Thank You Thank You Thank You

-Devlyn Steele

We often talk about developing an attitude of gratitude. Anyone working on life improvements will read about it over and over again as most authors discuss the principle. When I present the concept, people in general tell me that they practice being grateful. However, individuals are always telling me how they are not as happy as they want to be. This leads me to believe that in actuality most people don't live a true life of appreciation.

The concept behind developing an attitude of gratitude is very simple. You change your experience in your life by focusing on what you are grateful for, rather than on what you feel your life is lacking.  Unfortunately what we often dwell on are not what we feel appreciative for, but our frustrations. As we focus on the negative aspects of our lives we not only lose appreciation, but we also lose the quality and enjoyment in our lives.

Changing your experience is as simple as truly taking time to be thankful. As we focus on being thankful we feel better and enjoy more. As in anything, it is not in the recognition of the concept that creates change, but in the doing. In this case the doing is very simple. All you need to do is take a second throughout your day to be thankful for random aspects of your life.

To give you an example of how powerful changing your focus is, let me tell you how I approach coming home regardless of where I live. I have had the blessing in life to live in wonderful homes. However, at certain stages my personal circumstances had changed due to different obstacles that presented themselves. In those times I found myself living not to the standards that I was familiar with. At first when entering my place of residence I had a negative appreciation as in thinking, "Is this really where I live?'

I consistently had those thoughts and the result was I was always feeling down where I lived. One day I turned that around. Instead of resenting where I lived as I walked through the door I would say out loud, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I decided to appreciate where I lived. After some time I began to enjoy my surroundings and instantly had a different reaction when I walk in. This helped me not only enjoy the day, but have positive energy towards changing my circumstances.

You can transform your experiences by really living an attitude of gratitude. It can start the second you wake up. After all you woke up, you didn't die in your sleep. You have the day to live so start with, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." You turn on the lights and wow, they come on, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." You turn on the water to brush your teeth and water comes out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." You go to get dressed and you have clothes, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The list of what you could be thankful for is endless. Make a game out of it. See how many times you can say out loud, "thank you, thank you, thank you" throughout your day. Continue to do this all week and feel how your energy changes. Compare days where you say thank you more than other days. You will be amazed how not only you change your experience, but how that translates into you getting more done. As you get more done, you create more positive changes and guess what? You then have more to be thankful for.

Enjoy the positive effects developing an attitude of gratitude will have on your life. Start today, it is so simple, simple say, "thank you, thank you, thank you."