We all know that gratitude is important. How does gratitude actually change your
life?
Gratitude is something that we talked about quite often here on the channel.
And we've got a returning guest today. Live On Purpose certified coach. Dan
Hartman. -Hey, it's great to be here. And I'm excited to talk about gratitude.
Today, it's one of my favorite subjects. -That's why you're here. And you've got
reasons to know what you know. -Exactly. -You know Dan, we all have a story. We all
have experiences in our life that the inform us about these principles that we
talk about here on the channel. And gratitude is one of those very powerful
starting points, if you want to call it that. It's kind of a launch off
point for everything else that happens. I know you've got some really great
thoughts put together for us. What do you have to say about gratitude and how it
can change our life? -Yeah, absolutely, Paul. So, we're going to talk about 3 ways
that gratitude can truly change your life. So the first way, Paul is that
gratitude allows you to have a life that's full right now. Now, not it the future
and not when you bring something in that you want but right now. So, you know it's
natural, Paul. And we talk about this a lot. You want an upgrade, we want more in
our life. We might want a better job. You know, a better relationship possibly. We
want a better house or a better car. That's natural. But that is the creation
part of things. We want to create, we're natural creators. When we're evaluating,
when we're looking at our life, that's where gratitude comes in. It is what is
what is currently in our life. And as we look into our life and we look at all
the blessings in our life, there's an amazing full list. And maybe some of our
viewers that are watching this might think, "Oh, I don't have that much of my
life." But if I was to sit down with you and we
really kind of pulled back the layers. I mean, think about it. Most of us, this
morning got up and walked out of our bed down the hall. We can see, most of us can
smell, can hear, can taste. Those are things we take for granted a lot
times. Yet, there are amazing gifts that you know, that we've been given in our
bodies. And so the list can go on and on whether it's friends and family. Whatever
it is. We all live very rich lives. And so focusing on what is in our life allows
us to fill that gratitude. -And you pointed out that we get to have that now.
-Right now. -And this is a trap. -Nothing else is needed.
-You know this. And the people that you've worked with have probably experienced
similar things. Where we get into a trap sometimes. It's like I'll be happy when.
-When. -Right? When I have this or after I've achieved that or completion of
whatever. Your point is so powerful Dan that as we practice gratitude, we get to
have an awesome life now. And now is when life is happening. -It is. -This is it.
-Might as well be awesome. And we all have those awesome life. And not that we
don't wake up some days and think, "Oh man, I wish and I want..." That's natural. That's
natural human tendency. So gratitude, we're going to talk about this in a sec,
Paul. Gratitude is something you have to exercise. Just like a muscle in a gym, you
have to exercise it often. It just doesn't come naturally. But the more you
make it a part of your life, the more you go to a place of gratitude, the more your
mind will actually start to shift. And I'm going to share an example here in
our second point about gratitude. And gratitude, number 2, allows us to deal
with trials and adversities and a lot more natural and better way. When we have
gratitude in our lives and trials and adversity comes, which it all does for
each of us. Gratitude helps soften that out. Let me give you an example. Just
in July, driving to work. You know a normal day. The day before the fourth of
July. And a deer jumped out and collided with my car. -Wow.
-Thankfully I was able to keep control of the car. I pulled over the next stop. But
immediately as my car came to a stop. This immense feeling of gratitude just
washed over my whole body. Obviously have adrenaline running. But I had gratitude
because of a universal truth, Paul. And you talked about this always time.
Things can always be better and they can always be what? -Always be worse. -They
can always be worse. And that is a universal truth. And gratitude is
focusing on that the what is is good. And in that moment, when that deer collided
with my car, I was okay. My car wasn't okay. I had a huge crack in the
windshield, the whole front was smashed in and ended up being totaled. But I was
okay in that moment. And because I've been trying to practice gratitude so
much in my life, I realized in that moment, in that split second that I just
averted something. I could have swerved, I could have you know, rolled over the car
the deer could have come through the windshield. But in that moment I had that
sense of gratitude. -Because it could have been much worse.
-Absolutely. -It's obvious that it could have been better too. You get to pick which
one you're going to focus on. Gratitude, I believe Dan, is probably the fastest way
to get into a positive mindset. -Absolutely. -And that's why we start with that. Now,
you've referred to a couple of times the creation process. We're going to do that
too. We're going to go improve and upgrade our life. -We want the upgrade. -That the
paradox is you have the best chance of upgrading your life when you realize you
don't need too. -Isn't that amazing? -That funny? -Yeah. -You're going to because
you're not going to just stay where you are. -Exactly. -You're going to move forward and do
something. Gratitude as you pointed out, powers us up. And puts us in a position
where we actually have a better chance to achieve the upgrade. And we don't
really need because this is awesome. -Isn't that amazing? -Yeah. -So our lives are
awesome today and yet, guess what? Upgrades will come. Good things will
continue to come in our life. But as you hit on, Paul... When we're in that space of
gratitude. When that what fills our hearts, we live each day with a lot more
joy and then when the good things come in our life it's just like the cherry on
top of the sundae, right? -Right, exactly. Another... Another concept with gratitude.
