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Gratitude: the antidote for discouragement
There is no single thing that one can do daily that will have as big an impact on life than making a conscious effort to express gratitude.
Often the reaction to that is, “I will be grateful when I achieve my goals,” which leads to discouragement when the goal is not achieved. Discouragement is the bane of happiness and the root of depression and must be avoided at all cost. The antidote for discouragement is expressing gratitude and there is lots to be grateful for, such as; good health, family, the air we breathe, community, friends and a host of other wonderful things that are taking place every day.
Like so many things in life the key is to begin. Here are a few ideas that will help start the process of expressing daily gratitude.
1. Take a few minutes every morning to write down what you are grateful for in your journal in point form. It could be as simple as one word. When you have your list, finish with thank you. It doesn’t matter if you believe in a higher power or just in the power of the universe to provide. The key is to express gratitude in a tangible way.
2. Take time in your day to say thank you to someone. If you can send a thank you note even better. There is nothing like a thank you note, but if you are busy and don’t have time a quick phone call, even a text or email is better than not saying anything.
3. Pay it forward. Have an attitude of freely received freely give. Share encouraging ideas or words of comfort with someone else with no thought of what you will get in return. Do it anonymously if you like; you will get great joy from the doing. There is no better way to increase your happiness than by freely giving to others.
4. Finally, practice being happy. Take a lesson from the Dalai Lama who daily practices happiness and teaches others to do the same. He claims that despite what the news media is telling us wonderful things are taking place and when you see the facts that indicate a reduction in poverty, illiteracy and mortality worldwide you have to agree with him.  Whatever happened yesterday or even a few minutes ago is no longer relevant to your happiness and what will happen in the future is beyond your control so live in the now and when you do you will find there is much to be grateful for and much to be happy about.
The secret is that the more grateful you are the more you will receive. It just happens, you can’t control it, you just have to believe that being grateful will benefit you. Being grateful leads to happiness, happiness defeats discouragement which leads to better health and more abundance. It’s contagious.
Happy New Year, may 2017 be the best year of your life.
– Colin J. Campbell – CFP, CLU is an independent financial advisor and managing partner of Guidance Planning Strategies Ltd, in Cranbrook. Serving the Kootenays since 1995, Guidance Planning Strategies focuses on helping families and entrepreneurs create wealth and keep it for generations.