I’m sure you have heard the word “Gratitude” before and you probably know that it simply means a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. The word may be a mouthful to pronounce but the act of showing it is actually rather simple and effective to put into practice.

Knowing the power and potential of showing gratitude and subsequently applying it accordingly can be the single most decisive factor in ensuring better degrees of success for yourself.

What gratitude can do for you

Let’s think about what exactly what gratitude can do for you and, by association, your success. Gratitude invokes a positive feeling in you and the people you show it to. It alters your perspective of negative feelings, thoughts, or beliefs you may have of yourself or others by alerting these feelings, thoughts and beliefs to the things you are grateful for. Gratitude raises your awareness and focus, and it can inspire you to achieve more – for yourself and the people around you.

There are numerous other benefits of gratitude. But many people still don’t – or simply refuse to – shower themselves or the people around them with gratitude. Instead, they put themselves and others down through criticism and condemnation. To see if you fall into this category, take the next few seconds to ponder the following questions:

1.  What exactly are the obstacles that are holding you back from showing gratitude to yourself and to others?

2. How can you overcome these obstacles?

3. How can you unleash an onslaught of gratitude to yourself and to others?

The obstacles you answered with are mainly negative thoughts, emotions, and beliefs that you may possess that are probably not only hindering you from showing gratitude but are also holding back your success. However, the chief aim of this article is to show you the importance of showing gratitude and how you can go about doing it. As such, I will not go into too much detail about how to overcome these negative thoughts, emotions and beliefs. But if you would like to find out more, please refer to the resource box below.

Where gratitude begins

Now that you are clearer about the benefits of gratitude, let’s first talk about how you can start showing gratitude to yourself. To start doing this, you must first be appreciative of all your achievements – whether they’re big or small – that you have experienced so far in your life.

Ask yourself when the last time was that you actually rewarded yourself for those achievements. If you have constantly been doing so, good for you and keep it up. If not, it’s about time you start indulging or pampering yourself with a few simple or extravagant (whichever is appropriate) rewards for all your past achievements and the future ones.

Next, be appreciative of the things you have – your job, workplace, house, wealth, family, food and surroundings – whatever applies to you. I know it can be impossible to directly show gratitude to these things but don’t fret. You can just list them and write thank you notes for each of them to express your gratitude. Keep referring to this list when you’re feeling sad or depressed and you can instantly feel a surge of happiness or positive emotions.

What next?

So far, I have covered how you can show gratitude to yourself and the things around you. Now, I will touch on how you can show gratitude to the people around you. There are many ways you can express your gratitude, but I will only list the few I feel are important and simple to perform. You are, however, free to discover or think of others of your own and implement them as you see fit.

1. Instead of putting down, insulting, and complaining about the people around or working under you, try complementing, praising, and appreciating them for all they have done for your well-being and your achievements. By doing this, you gain their respect and trust, and they are more likely to continually assist you to achieve better.

2.  Make a thank you list of all the people you are grateful for and constantly refer to this list to give yourself a positive feeling.

3. Give a simple verbal thank you, note of appreciation or even a thank you e-mail to express your gratitude to the people who have assisted you in achieving.

4. Shower the people you are grateful for with small or big tokens of gratitude – cards, gifts, presents or rewards to clearly show them how much you appreciate them.

5. Or simply provide the people around you with gifts that cannot be bought with cash, like your valuable time, a personal sacrifice or something that is of the utmost importance to you.

Gratitude – The word may be a little complex to pronounce but there is actually nothing complex about performing the act of showing gratitude. Always bear in mind that when you show gratitude to yourself, the things and the people around you will definitely hold the key to unlocking your personal growth, and ultimately your success.