Dr. JJ's Rule #11: Be Grateful

GRATEFUL people tend to be HAPPY people.

In a previous article, Dr. JJ's 13 Rules for Living were shared.

Click HERE to access JJ's 13 Rules.

This week's blog post addresses Dr. JJ's RULE #11, which states:

Take nothing for granted, and in everything give THANKS. 

The United States and Canada recently celebrated their annual Thanksgiving holidays. This occasion has always been one of my favorite times of year. Aside from my love of good food and drink—which so richly abounds at a North American Thanksgiving feast—I appreciate the reminder and opportunity this holiday affords me to inwardly express and outwardly display my immense gratitude for my endless blessings.

We do not, of course, need a formal holiday to give thanks. Gratitude ought to be a daily, and even an hourly, practice in our lives. No matter how challenging life may be at any given moment in time, there are always people and things to be grateful for. 

Indeed, it has been my observation that serendipitous blessings and favors abound—even, and perhaps especially—in my life's most difficult hours. And the more closely I pay attention, the more fully I recognize the grand scope of my fortune. For this, and for everything else that is good, helpful, and beneficial in my life, I am most grateful.

On the topic of gratitude, one leader has written and spoken with particular urgency and eloquence. Said he: "Gratitude is a sign of maturity. It is an indication of sincere humility. It is a hallmark of civility."  

"Gratitude is a sign of maturity. It is an indication of sincere humility. 

It is a hallmark of civility."* 

— Gordon Hinckley

Self-action leaders recognize that their blessings and favors never end.

I am personally thankful for so many things. First and foremost, I am grateful for my faith, and for the author thereof (God), who I believe is the source of all my blessings. 

Next I am grateful for my kind, intelligent, and beautiful wife—my best friend, lover, and closest confidant. After that I am thankful for my three smart, talented, and adorable children. 

I am also thankful for my ancestry, genes, and good health. Then comes gratitude for liberty and opportunity, and my opportunity to increase my freedom over time through Self-Action Leadership. I am grateful for education and good books that helped me to develop the SAL Theory and Model. I am thankful for sunlight and shadow, and for this beautiful Earth so richly warmed, illumined, cooled, and protected by both.

I am especially grateful for the never-ending small, personal, and tender mercies that come into my life on a daily, even hourly, basis. Such blessings go largely unnoticed by others. But I recognize their continual entrance onto the stage of my life, and acknowledge the reality and magnificence of this continual serendipity that I personally ascribe to an all-loving Creator that I believe watches over me and my family continuously.  

Self-Action Leaders are grateful people, and they are infinitely happier for it. Moreover, they express their gratitude on a regular basis to anyone and everyone to whom it is appropriate and relevant.    

I invite you to spend 5-10 minutes today reflecting on your own blessings and favors in life. In doing so, try to block out any comparisons with other people. Simply recognize what YOU have been given, and then allow yourself to feel the warmth, goodness, and joy that spontaneously arises in your mind and heart as you so reflect.

As another difficult year winds to a close for all of us, I promise you this activity will contribute to your happiness by placing your difficulties into their proper perspective.  

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays everyone!  

      

NOTE: This article is the 13th in a series of 22 articles on the subject of LIFE RULES.

Click HERE to access quick links to the other 21 articles.   

—Dr. JJ

December 22, 2021

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 244thBlog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 243 FF Blog Articles.  

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Notes:

* Hinckley, G.B. (2000). Standing for Something. Three Rivers Press: New York, NY. P. 106.