From the picture alone, I could tell that Josh is a great kid.
I don’t know for sure, but I bet he comes from a loving family who couldn’t be more proud of him. He looks enthusiastic. Happy to be alive.
Of course, I don’t know if any of this is true. But I hope it is. Because Josh is a U.S. Marine who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan last month.
Just last week, he received two prosthetic legs. And as I write this, he’s undergoing rehabilitation in a military hospital.
He’s 19 years old.
Seeing Josh’s picture last night stirred a lot of emotions in me. One of those was a strong feeling of gratitude.
Gratitude for Josh. For his incredible selfless sacrifice. For the fact that he made it out of there alive.
Gratitude for my health. For the fact that I can walk, run or skip down the street…because I have both my legs.
Gratitude for my family. For our home. For my business and my great clients.
For the fact that I don’t ever have to wonder where my next meal is going to come from.
I obviously don’t know where you are in life right now. I don’t know if you’re going through good times or hard times. You may be in a very, very difficult spot right now.
If that’s the case, my heart feels for you.
But regardless of where you are at this moment, I hope you take some time this week to be thankful for all the great things in your life, whatever those people, things and situations might be.
That might be tough advice to swallow if things are not going real well for you. I respect that.
But we all have something or someone to be thankful for. And by acknowledging these wonderful people, situations and things, we not only kick-start the healing process, we also attract MORE goodness into our lives. Which gives us even more to be thankful for.
And so the process continues.
This is no secret. The power of gratitude (and the vicious cycle it creates) has been written about for centuries. But it was only last year, while going through a difficult period in my life, that I discovered the importance of being sincerely grateful. No matter what.
I learned that super successful people like Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Dr. Joe Vitale, Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn and many others consider gratitude the most important keys to achieving success in every area of life.
Specifically, being grateful for what you have now BEFORE you start focusing on what you want.
Learning about Josh was a sobering experience. I’m driven and goal-oriented. Which means I’m constantly thinking about the future. Because of that, I can easily lose focus on all the things I have to be thankful for…now.
What do you think? Have you ever had a bad situation improve as a result of being thankful for the good things in your life?
How were you able to overlook all the bad stuff and focus on the good?
How do you practice gratitude in your everyday life?
Share your thoughts below…
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Ed Gandia is a co-founder of TheWealthyFreelancer.com. He is grateful to be alive, healthy, free… and for 977 more people and things for which there’s no room to list here.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
What a lovely post. Your advice is so very true. I think everyone has had difficult things happen – both personally and professionally. Being thankful is helpful no matter what the situation. It’s awfully hard to do sometimes, but being thankful when things are grim can help you turn things around. You’re right – there’s always someone less fortunate than you. It’s amazing to me how the people with the least are often the most thankful for what they have. We can all learn a lesson from that.
Thanks for sharing!
“…by acknowledging these wonderful people, situations and things, we not only kick-start the healing process, we also attract MORE goodness into our lives. Which gives us even more to be thankful for.”
Quick personal story here which (at least for me) is proof of the above caption from Ed’s article…
For the past several months our little girl (she’s 1) has had a hard time sleeping through the night. Waking up multiple times was not uncommon, to the point where I found myself conditioned to be lying awake for up to two HOURS, unable to fall asleep because I knew that her wake-up cry was coming! LAst night, I took a different approach. Lying in bed, I spent close to 10 minutes thinking about my kids and how grateful I am to have them.
You can guess the rest of the story… yes, our baby girl slept through the night for the first time in months!
I’m not saying this was by my doing, I’m not even saying I know how to explain how on earth this happened, I’m just saying… it happened.
My wife and I finally had one of the best night’s sleep in months. (And as a result, I woke up grateful for THAT too!)
Wow, what a powerful post! I’m a sneeze away from financial disaster myself, but I thank God I have my health, and my kids and wife too. I also thank God for Josh, and I thank Josh for his sacrifice and his wonderful attitude.
I think about the people I volunteered to help back when I was in college: poor farmers in the Dominican Republic living in shacks with dirt floors. They had to go out to a common well to get water. However, they were always in a good mood, and my partner and I were always invited to different houses to eat. They shared what little they had.
And here I am feeling bad about my situation.
Great post and thanks Ed!
Great perspective in this post. I completely agree that when times are tough, it’s important not to overlook all of the good stuff. And I always approach a less-than-ideal situation with the thought that everything will work out in the end – as a general rule, it does! For me, many great things in my life have come out of bad situations.
This is also very important to freelancers. It’s easy to worry about slow times, but why not consider them a great opportunity to get back on track with marketing/admin work? When frustrated with cash flow, remember all of the amazing perks and freedoms we enjoy as self-employed.
Oh! And I find that in the process of trying to solve challenges, I really tap into my creativity in ways that I don’t when things are going smoothly.
One of my clients is Children International, a child sponsorship agency. To shoot TV commercials for them, I’ve traveled to the poorest parts of Honduras, The Dominican Republic, and the Philippines. The poverty I saw was unbelievable, such as people living in homes made of garbage bags and kids digging through trash to find food. These trips were difficult and I was feeling sorry for myself.
One day we were shooting a scene near some railroad tracks. The little girl in the shot wasn’t looking at the camera the way we wanted. So without thinking, I pulled out my set of keys and started jingling them to get her attention. It was a natural thing to do. I’ve done it a hundred times. Then it hit me … those keys opened doors to a big house, a nice car, a safety deposit box at a bank, and other things that little girl will probably never have.
At first I felt guilty. Then I began to feel blessed. When I returned home, everything seemed greener and brighter. Ever since then whenever I’m feeling like things aren’t going my way, I jingle those keys and remember what I really have. Even on my worst days, I am a rich man.
