BEING GRATEFUL

How satisfied are YOU? Asks Life & Business Coach Eric Gilston…

As these regular articles are about Life Skills, you might be posing the question, “Is being grateful a skill?” Well, the simple answer is Yes, it is an emotional skill.

Fortunately, it can also be considered a learned skill. So, it should be something we learn at a very young age, when we appreciate the love and materialistic things that we receive. This does not exempt anyone learning this skill at any age, and being a better person for doing so.

So why did I choose to write about this subject now? Well, on the 26^th November, the Americans celebrated Thanksgiving. I don’t know how much you know about this, but through knowing quite a number of American ex-pats in England, I have learned quite a bit about Thanksgiving.

What I particularly like about it, is that it is a time for family, and being grateful for what people have in life. It is not about giving presents, but in an ideal world getting the family together. All flights are fully booked in the States, and companies will either close all that week, or on Thanksgiving itself, or include the Friday as well.

In fact, you will find with some families that there are three generations sitting round the table enjoying a typical traditional Thanksgiving meal. They then ask each person present to say one thing about what they are grateful for in life. Can you imagine what a young child might say compared to what good old Grandma or Grandpa might say? Wouldn’t it be lovely to be the fly on the wall and hear what everyone has to say? I bet there would be a few tears shed?

When I first heard about all of this a number of years ago, I decided that on Thanksgiving, first thing in the morning, I would sit at my computer and make a list of all those things that I am grateful for, no matter how small or big. It is amazing to see just what you think about, and what you write down. This year, my list had 36 items, including being grateful that I am associated with Fashion Capital and writing these articles. When I finish my list each year, I print off a copy, and take it out with me. In my mind, we all need to constantly remind ourselves of what we are grateful for. Too often, all we hear are people moaning about trivial things.

One year, I asked my wife to make her list. It was fascinating to then compare our lists. In our case, there were quite a lot of the same that we were grateful for, but some very interesting differences that gave us good conversation afterwards to understand the reasons why.

So, your task in the next two days is to make a list of what you are grateful for. I sincerely hope that you include something about your association with Fashion Capital. If you want to share with me what you have listed, and email it to me, I would love to see it.

I would love to see something like Thanksgiving adopted in other countries for the following reasons. Wouldn’t it be nice to reduce the number of times we hear people moaning about their life, and rarely talking about the things that they should be grateful for? Wouldn’t it be nice to occasionally get the family together and make a rule that only positive things can be talked about, and have a rule that no presents are exchanged? Instead, any money that might have been used to purchase presents goes to a charity.

With Christmas approaching, this might give you some food for thought.

If you would like to know more about Being Grateful, then please feel free to contact me at eric@coachandcourses.com