Living a materialistic life provides us with little value and instead causes us a great deal of stress and anxiety. Practicing gratitude is a better way to live because it is essential for success and a better quality of life.
Why gratitude is essential for your success
Wanting and having things in life is natural.
The issue arises when you become preoccupied with wanting and possessing more things than you ever need. It also becomes an issue when you start to associate success and happiness with material possessions.
Because it will only lead to stress, anxiety, emptiness, overwhelm, and a slew of other negative emotions. That will harm not only your physical and mental health but also your relationships.
So, to improve your life and increase your chances of success. Recognize that your possessions cannot provide that for you. What can is your values and attitude in and towards life. One that includes being grateful.
Instilling and practicing the value of gratitude is essential for your success. For numerous reasons that will be discussed in the following sections.
Gratitude is a good habit that goes a long way
When you practice gratitude, you will develop a good habit. That will have a significant and positive impact on your overall quality of life.
These positives include a more optimistic outlook, increased enthusiasm, happiness, and satisfaction in your life.
Physically, you will benefit from improved sleep, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system, among other things.
Practicing gratitude also allows you to become a better version of yourself. That is, it makes you become more helpful, generous, forgiving, and compassionate towards others.
Now, ain’t that indeed a long way that gratitude provides?
Gratitude helps you prioritize and focus on more important things
Being grateful for what you already have will give you a greater appreciation for it. So much so that you will no longer crave more of the same.
Instead, you can direct your attention to more important matters. Such as your personal and professional goals and objectives.
You will have a better chance of progress and success in life once you free yourself from the distraction of wanting more stuff. And devote more time and attention to your more important priorities.
As Jim Rohn stated:
Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want.
When you’re grateful, you’re happier
When things are going well, it’s easy to be grateful. However, when you’re feeling down and out, it may seem impossible to maintain a grateful attitude.
Nonetheless, numerous studies show that regardless of the hardship. Or pain you are experiencing, gratitude is one way to feel better. This is due to the fact that being grateful improves your mental health, boosts your resilience, and allows you to cope better with daily stress.
Here’s a better explanation in the form of a quote.
It’s not that happy people are grateful, it’s that grateful people are happier.
– Erik Barker
With that, strive to cultivate a grateful attitude in the face of difficulties. Because gratitude will lead to a better life.
Grateful people are more likely to experience growth
The practice of gratitude allows for self-growth and performance development.
This is because gratitude aids in the development of mindfulness. Which allows you to notice and celebrate even the smallest victories. This will encourage you to pay closer attention to the actions you initiated and repeat them in order to achieve success.
Furthermore, receiving and practicing gratitude inspires you to become a better version of yourself. Because gratitude elicits mood improvement, happiness, and other positive emotions in both the giver and the receiver.
And the more gratitude you practice in your life, the more gratitude you will receive, creating a positive chain reaction.
Gratitude is good for your relationships
Again, gratitude elicits positive feelings. And that we want to reciprocate and recreate those positive feelings in others. Good relationships, therefore are another outcome or benefit of gratitude.
Aside from our current relationships with people we already know, gratitude has a way of bringing strangers together to become friends.
This was the finding of one experiment (see outside reference below) where it concluded that:
Generally speaking, we tend to feel grateful when a person does something nice for us. They delivered a benefit of some kind.
As our experiment suggests, feelings of gratitude are explained by how much more we value our benefactor.
Boiled down to their essence, the feelings of gratitude help to identify likely cooperators. People who have demonstrated that they care and might continue to do so in the future.
Our gesture or utterance of gratitude thus expresses to others that we’ve noticed their actions. We perceive them to be beneficial. And we might be potential reciprocators down the line.
How Gratitude Helps Your Friendships Grow
Expressing gratitude makes you more resilient
It is especially important to cultivate a grateful attitude during these times. Because it makes a person more resilient.
It will be difficult to cope with all of the negative events that are happening simultaneously. But, developing a grateful attitude will help you develop an optimistic mindset. Allowing you to see things more positively.
With this reframed mindset, you are more likely to focus on finding solutions. Rather than being distracted by worry and negative thinking.
Grateful people are more intentional and mindful of their decisions
According to a 2014 study, practicing gratitude reduces impulse actions. Allowing for greater control of thoughts and emotions. Including mindful decision-making.
That is, grateful people have more patience. And are less likely to succumb to enticing but possibly unfair offers.
The positive values that gratitude instills in us may be a factor in encouraging another positive action—mindfulness in decision-making.
Suffice it to say that, gratitude improves our patience. Which in turn leads to more well-thought-out decisions and actions that lead to success.
Conclusion
To conclude, the practice of gratitude provides a great number of positive benefits that will ultimately lead to success in your personal and professional life.
The following are the major benefits of gratitude practice:
- Gratitude is a good habit that goes a long way,
- Gratitude helps you prioritize and focus on more important things,
- It makes you happier,
- Makes you more likely to experience growth,
- Improves relationships,
- Makes you more resilient, and
- Gratitude makes you more intentional and mindful of making decisions.
Please share your thoughts or ideas about Gratitude Is Essential For Your Success Find Out Why in the comments below. And if you liked this article, you might be interested as well in these articles:
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Outside reference/s:
Why Is Gratitude So Hard for Some People?
Giving thanks can make you happier
8 Genuine Ways to Practice Gratitude When You Don’t Feel Like It
How Gratitude Helps Your Friendships Grow
Gratitude: A Tool for Reducing Economic Impatience