tag:www.chicagonow.com,2011:/blogs/job-stalker//93/tag:www.chicagonow.com,2009:/blogs/job-stalker//93.34177- 2011-03-18T22:07:57Z Comments for Gratitude - sometimes the hardest attitude ... Job hunting adventures and advice from a career-seeker one follow-up call away from a restraining order. Movable Type 4.261 tag:www.chicagonow.com,2009:/blogs/job-stalker//93.34177 2009-12-24T22:47:41Z 2009-12-24T23:00:48Z Gratitude - sometimes the hardest attitude ... Brendan Tripp http://www.chicagonow.com/profiles/BrendanTripp Ho, ho, ho, and all that.  Being out of work and broke is never fun, but it especially weighs on one during The Holidays.  As a Father (and supposed "bread winner"), it's particularly hard to avoid feelings that one is a failure, and "destroying the kids' lives" by one's inability to land a job.  If one's history involves many years of high-salary positions, it's likewise likely to find it depressing to have primarily "dollar store" gifts under the tree.

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However, this sort of negativity is never useful.  Self-pity is the enemy of activity, and one needs to keep actively searching for that job (as noted in many of the articles linked from this space in the past few weeks, even, or especially, over the holidays).  If one reads the "intention" / "attraction" material out there, one of the key psychological and/or attitudinal aspects is developing and maintaining a sense of gratitude towards The Universe.

In our current society it's very easy to forget how easy most of us have it, even under the most trying (within context) of conditions, when compared to much of the world today.  What is characterized as "poverty" in modern American society would be "living in luxury" in many cultures around the globe.  And even the most financially challenged of us have available resources in terms of education, information, and entertainment which would have been the envy of Kings over much of history.

I am encouraging all of my fellow job seekers out there to keep these thoughts in mind as we try to make the best of our current situations in making this holiday season the happiest we can for our families.  We have so much to be grateful for, and keeping that gratitude in our hearts can only help what we manifest in our lives.

Be thankful for what you have ... those of us with our health, with our family, and still being able to keep a roof over our heads, need to actively generate a heartfelt sense of gratitude for these things, as acting from a place of gratefulness for what is in our lives does seem to open the door for more opportunities.

Wishing everybody out there a happy holiday!
]]> tag:www.chicagonow.com,2009:/blogs/job-stalker//93.34177-comment:257933 Comment from iatchalvs-pia on 2010-08-03 iatchalvs-pia http://www.chicagonow.com/profiles/iatchalvs Each day when the sun rises, I am given a choice about how I am going to live that day. Will I allow myself to be grateful for what I have and make the most of it, or will I dwell in the nadir of despair, and allow it to pull me into the belief that whatever I might want to happen just can’t, or won’t? Through my study of gratitude, I have discovered that even people who undergo horrific challenges in their lives can choose to let their misfortune ruin them completely, or they can choose to be grateful that their lives were spared, and begin to repair the damage with greater wisdom and appreciation for what they have.

The people of New Orleans come to mind as I think about all this. Those who were grateful to be alive after Hurricane Katrina pulled together through their appreciation for the gift of life and restored the city into an even better place. They did not dwell in the past. They chose to live in the moment, and as a result, there is a renewed spirit in New Orleans, more music, more art, more life and more determination than ever to manifest the dreams of putting the pieces together again. It is happening as you read this.

Through gratitude all things are possible.

Some days, I find myself lost and unable to summon gratitude. This might be because I am angry, or I might feel sad about something. Sometimes, I allow negative thoughts to take over my mind. When this happens, I turn to a valuable resource that I recently stumbled upon, a book by Kim Serafini, who is an expert on the use of Positive Psychology. It is called “I Am Gr8ful For Life,” and I begin to use it by allowing that title to be the stepping-stone that I need to get started feeling grateful for what I have. After all, I am alive and I truly am grateful for this life that I can shape into anything I want.

Kim Serafini’s book is full of resources for helping to summon gratitude. I purchased it on her web site at: http://www.iamgr8ful.com and it has proven to be one of the most powerful tools I could ask for. I refer to it throughout the week because it truly does help me get back on track with positive thinking and gratitude.

I find that when I allow myself to live in the here and now, I am gifted with an abundance of solutions to problems that I had thought were unsolvable. I feel energized and more alert. As I give thanks, I can see the abundance of gifts that I have to be thankful for. Remarkably, the more I show my appreciation, the more those gifts multiply. It seems as though I am looking through a whole new lens. I begin to live by my words of appreciation rather than just speak them, and this is, I believe, why all the barriers come down and I am able to achieve what I previously thought was impossible.

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