There is a fundamental success principle: What we focus on expands.

• When we focus on what’s working in our lives, we get more of what’s working.

• When we focus on what’s good, we get more of what’s good.

• When we focus on our blessings, we get more of what blesses us.

Of course the principle works in the inverse as well.

• When we focus on what’s not working in our lives, we get more of what doesn’t work.

• When we focus on what we don’t want or like in our lives, we get more of what we don’t want or like.

• When we focus on the negative, more negative stuff shows up.

This is the law of attraction at work in its most powerful sense.

So here’s how to get it all: Be grateful.

Focus on the good.

I start every coaching session with these questions: What’s been working well? Where have your ‘wins’ been since we last talked?

And a practice that will absolutely transform your life? A gratitude journal. Every day, writing down three things that you’re grateful for.

We all have things to be grateful for, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our challenges: our hearts that beat in our chests; our lungs that breathe in the air; our minds that have the capacity to process information faster than any super computer on earth; the sun that rises every day to warm us; the rains that fall gently on the earth to sustain us. We do nothing to deserve these; and yet they are blessings beyond measure.

Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”

Surrounded as we are by the demands of our work, the stressors that overwhelm us, the inescapable economic pressures, and the global turmoil of politics and terror, it’s easy to become pessimistic, it’s easy to ‘go negative.’

But there is so much beauty in the world. So much to be hopeful about. So much to be grateful for.

Deepak Chopra teaches: “Gratitude is the doorway to abundance.”

And it is.

So today, and every day: Have an attitude of gratitude. And you will have it all.

_____________________________________________________________________

This is an encore of a post first published on November 28, 2103.