David J.
Pollay
Read David's bio and previous columns
Think about it: What are some of your life’s achievements? It’s OK. No
one’s watching. Go ahead. What accomplishments make you proud of
yourself?
Your achievements.
Now ask
yourself, how many of your life accomplishments did you achieve
completely on your own? Let me answer that question for you. The answer
is none. Our successes always come with help.
So, answer this question: Who were the people who contributed to each of
your successes? Pause to think about these people.
Now, I’ll bet you’re feeling a bit of gratitude right now. You have just
reminded yourself how important others have been to you in your life.
You have not traveled alone.
Now, most of us feel some amount of stress when we think about what it
will take to achieve our dreams. We think, “How in the world are we
going to get from where we are to where we hope to be?” Luckily, the
answer is “not alone.” Other people will help us.
The first answer.
So, what’s
the best way to achieve your life goals? Here’s the first answer. Look
to the people who have already helped you. Reach out to them. Tell them
why they are important to you and how they helped you succeed in the
past. Let these people know how valuable they are to you. If you feel
that you’ve thanked someone before, consider doing it again in an even
more meaningful way. Keep these people in your corner.
University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson wrote in his
book, A Primer in Positive
Psychology, “In our experience with many dozens of gratitude
letters . . . they ‘work’ 100 percent of the time in the sense that the
recipient is moved, often to tears, and the sender is gratified as
well.”
The gratitude
factor.
Gratitude researcher Robert Emmons recently reviewed the growing
evidence that feelings of gratitude improve the quality of our lives. In
one study he found that people who “wrote up to five things for which
they were grateful or thankful” on a weekly basis “exercised more
regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their
lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week.”
Positive Psychology co-founder Martin Seligman of the University of
Pennsylvania, along with his colleagues, also discovered that when
people took a few minutes each evening to write down “three good things”
that happened to them during the day, their happiness increased and
their depressive symptoms decreased.
Emmons found in another study that people who feel gratitude are more
likely to help others. Emmons wrote, “Gratitude leads not only to
feeling good, but also to doing good.”
This week:
There are three parts to your mission this week.
-
Write down two to
three of your greatest achievements. Briefly describe what you
accomplished.
-
Think about the
principal people who helped you on your path to these achievements.
Take a few minutes to deeply reflect: Who made your successes
possible? You may find that some non-obvious names will surface.
More people help us in life than we often realize.
-
Have you properly
thanked all of these people? If you have not, consider reaching out
to them over the next few months in a way that would be meaningful
to them.
Join us next week for Part II of your success mission. It will make a
positive difference in your life.
David J. Pollay’s book,
Beware of Garbage Trucks!™, and his
CD program, Gratitude Is Everything!™, are due out this Fall. Mr. Pollay
is the creator of The Law of the
Garbage Truck™ (www.bewareofgarbagetrucks.com).
He is a syndicated columnist with the
North Star Writers Group,
creator and host of The
Happiness Answer™ DVD, and an
internationally sought after speaker. Mr. Pollay is the
founder and president of the personal coaching and seminar organization,
The Momentum Project (www.themomentumproject.com).
© 2008
David J. Pollay. Distributed by North Star Writers Group. May not be
republished without permission.
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