You might start doing it, but very quickly become disheartened with the lack of success, and fall back into old habits and laziness. This backslide is the real enemy when trying to build new habits and attitudes into your life.
One way to maintain the hard work and willingness to keep plugging away in the face of adversity is that old standard of polite civilisation, gratitude.
That’s right, learning how to say thank you, and more importantly feel that thank you, is the key to keeping working.
How Do You Maintain Hard Work in the Face of Adversity
Gratitude isn’t a magic power. It’s not some hippie-dippy, new age nonsense. It’s a logical approach when it comes to accepting and challenging your views on your life and relationships. It lets you be accepting and joyful with what you have, removing expectations and self-doubt, seeding confidence and strengthening relationships.
This is what really lets you break out of those old toxic habits. It’s what lets you see your life for what it really is, and start moving in the directions you need to, to achieve your long term goals without getting disheartened.
Really, that’s what success is about. A willingness to habitually and aggressively leave your comfort zone, and suffer the uncertainty and humility, and persevere through that to develop new skills. That’s what sets apart the truly successful, and gratitude is a big part of that.
Without the embrace of friction, stress and real work, you can never really hope to achieve real growth and eventual success.
How to Build Gratitude into Your Life
Building gratitude into your life isn’t actually all that difficult. All it really comes down to is building fresh, healthy habits. Ten minutes of self-reflection, thinking about all the different things you have to be grateful for in your life, is all it really takes.
For people badly out of practice, this can actually be pretty difficult. That’s where meditation and note-taking comes in. Meditating for just ten minutes before reflection can help achieve the genuine clarity needed to really explore gratitude.
Note-taking and writing down your thoughts and ideas can also be a spectacular way to give yourself something quantifiable to look at and build upon.
The fact is, actually embracing gratitude, and making it a big part of your life and attitude really isn’t all that difficult. What can be difficult is the commitment and regularity needed to make it really work. Once you start seeing results, it becomes pretty difficult to stop, however.
The Cost of Gratitude
So what’s the cost of this supposed superpower? What’s the downside? There must be something. Well, there is. The cost is your ego. Your inflated sense of self-worth, your expectations of your life and relationships. Your depression and dissatisfaction.
That and a couple minutes every day to meditate and reflect on all the things you have to be grateful and about.
Helpful Tips When it Comes to Gratitude
The fact is, from the richest man on the planet to the very poorest, unluckiest man, everyone has something to be grateful for. Even just being born in the 21st century, with unprecedented levels of social mobility and healthcare is something huge to be grateful for.
Another helpful tip is the Analyze.Life app. This can help you really focus your efforts, develop your approach and start seeing real results in your life. Utilising gratitude will help you pursue that richly rewarding, less trodden path.
Struggle isn’t Be Negative
In conclusion, the one thing you should remember and think about is that struggle, if it’s in the right direction, isn’t necessarily negative. Embrace the hardship, leave your comfort zone, and use gratitude as your crutch throughout.
At the very minimum, that passion project work and enthusiasm is the best state to live your life in.
