Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

Count your blessings, not your troubles. Take time to smell the roses. It is not uncommon to hear that someone, because of an accident, became blind or paralyzed, but won a million dollars in a settlement. How many of us would like to trade places with that person? Not many. We are so focused on complaining about things we do not have that we lose sight of the things we have. There is a lot to be thankful for.

When I say count your blessings, not your troubles, I don't mean that you should become complacent. Attitude of gratitude does not mean complacency. If complacence was the message you got, then I would be guilty of faulty communication and you of selective listening.

To give you an example of selective listening, let me share with you a story I heard about a medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholics. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health. He had two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol. He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top. He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes. He wanted to prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body. He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said, "If you drink alcohol you won't have worms in your stomach." Was that the message? Of course not. That was selective listening—we hear what we want to hear and not what is being said.

Many of our blessings are hidden treasures—count your blessings and not your troubles.

Get into a Continuous Education Program:

Let's get some myths out of the way. It is a general belief that we get educated in schools and colleges. During my seminars in many different countries there is a question I often ask my audience, "Do we really get educated in schools and colleges?" Generally, there is a consensus that some people do but most don't. Don't get me wrong. We receive a lot of information in schools and colleges. We do need information to be educated. But we also need to know the true meaning of education.

Intellectual education influences the head and values-based education influences the heart. In fact, education that does not train the heart can be dangerous. If we want to build character in our offices, homes and society, we must achieve a minimum level of moral and ethical literacy. Education that builds fundamental traits of character—such as honesty, compassion, courage, persistence and responsibility—is absolutely essential.

We don't need more academic education; we need more value-based education. A person who is morally educated will be a lot better equipped to move up in life or succeed than will a morally bankrupt person, with excellent academic qualifications.