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We have all found ourselves at times in life where things could be better. Life looks bleak when we feel we have done everything in our power, and still the results that we see don’t seem to match our efforts. But, we can still press forward and see things differently in these times by developing one thing in our lives – the habit of thankfulness.
Thankfulness is such a huge part of your journey to living out a life of purpose. Most people only look for this thankfulness in the huge events that happen in life, but your perspective changes for the better when you decide to be grateful for everything that happens in life, including the small things. Thankfulness can even be found when life isn’t going well, but this requires you to change your outlook on life.
When you decide to be optimistic and thankful, even when times are rough, it is thankfulness that will get you through these valleys. This outlook causes you to view the world differently and helps you choose to see the good in life once again. You already know that life is better when you let thankfulness have a bigger hold in your life, but what about those times where you just can’t seem to find it? What can you do when the world is crumbling around you and you can’t seem to find a way out? Well, thankfulness is still your best answer.
You may not be able to control your current situation, but you can control your current perception.
Try this –
In this moment, how many things can you count that you are thankful for with just one minute of your time?
Hopefully, you had so many things to count that you couldn’t stop coming up with things to be thankful for. But if not, I have three ways to pull more thankfulness out of your life so you can begin using it for positive fuel in your journey:
1. Take the time to pause and reflect on a daily basis.
Busyness will attempt to rob you from thankfulness every chance that it gets. It is the number one thing you need to fight in life, because it is your absolute biggest enemy that will detain you from thankfulness and a life filled with joy.
2. Listen to your language.
Do you want to know the quickest way to see if you are living out thankfulness in your life or not? Listen to the words you are speaking. Are they thankful and positive or unthankful and negative? Listening to your words will let you know your heart’s perspective, because people who are thankful speak thankfulness into their lives and into the lives of others.
3. Fight for unity in your relationships.
It may sound odd to fight for unity, but your relationships will either cause you to want to be thankful or to be ungrateful for where you currently find yourself along your life’s journey. When there isn’t unity in your relationships, it is almost impossible to be thankful for the positivity that is filling other areas of your life, even if everything else is approaching perfection. Once you fix your relationships, you will be able to fix your outlook on life and find more thankfulness on a daily basis.
Take the time to pause and reflect on a daily basis, listen to your language, and fight for unity in your relationships. Try implementing these three thankfulness principles in your life and see the immediate difference, today.
I think most people would acknowledge that “being thankful is important to your perspective on life.” It’s amazing how we humans can, however, can “know” a thing — while, for all practical purposes, being ignorant of it at the same time.
I have a large number of positive, motivational quotes that come across my eyes through social media daily. They get lots of Likes and Favorites and ReTweets. But if we each just took ONE of those positive quotes per day (or week!), wrote it down, placed it in our line of vision, read it and mediated on it and acted upon it — what a different world this would be!
So, though this seems “simple,” we do seem to need those simple reminders placed in front of us constantly in order to have a shot at living them out.
One funny anecdote.
I was giving piano lessons to a feisty and creative little red-haired girl last week. I start every lesson with the same questions and even see if she can predict what my questions will be. Two of my questions are “How are you today?” which is always followed by “And what’s ____________ about it?” (depending on the answer given to the first question. Last week, here is how that part of our opening exchange went:
Me: How are you today?
Willow: Good.
Me: And what’s good about it?
Willow: I don’t have lice.
There’s ALWAYS something to be thankful for!
So true! And I love that story! HA!
Adam, who are we thanking? I believe we thank God for everything. This isn’t clear in this post.
God bless you,
Toni Poharcyk
Hi, Toni. I hope you have been doing well. Yes, God is important to thank for everything and in every circumstance. I believe thankfulness is in itself an important outlook to have on life in general, though. The opposite, being ungratefulness, can suck the life out of everything. When we aren’t stopping long enough on a regular basis to notice what to be thankful, we are missing important opportunities to bless God, ourselves, and others. I believe thankfulness opens doors that we wouldn’t otherwise see, because when we are unappreciative, our focus is always on the negative. It’s a mindset that changes when we grasp onto this important concept. Thanks for listening and commenting friend!
Adam, thank you for sharing how to maintain a positive attitude of gratitude, especially in the hard times. Your thankfulness throughout your entire life continues to be evidenced through your service to God, family and others. I have found when I’m not thankful enough, I simply need to look around and go do something for someone less fortunate. In my field of Social Work, I don’t have to look far….You bless me, young man – Be blessed!