The Practice

Last week I had a great call with a senior staff member of a firm. It was a follow up call to a course we presented entitled Be An ACE: Manage Your Attitude, Credibility & Excellence. The call inspired me because not only did he implement one of his Action Items, he also experienced the positive results of a new discipline of acknowledging his good fortune.

The Results

He talked about what he is doing to adjust his attitude. Not that it was bad, he just didn’t pay much attention to it. He mentioned that he is being more grateful for having a good job in a good firm doing important work and being able to live a comfortable lifestyle. He just never thought about remembering daily how thankful he is for his good fortune. It has made a difference for him.

I adopted this same discipline in college and it has stuck with me for decades. My experience was the same as his, so I decided to take a closer look into what the research says about acknowledging good fortune.

The Evidence

In one paper, there were three experiments conducted by the University of California and Miami University regarding the impact of regularly appreciating blessings and good fortune. In two of the studies, over 200 participants were randomly divided into three groups: one group regularly reflected on their burdens, another group reflected on their blessings, and a third group reflected on neutral conditions. The third experiment only had two groups: a blessings-reflection group and a neutral conditions group.

All of the experiments showed the same finding—there was a significant increase in general wellbeing and life satisfaction for those in the good fortune group. The authors reported “considerably more satisfaction with their lives as a whole, felt more optimism about the upcoming week, and felt more connected with others” compared to the other groups.

This isn’t the only evidence. In addition to these findings, there are a host of other health benefits that other studies reported, such as reduced depression, lessened anxiety, heart health, reduced stress and improved sleep. These results have been replicated for decades.

Your Decision

It’s hard to believe that regularly practicing a simple, easy discipline as acknowledging gratitude can have such an impact. And it’s even harder to believe that so many have chosen not to practice this discipline.

Those who realize that their attitude is an internal state in their control and not a result of their external world that they have no control over may be more likely to adopt this simple discipline. Which are you? And what will you do to acknowledge your good fortune?