When I was a teenager the thought never occurred to me that one day my legs wouldn’t work and that I would have to rely on others for many of my daily routine tasks. We so often get wrapped up in this thing called ‘life’ that we barely have time to stop and appreciate what we do have.

These are some common phrases we hear ourselves utter.

I’ll be happy once I get the promotion.
All I need is a pay raise.
I just need a holiday.
Once I get rid of this cold flu everything will be okay.
Once people stop pissing me off I will be happy.
If I didn’t have such crap job, crap boss and equally bad wages things would be fine.

This is the way that most people live their lives, they spend their time waiting for the next step up the ladder to happiness. Twenty or 30 years in they’re still waiting for that next jump where everything will turn out perfect.

We need to start living in gratitude and appreciate what we already have. It doesn’t mean we cannot strive to improve our lives and add value, but if you’re not happy and able to practice gratitude with what you already have you would not be happy no matter how much you improve. In this article I ask the question Is gratitude the secret to happiness?

Is also comes down to whether we should be happy with what we already have.

In this video I explain the meaning of gratitude, how to practice it on a daily basis and what a difference it makes to me in my life.