Enriching Lives through Online Training

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
(Resource: Life's Greatest Lessons, by Hal Urban)

During his many years as a high school and college teacher, Hal Urban would do an experiment with his students which never failed to produce “results.” This experiment consisted of three parts/assignments:

(1) Attempt to go the next 24 hours without complaining. Carry a piece of paper with you and if/when you slip up, write down what you complained about.

(2) Each student was then asked to fill out a sheet of paper titled “I’m thankful for …” with three columns: “Things,” “People,” “Other.”

(3) Within the next 24 hours, read these lists four times: after lunch, after dinner, before going to sleep, and the next morning before going to school or work.

Commenting on part 1, he states: “By a conservative estimate, I’ve now challenged more than seventy thousand people of all ages to try this. At last count, I’d found four who didn’t complain.” At the conclusion of this experiment (as his students arrived in class the next morning after completing part 3) he comments: “Their body language coming into class was significantly different, not only from the day before but from any previous day. There were more and bigger smiles, eyes were open wider, and bodies were more alive. Magic? No, just appreciation. Thankfulness does wonders for the soul.”

Thankfulness / Gratitude is a habit of thinking … a frame of mind … an attitude. It has been said – “Attitude is everything.” … and indeed it is … for our attitude literally regulates/ determines our entire quality of life! With a negative attitude, nothing seems to “go right.” With a positive attitude, even when things don’t go well, we tend to do as another saying recommends - “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” A wise and loving Father in Heaven knew all-too-well that we can grow only through meeting/ overcoming trials/ tribulations. With a poor attitude, they are all obstacles; with a positive one, they are opportunities. In the movie, “The Sound of Music,” when confronted with an unexpected change in her life, Maria reaffirms, “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.” Out of every adversity emerges the seed of an equivalent and often greater opportunity. With a good attitude (an attitude of gratitude), we will be able to see it … with a poor attitude (an attitude of ingratitude), we will be blind to it. Focus on what’s right instead of what’s wrong and it will make all the difference in your life (and the lives you touch)! Perhaps nothing can sum this up better than the second verse of the well-known hymn, “Count Your Blessings” –

Are you ever burdened with load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings; ev'ry doubt will fly
And you will be singing as the days go by.

(A wonderful movie about gratitude -- Pollyanna) ( ... be an Inverse Paranoid!)
(Read From Chaos to Contentment)