Want to know the foundational credo I teach my clients to produce results and create massive success in all areas of their lives?
Gratitude.
Yes, gratitude is the foundation upon which we build everything. It really is that simple.
Gratitude Rocks.
For me, Willie Nelson sums up the force of gratitude perfectly in just a few short words,
”When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
Gratitude turns not enough into abundance.
Gratitude turns adversity into possibility.
Gratitude turns fear into courage.
Gratitude turns anger into powerful lessons.
Gratitude turns doubt into confidence.
Gratitude is power in motion. Gratitude shifts perspective. Gratitude creates powerful contexts for us to flex the muscles of courage and confidence that we might feel reluctant to flex. Gratitude creates the powerful context of surrender and openness when life circumstances want to “take us down.” Indeed, during my first year as solopreneur, I found myself many a morning with my head up against the wall of my shower crying, creating gratefulness for the challenges entrepreneurship offered me. Oh yes, life offered me many an opportunity to flex my muscles of courage, confidence and surrender. Ha! No doubt.
And as a result, gratitude offers the opportunity to grow. When we feel uncertain, when we feel doubtful, when we feel challenged, gratefulness asks us to count our blessings and to dig deep into what really matters most to us, and … to tap a level of strength we never even knew we possessed.
I always say to my clients, when we focus on our blessings, when we focus on what is good and right in our lives, the ‘stuff’ that used to bother us literally falls off our radar … and then the magic of life begins to unfold. When we live inside the context of gratitude, our focus shifts, our perspective changes. What really matters most to us moves to front and center stage.
How to rock gratitude?
When you first open your eyes in the morning, pause and reflect on 3 things you are grateful for, it can be simply for the birds chirping, or the rain falling, or your family, friends and job. But the areas that gratefulness works magical results is the areas that we most feel stopped around. Oh yes, exactly, create gratefulness for that “contrary” co-worker, or “nagging” family member and watch gratitude works it’s transformative magic!
Don’t believe me? Try it. For 30 days. Everyday. Consecutive.
Gratitude is a powerful, powerful transformative tool.
I offer you 15 gratitude quotes that I just love — you can even use these as affirmations, or simply powerful reminders of the force gratefulness offers.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all the others. ~ Cicero
Gratitude is an opener of locked-up blessings. ~Marianne Williamson
Appreciation is the purest vibration that exists on the planet today. ~Abraham–Hicks
If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation,
you will discover that your life will
suddenly be filled with gratitude,
a feeling that nurtures the soul.
~ Rabbi Harold Kushner
Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.
~ Zig Ziglar
It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed
in the same moment. ~Naomi Williams
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. ~ Albert Schweitzer
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful. ~The Buddha
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. ~ Melody Beattie
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart
When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. ~Chinese Proverb
The struggle ends when the gratitude begins. ~Neale Donald Walsch
How does gratitude work for you in your life? I’d love to hear in the comments section below.