Motivation is Powered Through Gratitude!
How's your morning routine? Do you leap out of bed with enthusiasm ready to take on the day? Are you motivated to take on the challenges of the day ahead? There used to be a conception that gratitude leads to feelings of self-satisfaction and acceptance of the status quo and is a form of complacency.
Over the last few years though, we have begun to realise that gratitude is not just an action of politeness, a passive emotion. It is a powerful, positive, energising power that leads us towards achieving our objectives and becoming happier, more socially engaged beings!
Living gratefully or practicing deep gratitude actually triggers self-improvement. When we are grateful, we tend to look after ourselves better. When we are seeking acts of kindness in others, we are also motivated to make positive changes to ourselves and how we live our lives.
Recent studies have shown that when people feel grateful, they have more energy and more motivation, and they strive to achieve their goals even more.
A study led by Nathaniel Lambert showed that the power of gratitude enables people to think that positive results are deserved, and goals are more achievable.
The power of gratitude not only leads people to better physical health, but they are more likely to get involved in projects in the community.
Gratitude motivates people. It encourages people to take part in healthier activities that will positively contribute to their personal success.
Gratitude is the gift that keeps on giving. People who are induced to feel grateful by being helped by another, are more likely to try harder to help their benefactors.
It is very common for grateful people to 'pay forward' gratitude by helping others. Gratitude motivates us to take positive action! But how and why is the power of gratitude such a motivating force?
Gratitude motivates us in four key areas. Connectedness, elevation, humility and indebtedness.
Gratitude gives us the space to reflect on our relationships with others, this reflection deepens our relationships and motivates our own self-improvement.
When we practice gratitude, we are elevated; it fires up the prosocial neural networks in our brains. It gives us an uplifting feeling and this feeling makes us more productive and better team players!
Gratitude allows us to see situations more objectively and stops us thinking about ourselves and it makes us realise that our personal success is due, to some extent, to the kindness and support of others. It makes us more empathetic and less likely to blame others.
Not all thoughts connected to gratitude are positive though. Gratitude may be awkward or uncomfortable. When we think of how much we have depended on the help of others and how we need to show our appreciation for their kindness, we feel both elevated and indebted simultaneously.
We can use these feelings as motivation, it lights a fire inside us to reciprocate the kindness we have been shown and thus rid ourselves of the psychological debts that we carry!
These feelings of connectedness, elevation, humility, and indebtedness resulting from gratitude can then motivate us to put forth more effort towards our work, our communities, and our relationships, perhaps even prompting us to strive for goals we would otherwise not have thought possible.
Gratitude inspires us to become more productive members of society and better citizens of the world!