Not only in the current moment of dealing with trials and tribulations. But
I've also been able to use it looking back on things. So there was a time in my
life, I had a 10-year span where I worked in the high-tech industry. I
laid off 3 times. Each of those times was terrible.
I didn't know what to do. I was... It was really unforeseen and I had a lot of
fear and anxiety about the future but each of those times I was laid off, the
subsequent job I landed was better than the one I had. And I look back on that
time in my life now. And I look back on it with a sense of gratitude. So, not only
can we use gratitude in the present moment. But we can look back and look at
times in our life that we thought maybe we're at a trial. And they were a trial,
it was adversity but we realized there were silver linings that were blessings
associated with that. And we can then realize that you know, when we truly do
put gratitude first in our lives, that things do work out and it gives us more
faith for the future as well. -It's not just for now. -Correct. -You know what? I've
learned as a psychologist that when we experience depression, it's usually about
you know, everything that's already happened to us. When we experience
anxiety, it's about imagining what's going to happen and we don't know. -We
don't. -So we have to take a position about that somehow and our imagination
allows us to do that. Gratitude can be used to change the past.
-Isn't that amazing? -I've always said, "I'm not very good at changing the past." You
know what? This is how you do it. -Absolutely. -The past only exists in your
current thinking about it. Think about what I'm saying there. -Mm-hmm.
-It doesn't really exist except in your current thinking about it. And if you
choose to apply gratitude ,like you're suggesting here, Dan. It changes your past.
You get to look back on it differently than if you have regrets or if you're
feeling like, "Oh, I blew it." And that's just a position. It's just an opinion
anyway. -Exactly. Now, it's pretty powerful. And then again, going back to the
exercising of gratitude, it's like a muscle. When you first walk into a gym
and you go when you lift a 15 pound dumbbell. You know, it might feel you know
a little bit of resistance. You might go home the next day you might feel sore.
And if you just give up. When you're never going to get anywhere past that.
What's interesting is the more... Like just like a weight in a gym. The more you
exercise that, the more you make it part of your life then it just becomes
natural. And that's how our minds work. Our minds typically work when we do
things more and more and more. Gratitude can not only be of, "Oh, I need to go to a
place of gratitude." Gratitude as already's there. And it will be there
whenever you go through whatever you need to. -So, the third way in gratitude
that can truly change your life is that as Paul mentioned, when our lives are
full and we truly feel that it's full, gratitude allows us to go out and see
and serve others needs. You know, we talked about it. Can always be better, can
always be worse. It's very easy to look around us and find people that how are
in a worse off situation. -Yeah. -So, when we truly feel blessed in our own life and
our life's are full, we naturally want to give back. And as we're going into
the holidays this time of year, that's a natural thing we want to be able to do
it is help others out. And so we can shine our own light and help others for
to fill their needs when we have gratitude in our life. -Yes. It gets us
outside of ourselves. -Hmm. -Really. So that we're not focused on, "Oh, I'm lacking this
or I don't have that." Gratitude puts us in a place where, "You know what? I'm good."
-Yes. -And that allows us as you're saying to start looking outward a little bit.
You know? Where can I impact or serve or bless the life of someone else?
-Absolutely. Yeah, it really is. And this all comes back to again. And I want to
stress this. We want to achieve and we want to strive for goals and we want to
strive for change and grow as human beings. But the reality is our lives are
full now, today. Who we are and what we have been
given in this life is amazing. And so focusing on that creates this amazing
sense of well-being in our bodies and our minds and our spirits and allows us
to do those 3 things that allows us to be in the now moment. It allows us to
deal with trials and tribulation to look back on that change the past. And truly
serve others. -I found, Dan that some people are resistant to acknowledging the
gratitude. And this is a little weird but it might make sense to you too. That if I
say that this is good then I'll never get
anything better. -Yes. -Right? Which sounds a little weird when I say it that way. But
this is where we get trapped sometimes. -Exactly. -I believe that that is a misguided notion. And
here's the the only reason that I'm thinking that is that things are not, Are
Not going to stay the same. -They never do. -They can't. You're going to
get older. It only goes one direction. -That's right.
-Right? So because things cannot stay the same, they have to change. Who is going to
be that agent for change? -We are. -Exactly. -Yup. -You're the creator. Tune into that.
What we've shared with you today about gratitude is the most powerful way that
I know to put yourself in position to create something totally amazing.
Think about it. It's kind of self-explanatory. If you, if you imagine
that you're feeling defeated or depressed or like you've failed or
you're totally flawed. Okay, how likely are you in that energy to go do
something productive? -Not very likely. -You're more likely to make a mess. -True.
-And you're capable of making a mess. Tune into that. You've got this
creative power. When you start from a place of gratitude. And a profound
sense of the abundance in your own life, right now. Like Dan said, you get to have
a great life now and it sets you up to create an even greater life moving
forward. -Absolutely. And it's in your life. It's there now. If you need help finding
that, sit down with a loved one a family or a friend member and have them help
show you that gratitude we all have blessings in our life. Find those
blessings, acknowledge them, hold them close to your heart and live them and
you'll change your life with gratitude. Dan Hartman. He's got some good energy,
doesn't he? He's one of our Live On Purpose certified coaches. Go to liveonpurpose.coach
and you can connect the Dan through that
site.