WHY BEING GRATEFUL CREATES SUCCESS
You cannot
get past the first chapter in motivational literature or a list of inspiring social
media quotes without seeing suggestions to “be grateful” and “live in the
moment.” These two ingredients in the
recipe to success are so mundane at this point that they slip through our
consciousness like a Geico commercial featuring that lizard. Does anyone really know that it is about car
insurance anymore? Same tenant here, but
these two roadmaps to your goals have a deeper underlying truth that it so much
more than what is on the surface. “Being
Grateful” and “Living in the Moment” are like glaciers. You only see the tip of them but they extend
so deep.
Building a
healthy body, growing a successful business, nurturing a great relationship, or
mastering anything worth learning takes time.
These long journeys are a series of small steps and micro-gestures that
all add up to something prodigious, IF you can keep focus on that which paved
the way.
LIVING IN
THE MOMENT
The present
is the ONLY thing you own in life. Think
about it. You cannot undo the past in
any way. You can only take on a series
of new events in your present that will allow you to change your future. What stands in the way of you grabbing the
present and making it amazing? Fear and
faith are the opposite of one another.
Fear is what holds most people back because they are not sure whether
their actions in their present can paint that vision that they have for their
future. They need faith.
Faith is
easy for some people. There are people
who put everything in their God’s hands.
They say “I am going to do it, and if it is the will of God, I will
succeed.” This faith allows them to see road
bumps and failures along the way as a test from God from which they must
overcome to get better. They may never
get discouraged because they feel like they are on a heavenly journey, but they
also run the risk of never elevating because they often wait for the bigger picture
to come to them rather than going out and finding those outliers who illuminate
the path.
The
challenge is for people who do not think in terms of God to have faith in their
journey. The world can be a lonely place
when you do not have a higher power charting your course in your mind, but the
compass for you and others is being grateful.
BEING
GRATEFUL
Here is why
being grateful is like a glacier where the heart of it extends very deep. It is incredibly important for you to be
grateful forever in order to have continued faith in your goals and an ability
to live in the moment. They go hand in
hand. Why?
So many
people on every kind of journey are looking for the end result, while foregoing
the minor details that created the stepping stones to the top. People are so enchanted with excitement at
the very moment that something amazing happens (major business accomplishment,
big weight loss week, an introduction to someone who can change your life, a
visit to a place where you learned valuable lessons). That amazing thing propels you and gives you
the motive to go to the next level, but while you are venturing on the next
level, you forget that monumental factor that elevated you unless you are eternally
grateful. If you do not see how far you
have come and show gratitude for the process, you lose the motivation to take
it all the way.
PEOPLE
-Someone
gave you advice that saved you thousands of dollars and kept you off of a trail
of mistakes.
-Someone
showed you their favorite fitness routine that has helped you lose half of the
weight.
-Someone
believed in you enough to tell you to go for it when you were full of doubt.
-Someone
introduced you to another individual who brought you to the next level in your
journey
It is so
important to remember the elevating tenure that every individual has had on
your journey. Never forget someone’s
contribution to your ultimate goals.
PLACES
You are not
better than somewhere. It is all of the
places that you have been that take you to another place. Learn and be grateful for the lessons. No
store, system, gym, job, or environment is beneath you. They have been places that have taught you
lessons until it was time to move on.
You could
not have gone bigger or better without learning how to compete or conquer on
that lower level.
THINGS
This could
be anything. So many people forget how
they once had an obstacle that was long ago conquered by something they
found. After time passes and this
obstacle becomes so foreign, they tend to pay less merit to the product or
materials that got them out of the rut.
They will often undermine this product or idea or fitness
supplementation program because they forget what it is like to be ineffective,
incongruent, or lethargic.
Gratefulness
and understanding toward what helped you on the journey makes the road ahead
easier to process and plan for.
There are so
many layers to “Living in the Moment” and “Being Grateful” but one major factor
escapes so many people because it is too difficult to grasp. This major factor is the true reason to
practice these principles but it is not as transparent and often too daunting for
someone to process when beginning a journey.
When you cherish every experience and you are thankful for everything
that plays a role around you, it makes it easier to process that “the world
does not revolve around you.” It seems so
obvious and altruistic, but while most people think they embrace this, it takes
a lot of practice for it to click. When
it does click, individuals realize that they are the product of everything in
their environment, rather than the center of the universe.
This is when
true success manifests, because the process is so cyclical. Everything that made you what you are has
brought you to this point. The only
thing you own is the present. You are
grateful for every step along the way. Now
that you fully understand that your life is a product of everything in your
environment, you have more control. Why? You now understand that it is YOUR CHOICE to
surround yourself with positivity or negativity, and that will ultimately
dictate how far you go in your journey to be better than yesterday. Positive places, things, and people will
empower your mission.
-written by Thomas Ascough
#YOURBODYISPOWER
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