Recently, a man came up to me during one of my seminars and started complaining about all the things that was not working in his life. He said that he hated his wife, his kids wouldn’t listen to him and he was given more work by his boss and with no increment to show for it. It was apparent that he was completely miserable and frustrated with his life.

He asked, ‘ How can I make my life work? Why must my life be full of all these problems?’ ‘ Do you really want to know the answer to your question?’, I asked. ‘Of course!’, he said. My answer to him was, ‘ If you want to achieve more in your life and be truly happy, then you must first be GRATEFUL for what you have now. Focus on all the resources YOU HAVE instead of what you don’t have and you will begin to attract alot more success.’

At first, he asked, ‘ what do I have to be grateful for? NOTHING is working right for me!’ I believe that no matter how bad our life seems at a particular moment, there are still many things that we can be grateful for. No matter how bad life seems, there is always someone out there alot worse off. At any point of time, we can be grateful for the fact that we have the chance to wake up and be alive, that we have the eyes to see and the legs to walk around with. We can be grateful for the family that loves us, the mind to think, the opportunity of a new day and the fact that we are born in a country that is free of war and famine. Be grateful that we are born in a time and place where with enough desire and hardwork, we can create any future we want for ourselves.

I must admit that in the past, I too fell into the trap of being ungrateful and complaining about the things that were not working in my life. As a result, I found myself never being happy for more than a few minutes. Everytime I was happy to achieve something (e.g. winning a business deal or buying a sports car), some problem would surface to make me unhappy again. I used to think that I could only be happy when my life was finally free from problems.

I finally realized that this way of thinking is a receipe for disaster. It would only make me miserable for the rest of my life. This is simply because life will ALWAYS be filled with problems and challenges. In fact, the more successful you become, the more problems you will have. I believe that Bill Gates and George Bush have a lot bigger problems that you and me put together. The question is whether we want to look at the tough experiences in our life as problems that plague us or as challenges that we can be excited to conquer. You see, the only people without any problems are those in the graveyard. So, if you are only going to be happy and grateful when you have no more worries, then just wait to die.

Today, most people are astonished how I can be so happy all the time, despite having a crazy work schedule and having to battle business problems daily. The answer is that when I wake up every morning, I put my feet on the ground and say ‘THANK YOU’ for all the things that I have in my life. No matter what problems I had at the moment, I would choose to focus on all the great things that I have that I should be grateful for. Every morning, I thank God for the wife that I have, my two wonderful children, my parents who are still with me, the fact that I have a job that allows me to empower people’s lives, my wonderful staff who work so hard with me side by side and so much more.

Whenever I catch myself complaining about anything, I would read about people like Mr. Amri Samat who has been paralized in his wheel chair for the last 20 years and recently had half his body amputated because of an infection.

Amri Samat

His doctors gave him a 50% chance of survival. Despite his condition, he is so happy to be alive and is so grateful that God has given him a new lease of life. If he can give himself the right to be grateful..then how about you?

Many people I find are afraid that if they become to happy or grateful, then they would become complacent and lose their drive for success. I used to think this way as well. I have found that you can be GRATEFUL for what you have AND at the same time keep that hunger for continous growth and success. Instead of working miserably hard into order to be happy 10 years from now, I believe in happily working hard now. In other words, enjoy the JOURNEY of success rather than seeing success as just a far of destination.

So why does being grateful lead to greater success? Well, there are a few reasons for this.

1) The Law of Attraction states that when you focus on what you have and are grateful for them, you will put your mind into a positive and happy emotional state that would attract more great things into your life! It is obvious that when you are in a positive and empowered state, you perform at your best and get even better results.

2) For those of you who believe in God, I believe that God will give you more if you are first grateful for what he has given you so far. If you are forever ungrateful and compaining about your life then no more shall be given to you.

If you want to change your life right now for the better, I urge you to grab a pen and write down at least 15 things taht you are grateful for in your life right now. Stick it up on your wall and read it everyday before going to work.

BTW, if you are wondering where I am finding the time to write this super long posting, it’s because I am currently in Cairns on a 10-day vacation with my family. I am now feeling very grateful for the great hawker food that we have in Singapore. See you all when I get back.