Thank You
It’s hard to remember to be grateful in the age where entitlement seems to be the norm. We can have everything in front of us and often still ask for more. Our health is one of the most underrated things we can possess. However, we often allow ourselves to eat junk, to stay up too late, read garbage, overwork, and spend an excessive amount of time in television and media. The world around us is a gift; and it’s sad to fall into the mindset that it’s a boring place to be.
If we’re not thankful for what we have, then we lose peace of mind. There’s no amount of money that you could put on finding peace. The amount it “costs” is in how much discipline you have to stay present with what is - even when it feels boring. The mundane has its value, too. How could we really know what peace, joy, and happiness are unless we have something on a spectrum in which we can compare them?
It’s not easy to be thankful in the corporate world, because the mindset is often set on financial profit. Gaining more, earning more, and moving up the ladder is a soul-killer if not properly regulated.
While it’s great to be ambitious, it would be a tragedy to lose sight of what’s important. I have more respect businesses like Starbucks in comparison to the average big names. They became massively successful because they valued customer service. I read an article that stated that the owner had once shut down a massive number of Starbucks, if not all of them, in order to have the employees re-learn and understand quality customer service. What’s interesting, is how consistently attentive and pleasant (most) the baristas have been at every Starbucks I’ve gone to.
Finding value isn’t an easy task. It takes no effort to be cynical in a flawed world. We can be bitter, hateful and always something to be upset about if we choose to look for it. But, why waste a life on hate when there are so many better things to focus upon?
Maybe we’ve been depressed for a long time and it may seem like things just won’t ever change. Maybe it seems like everybody has it easy except for us. We can never know what goes on beneath the surface of anyone, or what battles they’ve gone through to earn the confidence they have. Others simply build themselves a glass house of fake confidence. The point is that happiness, gratefulness, and joy take effort - they don’t just fall into our laps. But, they are worth our time, because they bring immense value, not only to ourselves, but others around us. No amount of money, power, or control can give us the peace or sense of happiness that love and being grateful contain.
For further related reading, please check out: Love is Coming.
