How Gratitude Changed Your Life


There is a guy who’s telling a story of how he was going through hard times 20 years ago. He has a Masters degree with a lot of experience and yet could not find satisfying work.

To his shame he was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends because he had lost his appartement. He had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say that he did not get the job. It was the day when he went to the bus barn like a zombie of disappointment.


Later that afternoon, while he was doing his rounds through a quiet suburban neighborhood, he had an inner wave – like a primal scream – arise from deep inside him and thought “Why has my life become so hard? Give me a sign” he asked. A physical sign, not some inner voice type of thing.


And immediately after this internal scream. He pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying that he should keep it in case somebody claimed it. The earring was stamped metal, painted black and there was a letter said “BE HAPPY” in a capital letters.


“Be Happy” – yeah, yeah, he thought. At first he somehow got angry. But then it hit him that he had been putting all of his energies into what was wrong with his life rather than what was right! Then he decided there to make a list of 50 things he was grateful for.

At first it was hard, but then it got easier. Until one day he decided to up it to 75 things to be grateful for. That same night he got a call from a lady who was a manager at a large hospital. About a year earlier he had submitted a syllabus to a community college to teach a course on stress management. Yup, a stress management. She asked him if he would do a one-day seminar for 200 hospital workers. And of course he said yes and got the job.

He did very well in his job with the hospital workers that he got a standing ovation and many more days of work. He spent the next year conducting training workshops all around his city area and met his wonderful wife of 15 years as he told his story. To this day he know all of that changes comes from his attitude to gratitude.

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Life seems difficult when we are not grateful for “What Is”. Because when we are ungrateful, instead of accepting “what is” and be okay with it, we are dreaming of having things that are out of our reach. And that gap between “reality” and what the scheme in our mind create discomfort , if not an agony in our life.


If we are aware of this situation. Then it make sense that in order to cut-off all of our discomfort and suffering in life is simply to adjust our expectation of life in our mind. Let go of what is out of our reach and make the best with whatever we have in our hands.


Start with small steps and apply this on a daily basis, and before you know it it will become your character. Just like Rumi said, “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.”[]