Build Your Gratitude

Implicit to our 12 Essentials of Personal Excellence and 8 Essentials of Leading Teams is a foundational attitude that comes from the strong core of a THRIVER.

Gratitude.

This came up in practice #19 last week with a team who is going deeper on the ingredients of Personal & Ethical Trust. When missing, this team identified it as something that robs them of joy in work & life, and becomes an arch-enemy of true ONEness, within & with each other.

Because what is the opposite of Gratitude? Let’s see… ingratitude, taking _________ for granted, apathy, callousness, entitlement, defensiveness, self-righteousness, resentment, bitterness, victimhood…

The good news is like other essentials, gratitude can be built as a core principle, a core attitude and ultimately a core competence as you practice living it out and closing integrity gaps as they arise. Core attitudes flow from the deepest held beliefs in your WORLDview, which become manifest in your thinking and feelings and then revealed in your 7/38/55.

As you gather for the upcoming holiday, if your extended family is anything like mine, you will see different levels of “thanksgiving” on display that have less to do with life’s circumstances than underlying Worldviews.

Yesterday I was unexpectedly amazed and inspired at the memorial service for my friend & client’s mother. Despite persistent acute pain throughout her 96th year, she was still winning new friends and followers in the form of caretakers, who were all in attendance because they WANTED to be there. She was a BUILDER. And as 3 generations gave eulogy after eulogy, it was clear how in the words of her son, much of her wisdom was more “caught” than taught. He captured her legacy in 3 phrases:

First, she lived by FAITH. Leaders are believers, and believers are receivers. She lived a life of giving out of the abundance of what her generous LORD gave to her.

Second, she never QUIT. She cared unswervingly for her mentally-handicapped daughter in her own home until she herself was 90, only relinquishing being on point out of concern for her daughter’s safety.

Third, she never asked WHY. That is, in the “why me?” victim sort of way. No, as a child of the depression, she knew life was mostly HARD. But she also knew life was a GIFT. And as a teacher of Home Economics, she taught most of all in her own home the eternal return on LIFE when you PRACTICE being THANKFUL.

God help us CHOOSE gratitude and help us PRACTICE gratitude. When our feelings or reactions reveal something different, help us look deeper to see what our hearts are putting our HOPE in. And for those of us who haven’t, give us the courage to AUTHOR our worldview, so when integrity gaps arise, we can close them — in gratitude and with thanksgiving.

Together we Improve.