Someone with an attitude of gratitude appreciates everything in life. They are grateful for their relationships, their health, their business, and their sense of well-being.
Having an attitude of gratitude is important because it shifts your focus from yourself to appreciating someone else or something else.
An attitude of gratitude means making it a conscious habit to express thankfulness and appreciation for every part of your life. Having an attitude of gratitude means you operate from a place of abundance, rather than scarcity.
When you develop an attitude of gratitude you feel happier and more positive. Gratitude increases compassion and self-care. It also makes you grateful for the people and things that matter.
In this article, I’ll share the importance of being grateful and give you five ways on how to develop an attitude of gratitude.
Read also: How practicing gratitude can change your life
Why being grateful is important
Gratitude shifts your mindset. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what you have, not what you don’t have. When you express gratitude you feel more positive and are more intentional.
Developing an attitude of gratitude requires a mindset shift to make it a daily habit to be grateful for and thankful for everything you appreciate in life.
Gratitude is important because what you appreciate grows and increases in value. When you practice gratitude your relationships, your work, your health, and your mindset become more important to you.
Being grateful improves your self-confidence, self-esteem and enhances your enjoyment of the present moment. When you feel grateful daily, you feel more positive and are more present at the moment.
Read also: 6 ways to develop a gratitude mindset
What is an attitude of gratitude?
An attitude of gratitude means creating a conscious mindset and habit to express thankfulness, and be grateful for, every aspect of your life, both the things that are going well and the things that aren’t.
When you have an attitude of gratitude you focus on expanding the positives in your life, rather than dwelling on the negatives.
When you express gratitude you feel more confident, positive, and optimistic. You also feel happier and joyful about the things you have, and the people that matter most.
This mindset reduces stress, overwhelm and frustration and creates feelings of abundance and happiness.
Achieve more abundance, read my guide on 7 ways to develop an abundance mindset
How to develop an attitude of gratitude
Here are 5 ways to develop an attitude of gratitude:
1. Appreciate everything
To cultivate an attitude of gratitude look for things to appreciate daily. Developing active gratitude is different from reactive gratitude.
With reactive gratitude, you wait for something to happen before you express appreciation or thanks.
With active gratitude, you consciously look for ways to be grateful and express appreciation. Expressing gratitude becomes a choice.
When you express gratitude daily, the things and people you appreciate grow in value. You also start to see more things to be grateful for, which makes you happier and more content.
By appreciating everything, you will have far more gratitude in your life which increases positivity and happiness. Being a positive, grateful person attracts other people into your life who have a similar mindset.
Read more tips on how to be happier.
2. Express gratitude every day
To cultivate an attitude of gratitude, it’s important to express gratitude daily, rather than on occasion.
Developing a gratitude practice of acknowledging what you’re thankful for or appreciate every day, will expand the value of the things you are grateful for.
Increasing gratitude starts with setting up your day to be thankful. A good gratitude practice is to start and end each writing down three things you’re grateful for.
Expressing gratitude daily builds positive habits, and forces you to appreciate every day, even if you’ve had a bad day.
The repeated process of expressing gratitude daily helps to deepen relationships, improves your self-care practice and gives you time to think and be present.
Developing a gratitude practice may seem strange or difficult at first. After a few days, it gets easier to identify and express gratitude for the things you’re grateful for.
Use my guide on how to plan your day to introduce a gratitude practice.
3. Surround yourself with gratitude mindset focused people
To develop an attitude of gratitude, it’s important to surround yourself with people who also have a gratitude mindset.
When you surround yourself with people who practice gratitude, your gratitude and appreciation grow. You feel happier, more positive, more energised, and more motivated when you spend more time in a positive environment.
If you spend time with negative people or people with a scarcity mindset, you’re more likely to have a similar mindset.
Find people who are grateful and appreciative and spend more time with them. Take your gratitude practice to the next level by sending handwritten letters or notes to those people saying how much you appreciate them.
4. Take ownership of your present
Developing an attitude of gratitude starts with appreciating and giving thanks for what you have. Being happy about what you’ve achieved and giving thanks to the people in your life increases your gratitude.
When you take ownership of the present moment, you choose to be grateful. You choose to be optimistic and positive about the present.
When you are grateful for your present situation, you can reframe how you think about what’s important right now. This will help you get clear on the future you want to create.
When you take ownership of the present, you focus on achievements and the progress you’ve made in your life. A positive mindset reframes negative thoughts and builds confidence from past accomplishments.
When you express gratitude, feelings of anger, guilt, and self-pity stop. They are replaced by feelings of self-confidence and self-worth. This also builds positivity and excitement.
When we feel grateful, we make decisions and communicate more effectively. We also take action to create the life we want.
Learn the transformational power of being present.
5. Commit to a gratitude practice
When you commit to a daily gratitude practice your mindset and thinking change. When you appreciate things that matter, you get more insight into what’s important to you.
This gives you a chance to pause and think about your purpose. You get clear on why things are important and why certain things and people are valuable to you.
Committing to a gratitude practice helps you understand why you appreciate certain things rather than others. You also get to see the positive effect your gratitude has on others.
Conclusion
Start an attitude of gratitude by choosing to appreciate the most important things in your life. You can start practicing gratitude by writing down three things you’re grateful for each day.
When you express gratitude, a gratitude habit develops that will change your life. An attitude of gratitude also ensures you feel happier, more positive, and more excited.
The value of the people that matter most will appreciate. This ensures you appreciate them even more.
Other mindset articles
23 important ways to be strong-minded
16 habits of mentally strong people
7 essential habits to develop mental strength
About the Author
Mark Pettit is a time management coach based in Colchester, Essex, UK. He is the Founder of time management coaching company Lucemi Consulting.
Mark provides time management coaching to entrepreneurs and leaders. He work with clients in London, Essex, Suffolk, East Anglia and across the UK and US.
Get more tips to develop an attitude of gratitude on the blog. To plan your day effectively, download my free daily planner.
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1. I am greatful for my work colleagues for their daily support . I give gratitude to them every 1 day of each month.
2. I give gratitude for my family each day .3. I give gratitude fir the nature that surrounds me .
Hey Molly, thanks for letting me know. These are great things to express gratitude for
Daily gratitude first thing in the morning and last thing at night before bed is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done in my life.
It’s so easy to get into a downward mindset and caught up in the small things that are annoying you and thinking the sky is falling in but when you ask yourself what you are grateful for daily it really changes your perspective.
I need to ask myself specific questions like “what FIVE things am I grateful for today?” because it forces me to list out at least 5 things whereas if I ask “What am I grateful for today?” if I’m in a particularly negative state of mind I might say “nothing”!
Absolutely, specific daily gratitude in the morning and evening is very powerful. That’s very true on being specific – personally I write down 3 things in the morning and evening.
I like “Commit to gratitude practice” until unless we commit we will not do it. Thank you for the good article.
Absolutely, commitment is key. Thanks for the kind comments Chris.