Taking risks in life is essential for living it, at its fullest. Most of us believe that taking a chance is something associated with our early years of life when we did not have much to risk. When you don’t have a family, don’t have responsibilities for others, you have plenty of time to waste on taking chances with your life.

People prefer risks at an early age because they want to play it safe when they have families later in life. John A. Shedd says, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for”.

Just as a ship can’t reach a destination by staying in the harbor, we as humans can’t reach the dawn of our destiny by playing it safe. So, it doesn’t matter which age group you belong to, or what you have to risk taking a chance towards a better life. 

All that matters is that you take chances, because it is quintessential for a better life.

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… in a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” ~ Mark Zuckerberg

The examples of Kylie Jenner, Mark Zuckerberg and many others who took chances and became a success in their teenage years, are great. However, there are people who started amazing journeys in the second half of their life. 

Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia at age of 35. The founders of McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken established their business when they were above 50.

There is no specific age when it comes to the best time to take risks. It is always a good time to take a chance and that time is NOW.

“No one ever got a trophy for playing it safe.”

Perquisites of Taking Chances

Taking chances and risks are essential to learn and grow. When you take risks, just as success is possible, so is failure. Both are part of the process of learning and growing. When it comes to learning, you learn more from failures than from success. Same is the case of growth. You grow when you fail.

“Taking chances is what makes you learn and grow.”

Risk taking makes you more confident, more innovative and more successful. Every time you take a chance it adds value to you as a person. You become more productive because you start thinking differently.

There are plenty of ideas and opportunities that come to mind to all of us. Only risk takers can avail of these opportunities. These opportunities can take you to another reality and can turn life upside down for you. Those who don’t take risks, end up only with regrets.

Another benefit of taking chances is that it helps you gain clarity about what you actually want from life. For most people, their goals are not clear. They oscillate between their passion and purpose. Either they pursue their passion and spend their lives regretting having sacrificed their sense of purpose, or the other way around.

“Only by taking chances and putting your own desires and convictions to the test, can you get clear about what is important to you.”

Chances bring freedom. You begin to feel that you can do whatever you wish to do. By pursuing your instincts, you end up inventing and reinventing yourself. If you would spend your whole life doing a 9 to 5 job, you might never know that you have an artist inside you. 

You may never discover that you could have been a great event manager. You may never write that book that could help countless lives, without taking a chance on yourself.

“It is quintessential to take chances to get to know yourself.”

How to Overcome the Fear of Risk Taking

The foremost reason for not taking chances is that we are always waiting for some kind of enlightenment towards success. Something that magically changes the course of our lives for the better. But life doesn’t work like that.

“You don’t need to wait for any magic to finally take a chance in your life. You have to be willing to reinvent yourself to experience a magical life.”

We often don’t take chances because of fear of the risks. As we get older, we have even greater fears of failure, because there is much more at stake. All these fears are created by our mind because most of us are more concerned with outcomes, rather than growing and learning. 

All you need to do, is overcome these mental barriers. The best way to do that is to figure out your fear and create a mantra for yourself that can re-program your mind.

You may want to take a chance at something new, but are surrounded by multiple fears like: what would happen if you fail; what others would think about your failure; what are you putting at risk. 

My advice to you is to listen to your inner voice and do what you want to do without overthinking the outcomes.

“There are no failures in life, only lessons and growth opportunities — but they only come to the bold willing to take risks.”

Trust yourself while taking chances. Henry Ford’s phrase explains it perfectly “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, You’re right.” 

Override all doubts and trust yourself that you can get better than what you have to put at risk. Your trust in yourself can take you to a better reality.

This is the case with Bo Berg who is 54. Bo was recently a life coach guest of my podcast Rant & Grow. Bo hasn’t taken many chances in his life because he has been putting his family first. 

This came with some perceived sacrifice, but he got a lot of personal growth and learning out of the decision to pursue a higher purpose. Some of the chances he did take, were forced on him at an early age, and others he managed on his own. Every one of them turned into growth opportunities and a sense of personal freedom.

