In my coaching and supervision sessions, I hear so much negativity. I do like to shift the paradigm sometimes and ask for the positives if the situation allows this to happen. It seems strange to my clients when I ask a simple question like “What have you got to be grateful for”?

In life, we have plenty to be positive about; it is hugely important in having a gratitude attitude. People find being negative so easy but being thankful seems slightly alien, and when asked what you have got to be happy and grateful for I am met with surprise. If you would like to do something about it, guess what you can!

Here is an exercise; ask yourself how happy you are and really think about the positives in your life, there will be plenty. We don’t tend to focus on the areas we can be happy and grateful for it is all about what we don’t like. If you have a positive mindset and you say to yourself every day what you have to be happy and grateful, you will start to build the habit of positivity. This is incredibly powerful and works.

A gratitude attitude creates greater happiness and positive emotions. This leads you to be able to deal with adversity better, and you will receive more enjoyable experiences in your life. It is proven you sleep better and build stronger relationships. A gratitude attitude is very powerful, the key is about adopting one, which everybody can.

A mindset of gratitude makes people feel more alive and in tune with themselves. This leads to better health and overall in tune with others. Why would you not want to create this?

How do you create this?  Ralph and I have created a specific journal called The Gratitude Attitude, and all you have to do is write for five minutes a day either at the beginning of the day or the end or both if you choose to. This encourages you to think about the positives in your life, e.g. not it’s raining again but how happy and grateful I am to feel and smell the rain, what a blessing. In our journals, it simply encourages you to think about what you do and then how you can think differently. It encourages humour and how much you can appreciate yourself and others. This is all perfect to think about what you have and not what you don’t have.

The Gratitude Attitude journal is available from Amazon here.  We do hope you enjoy completing and the positive outcomes it will bring. Claire Moody is our head coach at Target Training, and you can read more about her here.  She delivers training on all personal development, coaching and numerous training the trainer courses.