There are two fundamental approaches to finding solutions: “what’s wrong and how do I fix it” and “what’s right and how do I grow it.” Without gratitude, you lose the entire second category. All you have are problems to fix, which eventually leads to creating problems because fixing is all you know how to do.
Gratitude also serves as an antidote to isolation. When you feel grateful, you’re acknowledging forces greater than yourself — the food, the people who brought it, the opportunity. This recognition means you’re not alone, bearing everything on your own shoulders. Pushing gratitude away and insisting “I got to do it all myself” is a constriction that compounds unhappiness.
“There’s two ways to come up with a solution. The first one is this is what’s wrong how do I fix it. And the second is this is what’s right how do I grow it. If you’re not grateful you don’t get to see what’s right and then you can’t grow it.”
Related Concepts
- Gratitude reveals solutions criticism hides
- Find what already works and amplify it
- Fixing mindset perpetuates stuckness
- Gratitude solves problems by seeing what’s right and growing it