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November 25, 2008 |
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Sometimes
we need to remind ourselves that
thankfulness is indeed a virtue.
William
J. Bennett |
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The
hardest arithmetic to master
is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Eric
Hoffer |
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One
of Life's Great Lessons --
Learn to be Thankful for What You Already Have
Jim Rohn
Is thankfulness a survival skill? Perhaps most
of you would respond with, "No, Jim,
thankfulness is not key to survival", and I
would tend to agree with you. Most of us have
probably already solved the necessary problems of
survival, gone beyond that and are now working to
achieve our desires. But let me give you this
key phrase, "Learn to be thankful for what you
already have, while you pursue all that you
want." I believe one of the greatest and
perhaps one of the simplest lessons in life we can
learn is to be thankful for what we have already
received and accomplished.
Both the years and the experiences have brought me
here to where I stand today, but it is the
thankfulness that opened the windows of
opportunities, of blessings, of unique experiences
to flow my way. My gratitude starts with my
parents who raised me, gave me an incredible
foundation that has lasted me all of these years and
continues with the mentors that I've met along the
way who absolutely changed and revolutionized my
life, my income, my bank account, my future. I
am also very thankful for the people, the
associations, for the ideas, for the chance to work
and labor, and to produce results, all of that has
brought me to where I am. I'm grateful for it
all.
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What a unique opportunity each one of us has, all of
us; representing different countries, nations and
cultures, to appreciate the uniqueness of our own
experiences that has brought us to where we
are. For the countries we represent; we have
freedom and liberty. These are extraordinary
times; about eleven years ago the walls came
tumbling down, in Germany, and it started a wave of
democracy and freedom like the world has never seen
before. We as a country and as a world have so
much to be thankful for. Always start with
thanksgiving; be thankful for what you already have
and see the miracles that come from this one simple
act.
Now thankfulness is just the beginning; next, you've
got to challenge yourself to produce. Produce
more ideas than you need for yourself so you can
share and give your ideas away. That is called
fruitfulness and abundance. Here's what I
think fruitfulness and abundance mean - to go to
work on producing more than you need for yourself so
you can begin blessing others, blessing your nation
and blessing your enterprise. Once abundance
starts to come, once someone becomes incredibly
productive, it's amazing what the numbers turn out
to be. But to begin this incredible process of
blessing, it often starts with the act of
thanksgiving and gratitude, being thankful for what
you already have and for what you've already
done. Begin the act of thanksgiving today and
watch the miracles flow your way.
Reproduced
with permission from the Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine.
Subscribe at: www.jimrohn.com or send an email with
Join in the subject to: mailto:subscribe@jimrohn.com
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Eyes
Wide Open
tom walsh
What
Hasn't Happened
When
we think of gratitude and thankfulness, we usually
think of the things that we have and the people in
our lives that contribute so much to us. We
think of the money that we have that allows us to
live fairly comfortably and help others, and we
think of our homes and our families and even of all
the material things that do add a certain richness
to our lives in a certain way.
But
in my neighborhood today, there have been no
explosions from mortars, and there has been no sound
of gunfire or of people getting killed. I can
predict pretty accurately, too, that these sounds
probably won't occur here today. While this
type of experience is foreign to most of us, there
are many people in the world who face it almost
daily, and I'm very thankful that I live where I
live and that I experience the safety that I
experience.
I
didn't break a leg or arm or pull any muscles or cut
myself yesterday. I didn't slam my car door on
a finger or two, and I wasn't standing in the wrong
place when a tree fell down. I didn't get hit
by a car, and nobody decided to mug me or rob
me. I was the victim of no crime that I'm
aware of, and I didn't fall down any stairs.
(Does anyone get the idea that I'm jinxing myself by
saying all these things?)
Today
I'm not going to have to wonder where my next meal
is coming from, and I'm not going to have to stand
by helplessly, unable to feed my family. If I
get sick, I'm not going to have to bear it without
help, for there's a very good hospital in my city,
and I have insurance. And if I do come down
with an illness, I won't have to suffer without
being able to get the medicine I need to battle it.
We
haven't lost our heat today, so our house is still
warm; we can depend on the furnace and we have
enough heating oil to last us for a while.
Nobody has come by to throw me in jail for my
political beliefs, even though I actually had a sign
in my yard supporting the losing candidate.
We
tend to get so caught up in what's happening in our
lives that it sometimes becomes difficult for us to
step back and see what isn't happening to us,
and in seeing that realizing just what's going
right. The list of things that are not going
on in our lives is almost endless, and while we
often feel bad that some of the good things that are
happening to others aren't happening to us, too, we
have to acknowledge the fact that many, many more
terrible things could be happening to us, but
aren't.
Giving
thanks shouldn't be limited to what we have.
Almost anyone who has survived a near-death
situation gives thanks immediately that they didn't
die when they might have. How many things
didn't happen to you today, and definitely
won't? For how many things can you be thankful
because they were not a part of your life?
Counting our blessings and giving thanks may take
much longer when we consider the things that haven't
happened to us, but if we can broaden our minds to
include those things that are not a part of our
lives as things to be thankful for, we can start to
see even more clearly just how strongly the concept
of Thanksgiving should be a part of our lives.
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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. Gratitude
makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and
creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie |
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Can
you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a
paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate
on finding what 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 |
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Top
of the List
Gail Pursell Elliott
When we count our blessings, or list the things we
are grateful for, where do we begin?
We might list internal qualities such as faith,
strength, compassion, insight, or peace of mind.
We might list relationships such as family members,
close friends or care givers.
