Mighty Gratitude And The Iron Law Of The...

patrick & carrie Since moving to the beach, one of my goals each day is for my girlfriend, Carrie, and I to walk down to the beach… whether it’s morning, noon or night… to at least take a quick look and soak it all in.

It gives us a time to shut our minds off, breathe deep, and re-center ourselves on what’s truly important.

After a couple of months, we started “giving thanks” on our walk back to the house. We go back forth and say, “thank you, beach,” thank you, ocean,” “thank you, sand,” thank you, sun,” thank you, wind,” and so on… thanking anything and everything that comes to mind.

And although an attitude of gratitude is difficult at times, I have come to believe that it's an incredibly mighty force that can truly, completely change Your life if you allow it to.

Over at The Change Blog, Marelisa Fabrega says,

“Gratitude shifts your focus from what your life lacks to the abundance that is already present. Giving thanks makes people happier and more resilient, it strengthens relationships, it improves health, and it reduced stress.”

Hmmmm…

Let’s see, happier and more resilient, better relationships, better health, and less stress… Sounds pretty darn nice to me!

But you may be thinking, “I don’t have anything to be grateful for. There is no abundance in my life.”

Actually, there’s always something to be thankful for, as you’ll see in a moment.

Understanding The Iron Law

I said be grateful One of the things that helps me express gratitude for everything in my life is embracing “The Iron Law of the Universe” (as Brian Tracy calls it).

Basically it’s the great Law of Cause and Effect. It says that for every cause, there is an effect. Everything happens for a reason, nothing by accident. This law says that, even if you don't know the reason why something happens, there is still a reason to explain it.

So for every effect you experience in your life, whether it’s an abundance of something you want or a lack thereof, there’s a specific cause within you that sets that effect into motion.

Hard to swallow? Yes! But really incredibly empowering when you do.

Why? Because you regain the power to change your circumstances.

If you don’t like an effect, you can do something about it. However if you choose to complain and blame something outside yourself for an effect you don’t like, there’s no lesson learned. No change. You’re doomed to repeat the same thoughts and actions that produced that effect in the first place.

So Let’s Make It Tangible

Whenever a deal falls through…or a private lender backs out… or a contractor goes over budget… or [fill in the blank], accept things as they are and find something to be grateful for… even if it’s learning what not to do or who not to work with in the future.

As Kahlil Gibran said,

“I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.”

There’s always a lesson to learn, always something to be thankful for. Your choice is whether you will look for it, find it and benefit from it, or simply just let it pass you by.

Mr. Franklin’s Opus

ben franklin Several years ago I read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. In it he explains his dedicated pursuit of the virtuous life.

Franklin had an incredible drive to constantly improve himself and accomplish his ambitions. So he committed himself to a personal improvement program that consisted of living 13 virtues.

Franklin kept track of his adherence to these virtues and would focus on one each week. After 13 weeks, he had gone through the 13 virtues and would start all over again.

So I decided to do the same and chose gratitude as one of my personal virtues.

When that week rolled around, not only did I give thanks for everything in my life…

I showed my appreciate to the core members of our real estate investing team,
I wrote tons of thank you notes,
gave me assistant a gift certificate to a spa,
sent flowers to the women at our closing attorney’s office,
and bought gift certificates for our contractors to their favorite restaurants.

The response was incredible. It’s amazing what showing a little appreciation does. And keep in mind, to show your gratitude, you don’t have to buy people anything. It could be a simple phone call just to say, “Thanks!”

People Crave Appreciation

This may seem an obvious truth, but I now believe a vastly underrated and not very well understood one. Showing sincere appreciation can have truly powerful results, often more than you even realize at the time.

As Dale Carnegie once said,

“Nothing else so inspires and heartens people as words of appreciation. You and I may soon forget the words of encouragement and appreciation that we utter now, but the person to whom we have spoken them may treasure them and repeat them to themselves a lifetime.”

And William Arthur Ward said,

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

In my company we have 9 core values that we work and live by, one being “Gratitude for everything.” This means being thankful for all things that cross our path and expressing appreciation to our subscribers, members and partners.

So let me take this time to say “THANK YOU”.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my little lesson here. I’m grateful for your attention and trust in me, to provide something of authentic value for you to learn from. I appreciate you educating yourself and taking massive action towards your success.

So what about you? What are you grateful for?

Develop an attitude of gratitude. Think of the last rough patch or sucker punch you've encountered. What can you find in that to be truly, earnestly grateful for? Try hard. Something you learned? A trickle-down benefit of some sort? Perspective?
Embrace “The Iron Law of the Universe.” For every effect you experience in your life, whether it’s an abundance of something you want or a lack thereof, there’s a specific cause within you that sets that effect into motion.
Start spreading the love. Tell your friends and family, everything in your life, how much you appreciate them, and keep doing it every day until it becomes a habit…and then eventually just an ingrained part of who you are.
Make it your own. Craft a set of core values for yourself and your business...the things you really hold in high priority...and make gratitude in all things one of them.