Having gratitude for what you’ve already experienced, acquired and achieved, is one of the most powerful contributors to your well-being and sense of satisfaction in your personal and professional life.
Being grateful includes your sense of appreciation for all you have, rather than a focus on what you don’t have, want, or need.
This doesn’t mean you ought not have goals for things you are yet to experience or acquire.
In fact, research shows having and pursuing goals can add meaning and a sense of purpose in life … both of which positively impact your well-being.
Being grateful is acknowledging and being thankful for any ‘good’ in your life and realising that while sometimes these good things we experience are from our own actions, often they are experienced through the generous actions of others.
The Power of Gratitude in Sales
Research has also shown salespeople who are genuinely grateful, especially grateful for the relationships they have with their customers, are more likely to build trust faster and win more new, repeat and referral sales.
This is where the power of choice is so important. While being grateful is a feeling, gratitude is also something you choose to have and practice.
Activity
Gratitude Journal: Consider starting a gratitude journal, where you can get creative with words and pictures that record the ‘good’ in your life.
Include the things and people and experiences for which you are grateful.
Make the exercise more meaningful by not just listing what you’re grateful for, but taking the time to record why you’re grateful.
While this is an evidence-based positive psychology activity proven to increase well-being for many people, this is something I personally practice and find both rewarding and inspiring.
I have a fortnightly reminder in my diary to read through my gratitude journal … every time it comes up in my diary, I get the opportunity to pause, reflect and enjoy that sense of gratitude.
Thank People: Another activity is simply to meet with, call or write to someone you care for and let them know how grateful you are to have them in your life.
Think about your most valued customers, and thank them in some way that doesn’t make you (or them) feel uncomfortable.
You’ll find it pretty hard not to smile and get that warm feeling and glow when you focus your mindful attention on what you’re grateful for.
Like so many of these activities, you’ll be releasing the happy hormones in your brain that the research shows have direct benefits to your psychological and physiological well-being.
25 Contributing Elements to Living a Good Life
This topic of Gratitude is just one of 25 contributing elements to living a good life that I write about in my book LIVING in the Light of Day.
If you haven’t got your copy yet (in hardcover, paperback, kindle/ebook or audiobook versions), you can Buy It Here.
