Daily Leadership Thought #188 – Count Your Blessings
If you are paying attention, you have blessings all around you. It’s just a matter of focus and perspective.
Some people handle whatever life throws at them, while others are beaten down by even the smallest challenge. Why is this? Every day, we have the opportunity to make a choice. We get to decide what we focus on and our attitude about it. You can choose to focus on what is right with your life and use this optimism as a launching pad to handle any ensuing difficulty, OR you can obsess over what is not working and see a struggle around every corner. Ultimately, life is fundamentally shaped by your perspective.
A friend of mine, who faced a difficult period in his life, told me that counting his blessings every morning when he got into his car helped him get through it. At first, it wasn’t easy, but once he established it as a daily ritual, it became much easier. He used the practice as a positive anchor in his life to keep him going, and guess what? The list of blessings continued to grow over time. Even in periods of severe stress, most of us can find something positive to cling to. It can be our faith, health, family, friendships, our comparative financial situation, work, volunteer activities, hobbies, where we live, how we live, etc.
On any given day, good things do happen. You just need to be paying attention. Look for the good in others and yourself. Practice simple, everyday common courtesies. Imagine how much more challenging it is for so many other people in the world compared to you. It’s quite startling when you really come to think about it. When faced with the inevitable obstacles on your path, resist the urge to succumb to the negative energy surrounding the issue. Take a step back, take a deep breath, and reflect on the relative reality of the situation. Very few things are life-threatening. You will overcome this challenge, just as you have with many other difficulties in the past. And, there will be people you can lean on if needed.
I’ve read and heard countless times that people, when confronted with terminal health issues, often reach a period of acceptance, grace, and appreciation. They understand the value of a given moment and the power of a loving relationship. Most of the personal baggage seeps away as they strive to make peace with those around them and themselves. Their memory becomes selective, and they choose to remember what went right in their life. While it’s comforting to hear this, I also think it’s unfortunate that it often takes extreme conditions to offer such a generous perspective.
I encourage you to take a moment to count your blessings now. Accept each day as the gift and opportunity it truly is. Whatever your situation, it is more than likely temporary, has multiple solutions, and it will subside or change into something different (hopefully better). This doesn’t mean you passively sit back and do nothing to address the issue; it means you accept that life has its twists and turns, and all you can do is your best in response. To be at your best, you need to be in a positive mental state.
Related articles
- Blessings (awakeninspiration.wordpress.com)
- Small blessings (liftupavoice.wordpress.com)
- Count Their Blessings, instead of Yours (tinaquynh.wordpress.com)
- Count Your Blessings (believersbrain.com)
- Count Your Blessings! The Power of Positive Thinking! (healedhearthypnosis.wordpress.com)
