Gratitude turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity… it turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events. Melodie Beattie

I have a wonderful 2010 diary courtesy of ABB Uganda, if I may be allowed to toot their horn. I have used their diaries for the past three years and I do not know how I organised my life before that. Each day comes with an uplifting, noteworthy or funny quote. The above was yesterday’s quote and it really struck a chord with me.

January tends to be a month for whining and complaining on so many levels. First of all we have to spend the long 5 weeks of January paying for the privilege of getting our salaries before Christmas. Only amazingly disciplined people and total Scrooges did not go and blow that money on the festive season. So January finds you broke and probably facing (and dodging) a wedding meeting or two.

Then the kids start presenting their back to school lists and for those who did not do too well in the PLE, you have to start school-hopping to look for an alternative to their first choice. And then there are those all important annual goals that you may not have met last year and you are trying to figure out how they fit into this year. So we spend a lot of January, and indeed of life, being unhappy with our circumstances and complaining about them.

The fact of the matter is that bad things will happen. Disappointments will occur; deadlines will be missed; investments will fall through; relationships will come to a messy and painful end.  And the worst thing is that it will not always make sense. In fact, it rarely makes sense. However, the fact that bad things happen is not cause for us to focus on them. We are obsessed with spreading and hearing bad news. If something great happened to you, then why not savour the feeling and focus on that?

Gratitude is like a magic wand; really, I have no other way to explain it. In fact if there is anything I would love my son to learn, it is gratitude. If you can take stock of how far you have come and at the end of each day find something to be thankful about, then you become a powerful person indeed. You’ll stop looking for external affirmation of your progress and your worth and just look inside yourself and be happy for the good things that do happen.

Of course gratitude is not to be confused with complacency, but all things considered, I have a pretty amazing life and I am sure you do too.

Published on Sunday, January 31, 2010