The Missing Success Ingredient

It's not unusual for people to find that despite knowing what they want, having plans in place to reach their goals, and taking action, they just aren't getting the results they expect.nThis could be due to the one ingredient that is often overlooked that can make all the difference.nnPracticing gratitude for what we already have is one of the secrets of success. Not only should we be grateful for what we already have, but we should also be grateful for our experiences and the things that happen to us throughout the course of our lives, both good and bad. nnI'm not suggesting that you should be pleased or grateful if you lose your job or split up with your partner, or suffer any other major upset in your life. Some of these things will take time to get over, but it can certainly help to speed up the process and get you back on track if you start looking for positives or lessons you can take from the experience, and think about the things you can be grateful for in other areas of your life,nnYou may think you have little to be grateful for. If so, here's some basics you could start with:nnYou are not among the 20% of the world's adult population who cannot readnnYou are among only 10% of the world's population who have access to a computernnYou are almost certainly not among 20% of the world's population who earn less than $1 per daynnWe generally take these and many other things for granted and consider them as basic human rights and nothing to be grateful for, but these figures show this is not the case when you consider the bigger picture. nnWe have access to all the thoughts, ideas and books anyone has ever written, we have access to unlimited resources via the internet, we are educated, we can learn or do or acquire pretty well anything we desire. nnWe may not manage to have everything the wealthiest people in the world have, but we can have just about any object or goal, or learn any skill we set our hearts on. That is, if we decide to and are prepared to pay the price.nnHow many other things do you have in your life that you could be grateful for? nnWhat about all the consumer goods and toys that most of us have and feel we can't live without? We are the richest people that have ever lived and have things that our grandparents (even our parents) couldn't have even imagined at our age. Yet most of us take it all for granted.nnAll personal development experts agree that we become and attract what we spend most of our time thinking about. Therefore, it follows that if we concentrate on our problems and the negative things and experiences in our lives, we are likely to get more of the same. nnBeing grateful certainly doesn't mean being content to accept things as they are, or that there's no good reason to work towards a better life. nnIn fact, if we really want to improve our lives, one of the most constructive things we can do is be grateful for what we already have. However, this is not one of the easiest concepts to logically explain or to understand. nnWallace Wattles covers this in detail in his classic book 'The Science of Getting Rich***' which is regarded as one of the best guides to success ever written. It's also about a whole lot more than just getting rich. Wattles states:nn"There is a law of gratitude, and if you are to get the results you seek, it is absolutely necessary that you should observe this law."nnWattles goes on to explain further:nn"You cannot exercise much power without gratitude because it is gratitude that keeps you connected with power. The creative power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention. The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best, therefore it will receive the best."nnExpressing gratitude is so important because it is powerfully attractive, which is just a variation on the fact that we become what we think about. If we express gratitude, we are focusing on positives. It's a way of making sure we are applying the highest possible positive energy to what we do want, and withholding energy from what we don't want.nnIt also helps to give us strength and hope and to make us optimistic for the future, and gives us a solid foundation from which to work towards our goals and desires.nnExpressing gratitude also helps us to put things into perspective, and to better appreciate what we already have and what we've already achieved in our lives. And although it's not something that can be explained rationally, gratitude also connects us to greater powers that can help us in ways we never even imagined.