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Life Area: Personal
Topic: Gratitude
Gratitude and the Law of Attraction
Befitting the month of Thanksgiving, I thought I would blog on gratitude. Daily habits of gratitude and appreciation are one of the highest emotional states you can experience. When you cultivate gratitude, you’re able to feel true joy and contentment, no matter what you have or don’t have in your life.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
The Law of Attraction states that like attracts like, when you’re grateful for what you already have, you will naturally attract more for which you can be grateful. However, many people find that it requires great diligence to cultivate a persistent attitude of appreciation. That’s because we’ve been culturally conditioned by marketers to focus on what we don’t have, rather than appreciating what we’ve already received or achieved.
To help you combat this conditioning, here are 6 simple tips from my mentor and friend Jack Canfield on how to make gratitude – one of the most important habits of successful people – a natural daily habit, so you can attract more joy and abundance into your life all year long:
1. Take 7 minutes each morning to write down everything you appreciate in life
Starting your day this way primes you to be receptive and grateful for everything your day will bring. It also helps you cultivate an air of positivity that makes you naturally more attractive to other positive people – and inspires them to want to help you achieve your goals.
2. Make a conscious effort to appreciate at least 3 people every day
By letting people know how much you appreciate them, you increase their own sense of appreciation and self-worth and encourage them to pay this positive energy forward to other people.
While most people enjoy receiving verbal appreciation, written notes are also nice because they can be saved and re-read. (For ideas on expressing appreciation, grab your copy of The Success Principles and review Principle 53: Practice Uncommon Appreciation).
3. Play the appreciation game
Set a specific time each day to consciously appreciate everything you encounter. An ideal time to do this is on your way to or from work. Appreciate the people you pass, the road you walk on, the cars that let you merge into a different lane, the street signs that make it easy for you to know where you’re going, the rain that’s nourishing the plants and trees, and so on. Look for the good in all situations – even those you would normally view as negative. As the saying goes, “Every cloud has a silver lining.”
4. Carry a physical token of gratitude in your pocket, such as a heart-shaped stone, crystal, or some other small item
A physical reminder can bring you back to your daily habit practice of gratitude when your mind has drifted elsewhere. As you reach into your pocket throughout the day and feel the token, use it as a reminder to stop, breathe and take a moment to fully experience the emotion of gratitude. The more conscious effort you put into seeking it out, the easier it will be to find it – and the more powerful your experience will be.
5. Remember to appreciate the smallest blessings
The best way to activate your gratitude is by acknowledging the gifts most people take for granted. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population. If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the 1 billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most.
Do you have a phone? How about a car that allows you to travel to work or to explore the country? Is your family healthy? Do you have a computer and Internet access to stay in touch with the world, get access to education, and perform work for which you are paid? Do you have clean water to drink? Celebrate these simple blessings. These daily conveniences are gifts that most people in the world do not enjoy.
6. Appreciate yourself
Finally, don’t forget to appreciate your OWN positive qualities and accomplishments. In addition to celebrating your big successes, acknowledge your small daily successes too. We all need acknowledgment, but the most important acknowledgment is that which we give ourselves.
It may not feel natural at first to focus on appreciating what you already have, but by faithfully practicing the daily habits of gratitude outlined in this article, you’ll begin to change your conditioning.
Here’s a couple of other blog posts of mine on the subject that may be of interest to you:
Why Having Gratitude Helps You Achieve Your Goals
A Simple Mindfulness Practice – Keep a Gratitude Journal
And, this Talk with Tom Motivational Minute podcast episode:
Your Most Important Relationship – Your Relationship With Yourself
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My mission is to inspire people and organizations to live their highest vision.
I am a Success Strategist and Master Coach. I provide transformational coaching and training for individuals and organizations to help you Grow Your Life and Build Your Business by getting clear and focused on what you want, why you want it, and how to create it. Learn more about me at SuccessSeriesLLC.com.
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