Today (Nov 22nd)our friends across the pond are celebrating Thanksgiving, hence the prompt for this week’s post. It’s a shame we don’t mark the occasion in the UK as it’s a great opportunity to openly express gratitude- towards family right through to our respective property businesses and beyond.
And why is gratitude so so important? To explain I’ll borrow and paraphrase words I heard from someone I’ve been following for over 10 years – ‘Happiness is not derived from the outside ie material things, it’s derived from the inside – and the way we do that is through gratitude of what we already have. Only then can we nurture what we want more of.’ – Darren Hardy.
If you’re interested, here are a few tips on practising gratitude that I’ve picked up over the years from reading/following the work of thought leaders like Darren Hardy and Shawn Achor (AKA ‘The Happiness Guy’).
*Focus on what you HAVE not what you LACK
*Take the focus off yourself and turn it on others
*Be intentional about giving thanks to people each day
*Swallow ego and express gratitude
*Practice gratitude every day to feel the benefits over a longer term
Writing a post on this topic is also a great opportunity to unashamedly express massive gratitude for key people who have and are influencing and supporting the ongoing journey of continuous growth – my amazing and supportive wife Emma, awesome business partner Chris, our Ops Mgr Louise, all of our mentors, our power team on the ground, all our paying guests and this brilliant property community.
And here’s one final thought:
Whilst this week is great for taking inventory of everything that might appear on our gratitude list, I also challenge you to think about how often YOU appear on someone else’s list- not just today, but throughout the year. Quite a re-frame isn’t it?
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.