The Zen of Success – Gratitude

Posted by Shawn Altman on Feb 14, 2013 in The Zen Of Success

The Successful understand the importance of being thankful for what they have and giving back, in order to tie it all together. Gratitude is often thought of as the antidote to materialism, and while materialism is obsessing on what you desire, gratitude is appreciating what you have. Words you will regularly hear The Successful use, many times daily include grateful, thankful, gift, luck, and fortunate.

emIf you are looking for one key to the Successful that begins to tie everything together, I would have to say it’s that they are truly consciously grateful for all the things they have in their life. Why you might wonder? A grateful person is usually a happy person that finds satisfaction and contentment with the direction of their lives, opposite of the overwhelming emptiness that accompanies only finding short lived happiness in material things. The Successful understand that as you proceed through life, you find your joys in the simplest everyday happenings and events./em

They say we receive in kind those things we project into the world around us, be it any kindness, meanness, honesty, or deceit, and through what is identified and known as “Karma,” the world has a way of paying us back sometimes many times over, be it good or bad.

Again, repeating the one simple key to the Successful is to be consciously grateful for all of the things you have, and you will find that open and sincere expressions of thankfulness to the Universe or whatever God you believe in for your blessings outwardly changes your demeanor, and alters the way in which you are viewed by others.

A grateful person is usually a happy person, although most of society is taught not to accept the status quo, and strongly believes you can never achieve enough…enough money, enough friends, and enough power. Those that never learn to find the joy in their successes no matter how small will never achieve the balance, fulfillment and happiness in their lives.

As the Successful proceed through life, they learn to find their joys in even the simplest everyday events, and to be thankful for each small victory, each success, and especially for each failure. A critical point to learn and understand is that it is those failures that help build strength and character, and allow us to push through and persevere the next time we are faced with failure. Often overlooked, the human spirit has a tremendous ability to forgive, to heal, and to learn, so fill yourself with gratitude, express it openly at every opportunity that presents itself, and watch in amazement as good things begin to come your way.