How much do you focus on what you lack? Do you always notice your single status, the perfect job you don’t have or the house you don’t yet own? We are all guilty of seeing what we don’t have rather than focusing on what we do have, but keeping up the habit of doing this is what’s keeping you from true happiness.
Do You Truly Appreciate What You Have?
Gratefulness and appreciation for what we have may sound like a typical clichéd way to achieve happiness, but in doing so you are training your mind to focus on the abundance in your life rather than what is lacking.
Ngauthu - calligrapher with Mrs Sandy -Vice Principal and English teacher at Everest School
When we focus on lack, we feel like failures. In fact, by doing this we are only making comparisons with others who are on a completely different path from ourselves. True appreciation for the people and things in your life will help you to realize just how much you do have. Whether it’s small things like the roof over your head, food in the fridge, a great friend you can talk to about anything, or having a hot shower every morning – it’s these things we tend to overlook and only notice when we don’t have them.
Loving what you already have will instantly create feelings of fulfilment and abundance and will decrease the amount of time you spend dwelling on what’s not yet in your life.
Perspective Is Key To Feeling Abundance
But isn’t loving what you have now just accepting your less-than-ideal circumstances?
Focusing on the abundance rather than the lack isn’t about giving in. It isn’t about just accepting a bad situation and desperately trying to be happy about it. It’s not about accepting it’ll never change – it’s about shifting your perspective to a more positive one.
Loving what you have is cultivating the feeling that you have everything you need while accepting that you’re always moving forward and that therefore every situation is temporary. It will diminish the feeling that you should always try to chase after something you don’t yet have while creating a better feeling of fulfilment and abundance for everything present in your now.
Your Now Is A Blessing
Whatever your circumstances, it’s easy to get caught up in the “lack” mindset, but remember that you can always be worse off than you are, so count the blessings in your present moment. Learning to be grateful is the beginning of your journey to success, because growing and moving forward requires the use of the resources that you have now.
Make loving what you already have a conscious, consistent habit, and you will start seeing the positive changes to your outlook on life, your happiness, and your feelings of fulfilment and contentedness.
