Gratitude

How appreciating what you have can bring genuine happiness to your life.

---

It’s easy to forget about the good you have in your life sometimes. Human beings constantly crave more—more stuff, more money, more clothes, just more. We keep longing for things we feel will fill our lives with happiness and joy.

Here’s the thing, adding more ‘things’ to our lives won’t actually add to our happiness. Until we start appreciating the things we have and start feeling more grateful for the good in our life, happiness will remain as distant as the horizon.

Take one minute right now and think about the great things happening around you. I realize we are constantly reminded by social media feeds and by news sources all over the world aboutthe bad that takes place every single day; but take a second to block those out and really focus on the good.

It’s easy to get caught up thinking that there’s nothing good going on in our ‘busy’ lives. One thing that really helps me get out of this mindset is by re-phrasing everything that I ‘have’ to do with what I ‘get’ to do. I get to go to work every day and make money and work with a great group of people. I get to workout and run in the mornings because my body is capable and strong and I have an ability that many others don’t.

I am so thankful that I get to do each and every one of these things throughout my busy weeks. Take a second to think of what you usually dread doing, and then consider how different your life would be if you didn’t get to do them. If you didn’t have the ability to work, or to work out or to be ‘busy’.

There might be days where it seems like the world is working against you. Where you feel like no matter how hard you search you just simply can’t find the good. I’m asking you to look harder. Take a step back and really challenge yourself to find the good. Get a piece of paper when you’re feeling this way and just start writing things down. Whether its your friends, your family, your job, your favorite t-shirt hanging in your closet; just write down everything you are thankful to have in your life and let it fill your body up with gratitude.

There’s this overwhelming feeling of happiness I get when I take a second to look at the good surrounding me. I can write several blogs about all of the challenges I’ve faced and all of the sadness and messiness around me sometimes; but I would rather share with all of you the ways I focus on the good and spread these positive feelings in hopes that you too can start to focus on the good and forget about the bad as much as possible.

I read somewhere that the odds of you being alive are 400 trillion to 1. Think about that for one second.

400,000,000,000,000 to 1.

Spending your days feeling anything less than happy would be an injustice. It’s simply a miracle that you are alive today.

Just being alive is something to be so thankful for. You were born, and now you’ve made it this far, yes life gets hard; but appreciate the miracle that is life. If this doesn’t put things into perspective for you, that’s okay; take some time to let it sink in.I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to celebrate this life by being grateful to simply be alive. Who’s with me?

So, start there. Take a moment to just be thankful to be here. Every single day the sun comes up, and you get another chance at living the life you want. Every day you get the chance to keep searching for happiness and keep filling your life with love and with joy. We are lucky to get another day; be thankful for it and let the little things add up and fill up your well with happiness and gratitude. Instead of focusing on everything you don’t have start appreciating the few amazing things you do have.

Get in your car and drive toward the horizon that is the rest of your life with the mindset that you will be grateful for all that comes your way. The good, the bad, the challenges all along your journey make you who you are. On this crazy adventure of life, finding happiness— genuine happiness, all starts with appreciating what you have.