Have you ever met someone who seems to have a great life but they're very unhappy? I meet people like this more often than I'd expect. Sometimes, I even notice this in myself. I have a loving partner, and live in a beautiful place, and I have everything I need, but sometimes I just feel irritated. On the other hand, I've met people who face many external challenges. They're very poor, have lost a loved one, or are struggling with difficult mental health condition, and despite these circumstances, there are nearly always positive, and optimistic. So how is it possible that people who have so much can be unhappy, and people who have relatively little can be happy. One clue is gratitude. Whether someone has a lot or a little, doesn't always correspond to how grateful they are for the good things they do have in their life. When we take a look, each of us can always find something to be grateful for. Let's try that out. Please take a deep breath, and think of three things you're grateful for today. It could be something small, like a nice cup of tea you had or something kind someone said to you this morning or could be something big, like the love of someone in your family or the opportunity to do work you like. Be as specific as possible, and think of three things. Once you've thought of them, find a pen, and piece of paper, and write down these things. If you have to put them in a note on your phone, that's okay, just write them down somewhere. What are three things you are grateful for here, and now? Nice work. How do you feel after focusing on gratitude for just a short moment? Maybe a little calmer, perhaps a bit happier. Maybe you're a little bit more present to this moment. This week, I'd like you to try out a very simple exercise where you practice being grateful for just a few minutes each day. I'll give you written instructions at the end of this lesson so you know exactly how to do it. You might be wondering, this is a course about designing your career. So why should I take this time to do a gratefulness exercise? Well, I need to tell you something important, so I hope you're listening. It's almost like one of those disclaimers that you skim over when you're downloading an app. But, this time I need you to really pay attention. Here's the thing. After taking this course. You could design the perfect life, and the perfect career. It's very possible you will feel exactly as happy and satisfied as you currently feel. I hope that's not the case. I hope that after this course, and your next career transition, you feel even more satisfied, and happy with your life. But, it's not guaranteed because your career success may not be directly tied to your sense of happiness or well-being. On the other hand, research has shown that people who practice being grateful are happier, and they experienced a number of other physical, and psychological benefits from that practice. I'll tell you about three of those benefits now. First, being grateful helps us celebrate the present moment. This is so important when you're designing your career, and are focused on all these exciting possibilities for the future. It's interesting actually, research has shown that positive emotions wear off quite quickly. So when we experience something nice in our life, we quickly get used to it, and stop appreciating it anymore. Gratitude helps us remember those positive things, and celebrate what's good. It's almost like it drags out the good stuff so we get more value from it. When we appreciate what's good. We returned to the here, and now, and we actually participate in our life. Second, being grateful blocks, negative emotions, and incessant doubts, and worries. We talked earlier about monkey mind, that normal voice of doubt, and worry that is always chattering away at us about what could go wrong. Well, it's impossible to be grateful, and worried at the same time. So gratitude is a great way to interrupt a cycle of worries or negative emotions. Studies have also shown that people with a grateful disposition or more stress resistant, they actually recover more quickly from serious trauma or adversity. Then third, grateful people have a higher sense of self-worth. You can imagine how important that might be as you work up the courage to go for whatever it is that you want to create next in your career, and in your life. The important thing here is that being grateful doesn't happen by accident. It's something you can practice intentionally, and systematically. If you practice being grateful regularly, you will feel more present, and appreciative of what's going well. You'll be less worried, and stressed, and you will have a higher sense of self-worth. Those benefits are worth a lot on their own, but they'll also help guarantee that you get the most from the rest of the work you do in this course. Every time I assign this gratefulness practice to my students, I am shocked by how many benefits they get from it. Nearly everyone I've taught has been very happy they did this homework, so I can't encourage you enough to try it out for yourself.
