The Art Of Showing Gratitude

Have you shown your gratitude to those around you for assistance they may provide you? Better yet, do you show yourself gratitude for the positive things in YOUR life? I have some thoughts on the subject.

Hello and welcome to today’s Thursday’s Thought. Today’s Thought is about “Mastering the Art Of Showing Gratitude To Ultimately Achieve Your Success.”

Gratitude. I’m sure you have heard of this word before and you probably know that it simply means a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. Gratitude may be a mouthful to pronounce, but the act of showing it is actually rather simple and effective to implement. Knowing the power and potential of showing gratitude and subsequently applying it accordingly can be the single most decisive factor in ensuring better degrees of success for yourself.

Let’s dwell a little on exactly what gratitude can do for you and subsequently your success. Gratitude instills a positive feeling in you and the people you show it to. It alters your perspective of negative feelings, thoughts, or beliefs you may have of yourself or others by alerting these feelings, thoughts and beliefs to the things you are grateful for. Gratitude raises your awareness and focus and it can inspire you to achieve better for yourself and the people around you.

In fact, there are numerous other benefits of gratitude. Yet, many people still do not, or even refuse. to shower themselves or the people around them with gratitude. Instead, they put themselves and others down with criticism and condemnation. To see if you fall under this category, take the next few seconds to ponder over the following questions:

1. What exactly are the obstacles that are holding you back from showing gratitude to yourself and to others?

2. How can you overcome these obstacles?

3. How can you unleash an onslaught of gratitude to yourself and to others?

The obstacles you thought of when I asked the previous questions are mainly negative thoughts, emotions and beliefs that you may possess that are probably not only hindering you from showing gratitude but they are most probably also hindering you from success. However, the chief aim of my Thursday’s Thought today is to show you the importance of showing gratitude and how you can go about doing it. As such, I will not touch in depth about how to overcome these negative thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. That’s a topic for another time and place. If you would like to find out more about overcoming negative thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, you can direct message me for additional information.

Now that you are clearer about the benefits of gratitude, let’s first talk about how you can start showing gratitude to yourself. When you show gratitude to yourself, you will be well positioned to begin showing gratitude to those around you. Now, to start showing gratitude to yourself, you must first be appreciative of ALL your achievements - be they big or small - that you have experienced so far in your life. Ask yourself: “when was the last time you actually rewarded yourself for those achievements?” If you have constantly been doing so, then good for you and keep it up. If not, then it’s about time you start indulging or pampering yourself with some simple or extravagant (whichever is appropriate) rewards for all your past achievements and the future ones as well.

Next be appreciative of the things you have - your job, workplace, house, available monies, family, food and surroundings. I know it can be rather impossible to directly show gratitude to these things but don’t worry. You can actually list down these things and write thank you notes for each of them to express your gratitude. Keep referring to this list when you’re feeling sad or depressed and you can instantly feel a surge of happiness or positive emotions.

As you continue to appreciate things you have in your life, you’ll find that there is actually nothing complex about performing acts of gratitude. Always bear in mind that when you show gratitude to yourself, the thing and the people around you, you will definitely hold the key to unlocking your personal growth and ultimately your success.