‘Tis the season of gratitude and holding a gratitude mindset. The holidays always seems to put most of us in the mood to look forward in our lives. Begin to set goals for the upcoming year for ourselves personally and of course, professionally. The question I have this morning is, how does having a gratitude mindset help you reach your goals? I thought I would try and answer for myself and you.
When you have a long-term goal you are working towards, it’s easy to be so focused on it. We start to believe we will miss the mark on happiness because the goal is all consuming. That is until we reach the goal. It’s important to have long-term goals. Full stop! But not at the expense of your daily life. Staying in a place of gratitude for what you already have and what you’ve already achieved in your life can be a huge benefit in reaching your goals.
Gratitude Makes You Happier
Neurologists have learned feelings of gratitude actually change the way your brain works. When you are consciously aware of all the wonderful things in your life, you are happier and more content. When you are happy and feeling good about your life, it’s easier to believe that more good things await you down the road. Translation for you as a business owner – you’re happier means your employees and the other stake holders are happier. When the happiness levels are raised in and around the workplace, the ripple affect becomes really apparent. The benefits are more productive employees and less sick days. True!
Gratitude Lowers Stress
A life filled with the struggle to always be better will lead to a life of stress. Yes, you want to reach your goals. You want to unlock all the potential that’s inside you. But finding a way to balance this desire with gratitude for what you’ve already accomplished and what you have in your life today is also important. When constantly pushing yourself forward, it’s easy to believe you aren’t good enough today. Focusing on what you have to be grateful for today lowers your stress level and helps you enjoy the journey to your ultimate goal.
As a business owner, less stress in the workplace immediately translates into more confidence, better work relationships, and over all higher productivity. This is also a benefit to your bottom line.
Gratitude Makes You More Optimistic
Believing the grass is always greener on the other side is a sure way to ensure your dissatisfaction with life. It makes you feel like you may never get the life you want. This pessimism just makes everything in life harder. You may even just give up on your dreams because you don’t believe you can attain them. Keeping a grateful mindset offers you a way to enjoy life now and look forward to the future, once your goals have been realized.
Looking at the glass half full creates the mindset of looking for solutions instead of challenges. With your employees, or yourself as well looking at solutions first empowers everyone to work harder and begins to show in their work ethics.
Obtaining a grateful spirit doesn’t take a lot of time and effort. But it makes a huge difference in your life, both personally and professionally. A great idea is start by keeping a small notebook with you or using an app on your phone available to you. You will use these to note the little things happening throughout your day you are grateful for. Some people prefer to keep a gratitude journal by their bed and add a short list of things they are grateful for that day. Give it a try if you feel you’ve been too focused on a goal and it’s making you unappreciative for what you already have.
Share in the SpringBoard group what other ways you have a gratitude mindset in your daily life. We would love to hear it.
Need support with your start up business and goal setting? Reach out, I’m here to support you and your success.
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