By BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA
The ember months are here! Permit me to welcome you to the month of September! Please never simply shrug your shoulders, wondering ‘what’s the big deal about a new month? Today, let’s discuss gratitude, a word coined from the fusion of two words – grateful attitude.
One of the mental traps that some goal getters unwittingly get into around the last few months of the year is the anxiety of falling short of their benchmarks. This, if unchecked throws them deep into the swamp of ingratitude and its attendant consequences. Ask any highflyer you know, they’ll tell you how important a joyful disposition is buffered by a sense of gratitude. This disposition keeps them in ‘the race’.
If you are a regular reader of my column then you must be a highflyer. So, I decided to walk you through these last four months of the year with nuggets that will help you keep your heads up and ultimately close the year with a power finishing.
Did you know that the gratitude attitude is sometimes not automatic, that you sometimes have to intentionally ignite it and gradually taxi it along your life’s runway till you take off into amazing altitudes?
A wise man says gratitude is the debt one pays to get to the desired altitudes. Like every other attitude, gratitude feeds from your mindsets – positive or negative. Mindsets, simply put, are thoughts, learnings and experiences that gradually become concretised as beliefs, perspectives, viewpoints, etc. and they dictate to you how to respond to things or situations per time. Your enthusiastic or rundown disposition to this season of the year is thus, a direct function of certain mindsets you hold, either knowingly or otherwise.
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Now, let me help you do a simple mindset detox because attitude recalibration is a core discipline in character development. One positive mindset that can help you be grateful is the understanding of what’s most important for life! This template makes you repeatedly answer the question: What’s basic and more important in life? It involves painting different scenarios each time as you answer the same question. Let’s go!
Answer these questions: Which is more important?
- The ability to sleep well and wake up or the quality of building that you woke up in without a good sleep?
- The ability to eat and stay alive or how expensive the location where you got the food you couldn’t eat?
- The ability to have clothes to wear to cover your body, or the label of the clothes that you have but can’t wear?
- The capacity for your legs to freely move you around or the brand of automobile that takes you around without your limbs?
- Having children with sound minds or the status of hospital where you had a still birth?
- Having footwears to protect your feet or the brand of shoes that you have but with no legs?
- Gaining stability on your meagre-paying job, or being totally out of a job?
- Entirely staying out of reach or having a simple phone to communicate pending when you get a higher version?
- Making consistent little strides on your goals or get stuck trying to start big to make a statement?
- Becoming a young widow/widower to a rich spouse or living long with your loving but struggling spouse?
- Waking up in a boys’ quarters in a run down apartment in a suburb or waking up daily with a failed internal body organ crisis in a prestigious specialist hospital?
- Walking around as a free citizen of a third-world country or being held hostage in a prison in a first world country?
So, really, what’s more important to you in life? You probably are already at an advantage, if your answers largely favoured the sentence kickers. The lesson here is that a grateful attitude doesn’t come from having everything, it comes from recognising the value of what you already have, rest assured you will get all else.
Be thankful that your clothes cover your body. Be thankful for the house you live in; within those walls, you can be your truest self. Our homes preserve our pride, our clothes preserve our dignity, and gratitude helps us see these ordinary things as extraordinary blessings.
Even the world order teaches us clear lessons. Did you realise that no matter how accomplished you get, you can’t sleep in two rooms at the same time, though you may own several apartments. You can’t drive two cars at the same time, even if your garage is full of them. You can’t wear two pairs of shoes at once, no matter how many your closet holds. You can’t be in two places at the same time, no matter your level of wealth or influence. Life constantly whispers to us that so much of what we chase is excess, not essence.
That’s why gratitude is powerful. Be grateful that your thoughts aren’t visible to everyone, imagine if they were. Would people still value you! Be thankful that your clothes cover your body. Be thankful for the house you live in; within those walls, you can be your truest self. Our homes preserve our pride, our clothes preserve our dignity, and gratitude helps us see these ordinary things as extraordinary blessings.
Even creation itself is a lesson. Two eyes, two ears, two legs, two hands, two nostrils, two lips, most of our internal organs come in twos. Balance is written into the very design of our being. Extremes destroy, but balance distinguishes.
So as you step into September, door way to the ember months, don’t just count the days—make the days count.
Stay observant, stay grateful, and stay balanced. These three traits will set you apart and help you finish strong.
Happy New Month to you again. You may wish to get resources from my store. Simply click this link: https://selar.com/m/BosedeRCA
I remain committed to adding value to you. If you loved what you read, let me know; also, feel free to share it with another value-loving person or platform like you or yours. You should likewise reach out if you would love to book a corporate training session on teamwork attitude optimisation, leadership sustainability, corporate culture creation, exceptional customer service, or a personal character development coaching. I will be glad to serve you.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