We might list our pets.
We might list such things as having a job we really
enjoy, feeling that we are making a difference, or
opportunities to connect with others.
We might simply begin with the fact that we are
alive and have a roof over our heads.
If you have never taken the time to sit down and
make a list of things that you are thankful for,
there is no time like the present to start.
When beginning to make your list, what first comes
to mind? What is at the top of the list?
It may depend upon circumstances or situations in
which you find yourself at the time.
Our state of mind can play a major role in not only
what we list but also how extensive the list is and
what we place at the top.
Sometimes we take for granted what we value the most
in our lives. We may forget to express thanks,
appreciation, or gratitude.
One Friday afternoon, I was sitting in an airport
waiting for a connecting flight. Though I love
my work and enjoy traveling to different places to
do training and presentations, once the work is
finished I want to get home to my family as soon as
possible.
This particular day, there were a lot of
thunderstorms in parts of the country that affected
air transportation. The airport was packed with
travelers who kept checking the updates on the
screens.
Flights were delayed for hours. My connecting
flight was one of them and it was very frustrating.
I kept telling myself that there must be a reason
for my delay but I wanted to get home. Regretting
the lost time that I could have been spending with
my family left me feeling pretty negative.
A young woman smiled and waved to me and pointed to
an empty seat next to her. We began talking.
She told me about visiting her family in the
Northeast and that she was traveling back to the
West coast where she lived. She showed me pictures
of her daughter, beautiful baby pictures. Then
she shared that her daughter had been a victim of
SIDS at three months.
She had been proudly showing me the pictures as if
her baby was still alive. I felt stricken.
Losing a child is every parent's nightmare. I
thought to myself that perhaps this meeting was not
a coincidence, that there was something I was to say
or do to be of help.
I was only partially correct. She was sharing
her daughter's brief life with me, not relating the
circumstances of her death or her own experience of
working through her grief. Though she missed
her daughter very much, she was happy.
She had made a conscious decision to focus not on
what she would never do with her child, but what she
had done. She was grateful that this beautiful child
had been part of her life even for three months.
She felt that she had been blessed.
At that point there was an announcement that my
delayed flight was ready to board, an hour earlier
than the original delay. I had been given just
enough time to receive the gift of a different
perspective, to be blessed by this young stranger.
Though many of us know about the positive impact of
having a gratitude attitude, I had never seen its
effects so powerfully displayed. Thankfulness
can not only restore our faith and perspective but
can also overcome worry or even despair.
If we take the time to count our blessings, we may
find that we will wind up with more than we ever
expected. Past the obvious we may rediscover
many fleeting situations impacting our lives,
deepening our insight and expanding our awareness.
When our perspective is clouded with regret,
frustration, sorrow or loss, we have the option to
give thanks for and focus on blessings we always
carry with us but may have forgotten, like
photographs to be taken out and viewed at times when
we may feel very alone.
We are richer than we can possibly imagine, with
much for which to give our heartfelt thanks.
Gratitude can be the seed from which our inner
happiness can flower regardless of whatever outer
situation may confront us.
Have a great holiday and be good to yourself.
You deserve it!
©
Gail Pursell Elliott All Rights Reserved. Gail
Pursell Elliott, "The Dignity and Respect
Lady." Innovations "Training With a Can-Do
Attitude"™
Box 552, Roland, IA 50236-0552; 515-388-9600
www.innovations-training.com
gail@innovations-training.com
Promoting Dignity and Respect. No Exceptions. In Companies
and Communities Nationwide. |
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Life without
thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without
thankfulness
is lacking in fine perception. Faith without
thankfulness lacks strength
and fortitude. Every virtue divorced
from thankfulness is maimed
and limps along the spiritual road.
John Henry
Jewett |
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Gratitude
is Larger than Life
Melody Beattie
One day, a friend
called me on the phone. He was going through a difficult time and
wondering if and when things would ever turn around and
improve. I knew he was in a lot of pain; I didn't know then
that he was considering suicide.
"If you
could give a person only one thing to help them," he said,
"what would it be?"
I thought
carefully about his question; then I replied, "It's not one
thing. It's two: gratitude and letting go."
Gratitude for everything, not just the things we consider good or
a blessing. And letting go of everything we can't
change.
A few years have
passed since that day my friend called me on the phone. His
life has turned around. His financial problems have sorted
themselves out. His career has shifted. The two very
large problems he was facing at that time have both sorted
themselves out. The actual process of working through these
problems became an important part of redirecting the course of his
life.
Someone once
asked the artist Georgia O'Keeffe why her paintings magnified the
size of small objects--like the petals on a flower--making them
appear larger than life, and reduced the size of large
objects--like mountains--making them smaller than life.
"Everyone
sees the big things," she said. "But these smaller
things are so beautiful and people might not notice them if I
didn't emphasize them."
That's the way it
is with gratitude and letting go. It's easy to see the
problems in our lives. They're like mountains. But
sometimes we overlook the smaller things; we don't notice how
truly beautiful they are.
Identify
problems. Feel feelings.
But if you're
going to make anything bigger than life, let it be the power and
simplicity of these two tools: gratitude and letting go.
* * * * *
Excerpted from
her book More Language of Letting Go.
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If
only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about
the riches
they do possess, they would stop worrying. Would
you sell both your eyes
for a million dollars . . . or your two legs
. . . or your hands . . . or your hearing?
Add up what you do
have, and you'll find that you won't sell them for all the gold
in
the world. The best things in life are yours, if you can
appreciate yourself.
Dale
Carnegie |
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