Gratitude is not a Platitude

To succeed you've got to have the "attitude of gratitude." Big deal! Law of Attraction? Laws are broken every minute. But, if you don't practice gratitude you won't attract the wealth you deserve; really? What about greedy pigs who take what they want with no appreciation for where it came from. Do we really need to waste time on examples?

I do believe the Law of Attraction works and I do believe that Gratitude is an essential part of the formula for authentic success in life and business. This is because I know that true success is a product of abundance in 3 key areas of life: material, emotional and spiritual. Tolerate scarcity in any one of these areas and you will not feel successful.

Gratitude is not, however, an ethereal concept to me. Gratitude is extremely practical and rational. It simply works; here's how:

Pay attention to what you've got right here and right now and you always have an accurate inventory of the resources you have in the present moment. No matter where you're going from here or what your plans for tomorrow you've realistically got to start with the resources you can access in the present.

No matter how few your resources, gratitude gives you a perspective of abundance. Focus on what you don't have and your perspective is one of constant scarcity. What can you do with what you don't have? Focus on what you have and work from there; no matter how modest those resources are.

A gratitude practice doesn't need to be formal, religious or written out in a twelve-step program. Just take a daily look at your life and give some thought to what you have, the people who care about you and the gift of life that connects you to something larger than yourself. I try to start and end my day with this simple exercise. When I do I always start the day from a position of relative abundance and end it with a feeling of appreciation.

I'm not saying you have to be satisfied with your current conditions or circumstances. What I'm saying is that focusing on scarcity always leads to more poverty. Goals and aspirations for improvement can be very powerful motivators. To have the faith necessary to support action you've got to have some reasonable expectation of success. That faith comes from knowing that you have access to the resources in body, mind and spirit you need to take at least the first step. Practicing gratitude gives you an inventory of those resources.

My gratitude practice is very simple; I'll share it here:

Thank you.

Jim Bouchard is America's Black Belt Powervator: Speaker, coach & author of Dynamic Components of Personal POWER. Book Jim for your next corporate event or conference. Call 800-786-8502 or visit JimBouchard.org.