How Gratitude Can Be Key to Success and Happiness in Your Life

Guest Author: Lorenzo Cicetti

We understand that your attitude and personality are one of the most important things that will bring you success in life and in business. Think about it; which would you prefer: to work with someone who is negative about their life all the time or with someone who is positive and upbeat about the future? A person who is focused on the future, who is helpful, and who has determination and hard work will be successful. He is much more powerful than the one that is steeped in doubt. These entail an attitude of gratefulness for the life he has. This is the reason why gratitude is so important.

You may have heard of the law of attraction - what you put out into the universe, you receive in turn. Since thoughts are energy, it is only logical that energy impacts the physical world around us. This is why it is extremely important to be careful of how your emotions control you! If you can keep a positive mindset, you will receive positive effects in your life. Gratitude is one of the most important things you can implement in your daily life. Think about it, when you have forgiven someone, or you are happy with your life situation, life seems so much easier.

No matter how bad life is, there is always something that you can be grateful for. If you can not think of anything, you need to take some time out of your life: sit down, think, and write it down. Thank God, the universe, whatever your preference is that you have someone or something special in your life to be thankful for. Keep real reminders about what you are working for;for whom or for what reason, and you will be able to make gratitude a part of your daily life.

Think about the successful people. They have pictures of their families on their desks. This helps them stay motivated and they are reminded why they are at work that day! You do not need pictures to do this. Just any little object that will bring about the feelings of gratitude in you will work. Perhaps, your degree, pictures from a holiday that you took, or maybe a picture of your goal that you are working towards.

Once you develop that attitude of gratitude, your mindset will be realigned! When you get in touch with your higher mind that is full of positive thoughts, you will reap its benefits!

Lorenzo is a Personal Development Coach and an Internet Marketing Trainer that shares his knowledge to empower people achieve their dreams and goals. Please visit Gratitude: Success in Business for tips and advice.

Day Ten: Sometimes Life Can Be Tough...

People love to wonder why "bad things happen to good people"...well, in truth, they happen to bad people too—we just don't care as much. Life isn't easy for any of us, but for those who have faith, it's a lot easier to take the good with the bad.

The amazing thing about life is how often so many of us take the little things for granted because we are too busy complaining about the big things. Of course that's only natural, no one likes to have his/her progress impeded by obstacles. So, we rail against those intrusions with our fists clenched tight and our voices screaming loudly to no one in particular: "WHY ME?!? WHY ME?"

Well, why not you? Who are you, specifically, to be immune to disaster? Last check there were only two mortals in the last 50-years who could profess to be even the slightest bit unnerved by life's injustice—one was named Ghandi and the other was named Mother Teresa—neither showed a penchant for complaining much.

The truth is, you aren't immune to anything. Life is going to take its best shot at you because that's what it's supposed to do. So, the real question you need to be asking instead of "why me?" is "what am I going to do about it?"

Day Ten: Know Your Dreams...

Do you know what you want out of life? If you don't, it's foolish to expect anyone else to be able to figure it out for you. Know yourself before you decide to become one with another—that can make all the difference.

Too many men and women are running around looking for a partner to define them. They don't feel complete without someone standing by their side telling them how important they are because they are loved.

Well, contrary to what you might have been told, you cannot count on another person to make you feel whole. It's far better to figure out who you are, for yourself, using your own devices, before you place your psyche into the control of another.

See, the trouble with losing yourself into a person is that if that person leaves, you won't know where to find what you have lost. How will you decipher the real you from the one who was attached to the label of girl or boyfriend? Do you know who you are minus your mate?

The question is the same where friendships are concerned. Don't attach your identity to the clique you claim or the social group you represent. You have to know who you are before you enter into a relationship, of any kind, with anybody. If you don't, you aren't doing yourself or those who wish to claim you, any favors.

Spend some time, alone, finding out exactly who you are now and who you want to be—get secure in that—and then take the steps to find the people who most compliment those ideals.

Day Five: Change Is....Good?

People are who they are. You can try and change them but, in your attempts at doing so, ask yourself this: would you be open to someone trying to change you?

You hear a lot of chatter, particularly in relationships, about a person who seems unwilling to compromise. He or she just isn't willing to bend long enough to understand "my perspective", "my needs", or "my point of view". The belief behind that is simple: if they do things my way, things would be much better between us.

Understand something, most people aren't willing to be changed by any one person. They feel good about who they are and what they've done and, honestly, if their philosophy on life and dealing with people has, successfully, gotten them this far, why should they feel that doing things your way will be any better?

The important thing to do when you recognize an incompatibility, is to see just how much of an issue it truly is in your relationship. Is it a deal-breaker? Does it truly change the dynamic of your communication approach so much that you find yourself unhappy? Is it something you simply cannot live with?

If the answer to any of those questions is a solid yes, perhaps the only change you should be making is in the person you've chosen to spend your life with.

Nobody is perfect, so the best decision you can make for yourself where relationships are concerned is to not allow your time to be wasted by any one who isn't on the same page as you because, no matter what your circumstance, we are all worthy of a life more divine than the one we'll just settle for.

Day Two: Whose Life Are YOU Living?

You can either let others live for you or you can live your own life. Take a stand, be proud of who you are, and remember that you are your own legacy—leave something behind that you can be proud of.

It's a simple concept, really, most of us have no idea how to live our own life. We are all constantly influenced by the environment around us: people, places, commercials, television, movies, friends, colleagues, etc. There is, literally, no way of understanding where the "I" begins because it is so intertwined in the "we" of society.

So, how does one detach from the madness long enough to gain an understanding of who they actually are—minus the bull? Well, there are no hard-line answers to that question, but there is a methodology to it all that can make that act a lot easier:

1. Make a list of everything you think defines you.


2. Mark off all the items that relate to your profession, your material  possessions, and your education.


3. Now, look at that list...what's left?

If the answer is "nothing", you have a lot of work to do. However, if what you see in front of you is a list filled with possibilities, something you—the person—can build on, start from there.

The point is, no one is looking for you to lead a perfect life and, the pursuit of said perfection will never grant you the happiness that you're looking for. Stop wasting time looking for that elusive and fantasy-born ideology of a "happily ever after"—it's not there.

Start living the life that makes YOU happy and let that life make this world a better place to be present in—for you, for others, and for the legacy you haven't created yet.