this? How do we achieve more happiness, better health, and increased productivity? At the core, it’s about building a habit that becomes more automatic and longer-lasting with time; a habit of expressing thankfulness and gratitude for everything in life, no matter how miniscule or seemingly non-important.
This change won’t happen overnight like a light switch turning on and off. Our brains have to be trained, much like an athlete has to train repetitively to perform at their highest level. When we choose to speak or act with gratitude, a new path gets traced in our brain, and behaving this way may at first feel unnatural as the path is brand new and not well recognized. However, once we take this decide to travel this path and repeat it hundreds and hundreds of times it becomes engraved as an easy to recognize pattern. An attitude of gratitude transforms from something we have to think about, to something that occurs subconsciously, and that is the ultimate goal.
People described as “thankful” tend to eat healthier, have an abundance of energy, cope with stress better, have increased self-esteem, and create deeper friendships – all of which are pillars to lasting success.
Gratitude makes us nicer, more trusting and trusted, more social, and as a result helps us deepen our existing relationships and create new ones. People who spend their time and energy expressing what they are grateful for, have no energy left for complaining, as they are able to recognize it gets them nowhere. This makes your workplace – which may be an office, the athletic field, or a classroom – a much more friendly and enjoyable place to be, while helping you achieve your goals. You know how nice it feels when someone else takes a few moments to show kindness? Be that person for someone else. With an optimistic outlook and a thankful disposition, there is no doubt that you will get there; it is only a matter of time.