Do you express gratitude every day? Are you able to be thankful for what you have and for what you are even if everything doesn’t seem to be going the way you want it to go?

After an amazing weekend in Texas, then another indescribably awesome RKC weekend, Kenneth Jay asked “are YOU chasing you dreams?” in a recent blog post. This made me start thinking. Pondering my dreams, etc. and it left me with this conclusion:

I can without doubt say that I am absolutely NOT chasing any dream. I am living my dream. For that I am SOOOOOO grateful.

So how did it turn out this way? I will tell you, but it will be lost on a great many. If you have the ears to hear it, here it is:

Be thankful in all things.

If it sounds Biblical, that’s because it is. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:18 for more.) But I am not writing to preach, that isn’t my calling. I just want to say a bit about being thankful.

Gratitude is not an emotion, it is an action, the first action required for true success, prosperity and happiness. Being thankful is the OPPOSITE of complaining. Of course, I complain about things far more than I care to admit, but my baseline attitude has become one which allows me to find whatever opportunity exists in a situation. Sounds simple, but it takes practice to get there.

If you are truly thankful for everything you have, everything you do, you will manage things well and more good stuff will come to you or happen to you. If you complain about everything or make excuses (I don’t have time, money, opportunity, etc) then you are setting yourself up psychologically for doom.

I am busier now than I have ever been, it can be overwhelming, but the second I start to complain, I give myself a mental ass-kicking to get back on track. Example: I was looking over my flight schedule for my Tokyo kettlebell workshop next week. I will spend 30+ in an airplane over the course of 5 days. I caught myself thinking about how cramped that is going to be, how long that amount of time is and then I realized I was complaining about being successful! Not only that, but the circumstances of that “complaint” are completely self-created and self-imposed. I put a LOT of effort into getting to the point that I can travel and get paid to teach kettlebells. After thinking about it for a moment, I was overcome with gratitude.

Think about this: Whatever circumstance (whether you enjoy it or not) exists in your life, YOU probably had a huge hand in creating it. Be thankful.