Gratitude will make you happier

ONE of the trademarks of humility is Gratitude such as by saying Thank You for a good job done. It is the simplest but the most powerful way to acknowledge another person’s value and humanity. In today’s competitive marketplace, enlivening and motivating staff is the key to building a team that out-competes every other player in our market.

The difference it will make if leaders come to work with a positive upbeat attitude allowing them to support and encourage everyone to give their best, versus an ‘the world is against me’ attitude.

My experience told me that a positive attitude to life attracts like-minds and builds a creative, competitive environment.

An attitude of ‘life is against me’ only draws in the negative and generally drives out anyone and anything that has a flicker of imagination or energy.

We say Thank You. It’s something we all learned as a child. What many people might not realize is that these two words of gratitude have a profound impact on our daily outlook, our ability to chart a course of success and most importantly to be happy.

Not to mention, there are significant health benefits from embracing gratitude. Research shows that people who are more grateful have better heart health and more diseasefighting cells in their bodies.

Today we live in an environment where being overworked has become the norm and where demands for excellence are on the rise. During my younger day in Yayasan Sabah, I had the good fortune to work under the late Datuk Kong Yin Loong who often expressed gratitude for any extra effort.

In a working environment when employees feel that their boss recognizes and rewards them, they become grateful for their work assignment and the opportunities they have to grow and learn new things.

Working for a boss who is kind cultivates grateful employees who are loyal to the company and more inclined to go the extra mile.

Similarly, being grateful improves our outlook on life, our career and ourself.

This is simply because grateful people with high self-esteem and confidence are more willing to take on new challenges and are more optimistic about their endeavour. Try being kinder and more grateful and I’d be surprised if you weren’t more self-confident.

“Thank you” is a form of vulnerability that drives out and defeats shame. Saying “thank you” suddenly transforms grief into growth and pain into perspective.

Being thankful for what you’ve endured brings you into the present moment and helps you remain grateful for where you’ve landed on the other side.

“Thank you,” then, is a form of self-love—a wave of compassion sent back inward that recognizes the strength it took to overcome the hardships and challenges to get to where you are today.

Expressing “thank you” shows that you appreciate and respect what connects all things. Whether it’s to the handy man at the building, your nightmare former boss or an ex whom you truly loved” thank you” shows that you recognize the value of a situation or a person in your life.

It is a tremendous display of respect because it shows you appreciate that person’s presence. Thus, the expression of “Thank you” or gratitude in this context is ultimately a realization of the oneness of all things.

You are dignifying another person in this way is also a way to dignify yourself—to become conscious that we are all one in the same.

Gratitude opens up a door of possibility. There’s no truer form of acceptance than saying “thank you.” Being thankful is a shift in energy that attracts new and exciting things into our life because it signals that we’re ready to receive them.

Gratitude opens up little doors in your heart that you previously kept locked. And when those doors unlock, it’s possible for you to pick and choose your own adventure.

It’s possible to start over. It’s possible to pursue any direction your heart can imagine as long as you recognize that you’ve had the power within you all along.

There are serious ramifications when employees and especially the bosses are not grateful but rude. A boss who never shows gratitude can ruin morale, drag a team down and lose hard-working employees.

His disparaging attitude is making him the scumbag of the industry that invites recipes for disaster.

A 2015 Gallup poll revealed that “one in two employees had left their job to get away from their boss to improve their overall life at some point in their career.” Hence, being an impossibly demanding and ungrateful boss is not something to aspire to.

However, it is important to realize that sometimes people are dealing with personal issues that may impact their ability to be grateful.

In this case, it’s your chance to show some compassion and kindness!