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for your comments and insights. I’m thankful to have all of you in “The Wealthy Freelancer” community. You guys truly inspire me!
Laura – Great to see you here! Thanks for your kind words. You’re right — when times are tough there’s even more reason to be grateful. That’s counterintuitive to most of us (I know it was to me until very recently).
Pete – As you very well know (heck, you taught me this!), there are no such things as coincidences!
Fernando – Your attitude is amazing! Our character really shows when we’re put to the test, and the fact that you’re so grateful and have such an amazing perspective right now tells me that you’re on the right path. I wish you all the best, my friend. I know things will turn around for you.
Marlene – Your comment is right on target. Reminded me of a very inspiring fact. Did you know that the best wines in the world come from grapes that grow on highly stressed vines? These vines grow in horrible soil conditions and receive very little water and desert-like heat for 2 – 3 months. This forces the vines to grow deeper roots and work harder, which helps produce wines of deep complexity and character. I think it’s the same with people. As much as we hate tough times, if we treat the current environment as an opportunity to stretch ourselves — to grow deeper roots — we will come out of this mess much, much stronger. And richer in every way.
Dean – Thank you so much for that story. I got teary-eyed reading it. Isn’t it amazing how those with the least are often those who are happiest? I’ve seen poverty, but nothing like what you’re describing. And those who have seen it tell me the same thing: that these people were happy even though they had NOTHING. Wow! I’m going to use my keys to remind myself of this. What a great way to bring yourself back to reality.
Ed, thank you for sharing this! I just had a chance to read it now.
And thank you to the other posters for all your sharing as well. Very moving.
What immediately came to mind for me was how when I was terminated in May, I got a lawyer involved – totally out of my realm to be terminated the way I was. Anyway, the day I had my final meeting with him and discovered that I really had no recourse for what I had endured, I came home and phoned my parents to bring them up to speed. My mom listened caringly and then when she sensed I was done, she told me that a longtime family friend had been aboard that flight that went down (June 1) that left Rio de Janiero for Paris. I was stunned to say the least, but once I had a chance to comprehend it, I became keenly aware of the devastation to his widow and two beautiful boys, one of whom was graduating from university in a matter of weeks – and how their sorrow would probably never completely abate. I shook myself off and said “in six months, my life will be completely different”. My so-called dilemma is not permanent, nor even all that important. And six months later, to the day, on Saturday, I am having an open house to officially launch my freelance copywriting business and I already have clients!
A quote, which I can’t attribute just now and will likely botch: If you remove the stones, the brook loses its song.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wow guys. Amazing stories here. I’m loving this thread. And, I’d really like to share with you all something beautiful which helped get me through a hugely traumatic experience a few years back. You may recognize this from the book “The Prophet”
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
I read those words when my dad was dying of cancer. He was a lovely man who, at the end of his cancer battle, suffered a slow and painful exit from this world. To watch it happen first hand was gut-wrenching. And yet, amidst a waterfall of my own tears for my dad, this poem helped me see that I was indeed ‘weeping for that which had been my delight.’
In tough times, those words helped me. If you’re going through a rough patch, I hope they do the same for you.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends, readers and visitors to The Wealthy Freelancer.
Ed, every night, my kids, hubby and I take turns thanking God for the blessings we have received that day. It’s a family ritual we’ve been doing for maybe 6 years now. In the beginning, it was awkward. Even hubby and I felt self-conscious. Occasionally, one of the kids would say they can’t think of anything.
But DH and I teach them that there’s always something to be thankful for. It may not always be something so extraordinary as a big birthday party or getting A’s in school. It can be as simple as being thankful for a delicious dinner, not being sick, and yes, simply being alive and able to walk and run and see and hear.
Come to think of it, the kids don’t complain about not having anything to be thankful for. Even the 3-year-old always comes up with at least one thing every night (usually something to do with food).
Thanks-giving should be something we do every single day. Let’s count our blessings every night before we sleep.
So thanks for this post. Happy Thanksgiving!
Lexi
Corinne – Thank you so much for sharing that. Wow! That really puts things in perspective. Just when you think things aren’t going well for you, realizing that there’s always someone else who’s worse off than you are sheds a whole new light on things.
Pete – I love that excerpt!!
Lexi – That’s is a WONDERFUL habit! You’ve just given me a great idea. When we say grace before dinner every night, I’m going to ask my wife and son to share something/someone they’re thankful for. I’ll do the same. It’s a small thing, but it helps foster an attitude and culture of gratitude. Thanks for sharing this with us.
A while ago someone said to me that when we aren’t grateful for everything we have — and instead focus on our “lack” — that we see the world in black and white instead of technicolor.
And it works. The more you focus on what you do have, the more vibrant your life becomes.
Thanks for a lovely post, Ed.
Hi Dianna! That’s so true. What a great way of putting it.
Coincidentally, I just came across this excellent article as I was cleaning up some files in my office: http://ow.ly/JRQt
Couple of interesting points from this piece:
* Research has shown that grateful people have more energy and optimism, are less bothered by life’s hassles, are more resilient in the face of stress, have better health, and suffer less depression than the rest of us.
* People who practice gratitude are also more compassionate, more likely to help others, less materialistic, and more satisfied with life (how true this is!)
* When you practice gratitude, you naturally search for kindness, love, and goodness throughout the day so that you’ll have something new in mind to be grateful for when bedtime rolls around and it’s time to give thanks for the blessings you’ve received that day.
The article also talks about a daily practice from a Benedictine monk — a beautiful ritual that speaks to what Lexi suggested in an earlier comment here.
I’m trying to be more mindful of the many blessings in my life. It’s hard when you’re in the middle of it all. But I’m realizing that it’s an essential ingredient for happy and successful living.