Gratitude: Your Only Key to Success
Have an ‘Attitude of Gratitude’
Most of us chase success believing it’ll make us happy. But what if we’ve got it backwards? What if happiness actually fuels success? What if all we needed to do was to feel content, joy or have overwhelming sense of optimism?
I just finished reading the book “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor and he reveals what most of us never thought of: that being happy (or happiness in general) leads to success, not the other way around. And at the heart of this content feeling is the mindset of gratitude.
In this blog post, I’ll discuss three points on why and how, gratitude is a powerful key to success.
How Being Grateful Negates Negativity
Gratitude Leads to Success
Develop a Consistent Gratitude Practice
1. How Being Grateful Negates Negativity
At first, this might all seem like a bunch of ‘woo-woo’ nonsense. You might be thinking this is one of those ‘law of attraction’, hocus-pocus type of things where the mind shapes reality. Well, it sort of does.
In the book, “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor, he explains that humans have the natural tendency to look for the “negatives”. He calls this our “negativity bias”. Which makes sense: after thousands of years of evolution, we’re hard wired to scan for threats and problems in order to survive. This bias increases our stress levels (releasing a bunch of hormones called cortisol) and our heart rate goes up and our vision narrows, ready for flight or fight.
But in present day, this negativity bias is counterproductive (we don’t have to worry about sabretooth tigers coming after us). After doing some extensive research, Achor realizes that having gratitude or being grateful is an effective way to ignore the negativity and ease our stress levels. Here’s how:
By being more grateful, you begin to produce more dopamine which helps us relax and feel good.
By feeling more relaxed and better, our vision expands; from scanning what’s negative to scanning what’s positive. In other words, instead of seeing bad things, you can see the positives. To illustrate, imagine two people outside in a bright, sunny day. One says, “wow, it’s a beautiful day!” And the other says, “I wish it wasn’t so freakin’ hot!”
Who do you think is spotting the positives despite the negatives?With enough consistent gratitude (training yourself to be grateful), your brain can be more creative and solution-orientated, finding answers to problems, obstacles, even making difficult decisions you never thought of. Think about it; ever had to make a decision under stress? Or even under emotional stress? They usually end up being the wrong decision. By being grateful, you improve your decision-making skills by reducing the negativity bias.
As stated above, we can retrain our brain to look for the positives. And the result is our brains begin to think more clearly and more creatively. With this thinking, we can increase our chances of being successful whether it’s achieving a professional milestone, a new career or even with personal ventures like building more trust and having positive interactions. This leads us to our second point.
2. Gratitude’s Impact on Success
As mentioned before, by cultivating gratefulness you improve your decision-making abilities. This is huge since most of the time, decisions are accompanied by some sort-of stressor; like a time constraint or an foreseen obstacle. Achor cites that with your calm and positive-seeking brain, you are more open and able to notice solutions. You’ll see opportunities others might have missed.
If you work with a team, your colleagues will appreciate how resilient you are under pressure. This can help build workplace relationships, motivation and cultivating a sense of comraderie. And with a stronger workplace, any setback can be easily overcome. In fact, studies have shown grateful employees are more productive and have more grit to endure any challenges.
According to Achor, even a single, grateful boss can increase productivity by reducing burnout amongst the employees and increasing job satisfaction. That sounds like a boss I’d want.
Being grateful can have huge benefits in your personal life as well. Achor mentions studies how reducing stress at home can improve overall health and longevity. Being more appreciative of your partner can enhance your relationships and foster emotional growth. Your friends and family will appreciate the positivity you emanate, creating an upward spiral of optimism that benefits everyone.
3. Develop a Consistent Gratitude Practice
To start creating a positive mindset borne from gratitude, Achor gives a plethora of practical ways. One that I love doing is having a gratitude journal.
Gratitude Journals
Writing down my thoughts and appreciations has been an uplifting experience. This is probably one thing in my life I wouldn’t stop doing.
Achor recommends writing down three things your grateful for in the morning and another three at night. They can simple things like “I am grateful for this cup of coffee” or “I’m grateful for this pen and journal to write with.” Be appreciative for the bigger things like, “I’m grateful I can afford my new car” or “I’m grateful for my new promotion at work.”
Even better, Achor suggests to write statements that would otherwise be objectively seen as a negative. For example, “I’m grateful I only broke a leg and not my neck when I slipped down the stairs” or “I’m grateful I made it out with scratches from that car accident.”
Then before going to bed, write down your thoughts of the day and acknowledge the good that happened. This is a good time to reflect on your thoughts and vent onto the paper. Then write down three things you’re grateful for.
Another strategy Achor suggests is to to have “gratitude anchors” which are visual reminders of things you’re thankful for. Things like pictures of friends and family on your desk or cubicle wall. It could be a small trinket like a family heirloom or something a friend made for you. These totems can help bring about a sense of appreciation.
Lastly, Achor suggests sending a positive email, text message or a heartfelt greeting to someone in your social or professional network. This could mean texting a friend and telling them to have a great day or replying to an email and wishing the recipient good luck with their endeavors. You could even stop for some small chit-chat in the company hallway and acknowledge your colleague’s hard work.
By consistently practicing gratitude startegies’ like the ones above, you train your brain to scan for the positive, creating what Achor calls the "happiness advantage", where the relaxed and engaged brain leads to better outcomes across all areas of life.
What now?
By dedicating just a few minutes of each day to recognizing and appreciating the good around us, we’re not just improving our mood but rewiring out brain towards success via building resilience to obstacles as they pop up and spotting the opportunities that lies within them.
The research analyzed and conducted by Shawn Achor show’s us that gratitude is an essential tool and strategy to builds long lasting happiness. And the best part is you can start right now!
Courtesy Ali Abdaal
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