4:20 pm  

positive thinking thought #15

Develop an Attitude of Gratitude Count your blessings, not your troubles. Take time to smell the roses. It is not uncommon to hear that...

Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

Count your blessings, not your troubles. Take time to smell the roses. It is not uncommon to hear that someone, because of an accident or illness, became blind or paralyzed but won a million dollars in settlement. How many of us would like to trade places with that person? Not many. We are so focused on complaining about things we don't have that we lose sight of the things we have. There is a lot to be thankful for.

When I say count your blessings, not your troubles, the message is not to become complacent. If complacence was the message you got, then I would be guilty of faulty communication and you of selective listening.

To give you an example of selective listening, let me share with you a story I heard about a medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholics.

He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health.

He had two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol.

He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top.

He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes.

He wanted to prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body.

He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said,

"If you drink alcohol you won't have worms in your stomach."

Was that the message? Of course not. That was selective listening--we hear what we want to hear and not what is being said.

Many of our blessings are hidden treasures--count your blessings and not your troubles.