The Science of Gratitude and How It Translates to Good Business

I’ve studied several entrepreneurs throughout my journey as a business owner, and there are a few qualities that are pretty obvious in terms of what it takes to become successful.

Characteristics such as persistence, leadership, and having an open mind are just a few. But, over the course of my eight years as an entrepreneur, I’ve learned about one quality in particular that several entrepreneurs prioritize and practice—one that I didn’t really think was that important until I started practicing it myself.

What I am talking about exactly?

Gratitude.

How Gratitude Helps Us Become Better Entrepreneurs

Becoming an entrepreneur is not easy. I remember several times within my first year, after getting laid off, I wondered to myself why I was even trying. I wanted to give up at least a dozen times, and even after my business started taking off, there were several moments in the journey that led me to question if it was something I could keep up.

In fact, even after I was making over five-figures a month, I got scared and applied for an architecture job here in San Diego, just because I didn’t think I was good enough to keep my business going. Thankfully, I didn’t impress the company enough to get a job, because soon after I realized that entrepreneurship is what I was meant for.

Thankfulness and gratitude have become an incredibly important ingredient in keeping my energy levels high, my projects moving forward, and ultimately, my success progressing.

Sure, we hear phrases like “look on the bright side” or “glass half full” and think it’s just an empty expression, but there is some science behind this idea. Multiple studies have shown that simple gratitude exercises can result in reduced depression and an improvement in overall well-being.

A recent study even demonstrates that the more we practice gratitude, the more we are wired to think positively. What’s cool is that it’s self-perpetuating: the more we practice gratitude, the more conscious we are to it, and the more we can enjoy its benefits.

But, you shouldn’t need science to realize all of this. Shouldn’t it be known that the more grateful you are, the happier you’ll be, and vice versa? Sounds obvious, but when you’re in the day-to-day tasks of working on your next project, or trying to get your company off the ground, it’s hard to find those moments. We can all relate to that struggle.

That’s why I encourage all of us to practice gratitude on the regular, and even try to put it on the schedule.

How to Practice Gratitude

It may sound weird to think that gratitude is something that must be practiced, but a regular and consistent reflection on what we’re thankful for helps us start to think positively about where we are, and helps keep us moving forward.

There are two moments during the day when I think about what I’m grateful for: in the morning right after I wake up, and at night, right before I go to bed.

To make this easy on me, I have a daily reminder in my Five Minute Journal that prompts me to think about these things:

In the morning:

At night:

I highly recommend the Five Minute Journal for those who haven’t experienced it before.

Prior to getting my hands on my first Five Minute Journal (thanks to Hal Elrod for the gift!), I knew I was grateful for things in my life, but after opening the journal and practicing personal development every single day, I got to write down and actually pay attention to the exact reasons why I was grateful. At first, it was easy and I’d write down things like my family, my business, and my health, but after a couple of weeks and trying hard not to duplicate what I was grateful for, I started to be thankful for a lot of the little things.

These are things that I often take for granted, like having easy access to a pharmacy when my kids were sick, to the person who let me go first when we arrived at the stop light at the same time. And when times got tough, like they often do, I could open up my journal and see these small moments of gratitude and remember that there are some good things happening all of the time.

I hope you consider using a journal like this to help you ritualize your gratitude practice. I use the journal daily. It’s done so much for my mental state of mind in preparation for each day. It helps me immensely, and I know it will help you too.

Guess what? I have one extra Five Minute Journal in my library that I’d love to give away!

All you have to do is leave a comment below, sharing one thing that you’re grateful for, and I’ll randomly select a winner seven days after this post goes live, and send it over to you. I’ll contact the winner via email, and announce the winner here in this post afterwards.

And obviously, you don’t NEED a journal like this to practice gratitude. Just remind yourself of the same questions when you wake up and before you go to bed. What are you grateful for, and what made today awesome?

Try this out for a week starting today, and you’ll find you’ll be a lot more motivated, things will bother you less, and you’ll ultimately become more productive! Give it a shot!

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WHY GRATITUDE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN HITTING YOUR GOALS

When I asked successful business and thought leaders how they prepared to reach their goals in the upcoming year, several said gratitude gave them an edge.

Some mentioned setting aside special time to reflect and express gratitude for all the positive they experienced. This close to Thanksgiving, that seems perfect this time of year. But why stop there?

Jon Gordon told me practicing gratitude one day a year isn’t enough. “If you do it daily,” he said, “you’ll notice incredible benefits and major life change.” The science backs him up.

One of the challenges in reaching our long-term goals is getting derailed by short-term gains. These are decisions that look good in the moment—instant gratification usually does. But they actually prevent us from making progress or even set us back.

See if you recognize any of these:

• The impulse buy that dings your savings goal.
• The skipped workout routines that plateau your weight loss.
• The late night at work that keeps you from your child’s school recital.

We get the short-term win from the purchase, the rest, and the project completion. But we lose the long-term payoffs that only come from reaching our goals: financial security, physical health, and lasting connection with our kids.

It’s true for all kinds of goals. What Jon and many others realize is that gratitude is the difference maker.

Why? There are at least three reasons gratitude can help you stay the course and reach your goals:

1. Gratitude keeps you going. In one study researchers Robert A. Emmons and Anjali Mishra had students list goals they hoped to reach over a two month period. Ten weeks later they checked back and found the grateful students were closer than others in the study to reaching their goals.
   Emmons and Mishra said there’s a prevailing (but unproven) idea out there that gratitude can leave people feeling complacent. If I’ve got enough, then maybe I don’t need to achieve more. Instead, they determined, “gratitude enhances effortful goal striving.”
2. Gratitude improves your patience. A lot of times we take the easy out because we’re impatient. Achieving big goals takes time and effort. Thankfully, gratitude can keep you in the game.
   David DeSteno of Northwestern University led a study where participants were asked to recall an event that made them feel grateful, happy, or neutral. After writing about it, they reported their mood and then made a series of financial decisions.
   If they wanted, they could take a cash reward at the end of the session or receive a larger amount by check in the mail at a later date. The grateful were happy to wait for the bigger payout. “On average, we increased people’s financial patience by about 12 percent,” said DeSteno. “[I]magine if you could increase people’s savings by that much.”
3. Gratitude lowers your stress. People fall for instant gratification because indulgence and avoidance are both attractive ways of coping with stress. But we all know they’re not effective in the long run, and we’ve got the bills and ill-fitting clothes to prove it.
   It turns out gratitude is a far more effective way to cope with stress. Maybe not on Thanksgiving Day itself! But after looking at several different studies, Emmons and Mishra conclude, “[T]he evidence strongly supports the supposition that gratitude promotes adaptive coping and personal growth.

Instant gratification looks good in the moment, but can actually prevent us from making progress or even set us back. - Michael Hyatt

I love asking successful people what they do to succeed. When they’re answers overlap with each other it’s like building a list of best practices. When the science backs them up, we’d have to be foolish not to listen.

Question: What were your five biggest wins or blessings from 2016 (so far!)? Leave a comment  :)

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