Show a little gratitude, why don’t ya?
August 10, 2018 by Rich Malachy | Blog
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Show a little gratitude, why don’t ya?
I’m going to drop a truth bomb on you: The more grateful you are, the happier you’ll be.
You’re saying, “Sure – if I had something to be thankful for then I would be happy. But you try being grateful and happy when you have more month than money and a crappy boss and a six-year old phone and…”
The other half of my truth bomb is that being grateful is the horse that you can’t put the cart (of misery) in front of. That is, you have to start showing your gratitude for what you have before you get better things.
More month than money? Be grateful that you have money at all. Crappy boss? Be grateful you have a job. Six-year old phone? You know what I’m going to say: Be grateful you have a phone that works and keeps you in touch with friends and family.
Showing your appreciation is like watering a seed that’s buried in soil. You know it’s there because you dug the hole and dropped the seed in there. Giving it the water it needs is an act of faith – you have faith that the water is going to soften the seed’s outer shell and help deliver nutrients in the soil to it. You believe – because you’ve seen a stop motion video of seeds sprouting and growing on Sesame Street – that continued watering will lead to a seedling (the toddler version of a seed). Next, the seedling gets stronger, claims some territory and continues to grow.
The same process happens when you declare gratitude. Start with the money and job idea and say to yourself (and anybody or anything that will listen), “I’m grateful that I am capable of learning new skills to get a better job,” or “I’m grateful that the economy is decent right now so that other jobs are out there that I can apply for.”
I’m guessing that just reading the previous paragraph caused at least a tiny spark of understanding. When you have to identify something to be grateful for, you’ve immediately improved your situation. Don’t stop with one situation. Go through every aspect of your life and apply gratitude to it. Go full on gratitude.
If it’s so easy, why isn’t everybody giddy with gratitude? Because humans are naturally doubtful. We couldn’t have made it through the Stone Age if we weren’t careful. But for every 99 careful cave people who scowled with suspicion at just about everything and stayed in his or her own lane, there was one cave person who was consciously grateful for the stone chiseling skills that made it possible to create a round thing that rolled and made it easier to move things. You know I’m talking about the wheel, right?
So not everybody is part of the daily giving of thanks that leads to more. But who wants to be part of that crowd when all they do is complain? Be the one out of 99 who is grateful and see what wheels start turning for you.
Rich Malachy
CCO of Malachy Parts & Service - Chief Care Officer