Success & Gratitude

Success is not easy to define, it means many things to different people. Be it doing well in a career or business enterprise, raising kids you’re proud as punch of (or puppies), harvesting your first ever crop of tomatoes, or simply feeling joy and fulfilment in life.

Yet success is hollow without gratitude. We don’t achieve success in accomplishing our vision and heartfelt goals in isolation. Yes, it’s up to us to put in the work and effort but we’ll find behind any success the support and encouragement of others, and from our environment. A kind word delivered just when it’s needed the most, something that’s given without expectation of receiving anything back, or a magical moment when things just seem to come together. It could be the strength we derive from faith or spirituality, or whatever force gives us the strength to keep going when we might otherwise be tempted to pull the duvet cover back over our heads.

Gratitude supported my healing recently and I cannot underestimate its power. I’d been living a bit off the beaten track where things get pretty quiet come nightfall. One evening a few months back I injured my ankle while out walking with one of my dogs. As soon as I got to grips with the initial searing pain, gratitude kicked in. My dog had not run off chasing stuff but was sitting patiently by my side till I was ready to try standing up, result! A neighbour up the hill called out through the darkness to see if I needed help, someone cared! I had an adjustable wine cooler in the freezer ready to wrap around my ankle, what a relief! My physiotherapist was available to do a house visit the next morning to do an assessment and treatment, massive grateful relief! Another dear neighbour went out of her way the next day to source crutches and a support boot to help me heal more quickly and be able to get around a house with many, many stairs. 

Fortunately, I healed from the injury in just a few weeks. Yes, it was me that did the work doing the exercises the physiotherapist recommended at each stage of the healing process and me who did the ice baths for the ankle twice daily. But at each stage I was also fuelled by gratitude. Through the ankle mishap and getting my physio to come over I learned the best possible news - I had finally healed both achilles tendons. For 2.5 years I’d not been able to dance, something I love to do, because of damage to those tendons. Somehow the pain of the injury was less important than the joy and gratitude that soon I’d dance again!

Putting daily focus on gratitude can be a truly beneficial practice. It’s not a habit I always had but the difference it’s made to my experience of life has been huge. I see and feel the difference that a gratitude focused outlook makes. 

Gratitude feels easy when life flows well. But yes, it's more challenging in times of difficulty. Yet gratitude empowers us to be more, to be better and to take responsibility for our experiences. It can help shift a day when everything seems to be going completely awry. It encourages us to reflect and see the lessons behind life’s inevitable challenges and adversities. Gratitude expresses and is focused on abundance, helping us overcome adversities faster than we might otherwise. “Woe is me”, bitterness and blaming on the other hand, although initially can seem comforting, does not help provide solutions nor make our experience of life better - there the focus is around fear and lack, creating the opposite of abundance.

So, how can you begin to shift focus towards gratitude? Start the day by placing attention on gratitude, make it part of your morning routine. Try this:

• Get a journal or little jotter to write out daily gratitude each morning before events take your energy elsewhere. 

• Write out 3 things each day you are grateful for. Start to notice and appreciate the little things, it’s not all about the big stuff. 

• If you can start really seeing and focusing on what there is around you and within you to be grateful for, especially when times get rough, you will begin to notice a shift in your overall experience and how you are able to handle challenges.

Bumps in the road are inevitable, how we handle them is up to us. When we direct our focus towards gratitude we feel more abundant, allowing more of what matters to us to enter our experience. Success!

Hannah x

P.S. If you’re feeling a bit off kilter and would like someone impartial to chat with, book the FREE YouLiberated Friendship Connection Call. It's waiting for you right here x