In my coaching session with Bo, we uncovered how to overcome his fear to reinvent himself for his life’s second act. The kids are older, the marriage ended, the 18-year career ended as well. Now what is he going to do? Will he take risks to discover more about himself?

I’d like to invite you to listen to our coaching session. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about taking a chance in your life, you’ll find some tools and motivation in this podcast episode, to move forward. Just click on the play button to listen to the podcast right here.

Most celebrated columnist and cartoonist Frank Tyger says, “Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” Autonomy brings both to the workplace.

Autonomy at work is about bestowing employees with discretion and independence to schedule their work and to regulate how it is to be done on their own terms.

“Autonomy is not anarchy. It requires accountability, rewards, and governance. It’s just not driven top down. It’s self-administered.”

Traditionally exercised by senior level employees, autonomy is about decentralization. In modern organizational structures, such as self-managed, shared authority, and flatter organizations, autonomy on the job translates into increased job satisfaction.

The more autonomy employees have, the more devoted towards work they become. With autonomy you also experience reduced relational barriers between people. Studies show that more autonomous company structures translate into the best financial company performance.

“When people have more choices to shape their working environment, they are happier, more committed, engaged in their jobs, more productive and most loyal to the organization.”

How to Create a More Autonomous Organization

The first step towards achieving organizational autonomy is to hire autonomous people. Hire people who can naturally engage without the need for commands, controls, or rigid structures. Simply provide them with what they need. Let them know what is expected. Reward them when they take risks that translate into learning and growing opportunities, and let them be.

Finally, treat them and respect them as grown adults worthy of trust in their abilities as autonomous employees.

When management doesn’t trust people, it turns to micromanagement tactics. Watching people constantly, and trying to control every step. People feel treated more like machines which ultimately limits their desire and ability to contribute value.

“Treat people with respect by not referring to them as assets, resources, capital, or things to be leveraged.”

The other aspect to properly implement autonomy at work is to handle mistakes with patience. Hyper-critical management is destructive to people’s morale. It kills self-initiative, and consequently employee engagement.

“Employee engagement is crucial for companies to achieve success.”

Giving employees toys to play with together isn’t going to increase engagement. Setting them free to be themselves and encouraging collaboration without top-down controls will increase engagement.

The key to creating autonomy at work is to give lots of choices with clear expectations and mutually agreed goals and timelines. Without mutual agreements among the people involved, you can end up with lack of coordination, irregularities and in severe cases, anarchy.

“A strong system to hold each other accountable, is essential for autonomy to flourish.”

For example, at Nearsoft we have this understanding that no one person can fire you, but anyone can fire you. Autonomous teams thrive on the commitment to help each other win.

There is an implicit sense of accountability to each other. Unlike traditional command and control structures, where someone can literally hide out for months from the boss, there is no hiding out in a shared-authority team environment.

Most companies have co-dependent leadership models which aren’t healthy or empowering. On the other side of this spectrum, complete independence can translate into chaos. What has proven to work is interdependence. 

This is highlighted in the “Declaration of Interdependence” by the Radical movement started by a few of us committed to encouraging more freedom at work.

Autonomy Equals Loyalty

Allocating autonomy to employees creates a sense of implied responsibility. With increased autonomy, employees feel more accountable for the results. This sense of responsibility brings out the most creative side of people.

In addition to more creativity, other personality traits such as conscientiousness and extroversion come to life as well.

“More autonomy results in increased productivity due to the sense of ownership it creates.”

Autonomy is the mother of amazing inventions. In a controlled environment, working robots taking direction will never be able to innovate. Control kills employees’ talents.

One of the best inventions coming out of autonomy in our modern age is 3M’s Post-It Notes. It was discovered by a scientist during off-time allocated by the company for employees to pursue their own ideas.

Google used to give 20% time to its people to do something on their own that could add to the company’s value.

“There is a virtuous cycle between autonomy and motivation. Google’s AdSense and Gmail were outcomes of more autonomy.”

By providing autonomy, an organization expresses trust in the decisions and actions of their employees. With autonomy, people become highly motivated to express themselves fully. They step up, and explore the best ways to accomplish tasks.

When an employee is assigned a project, and is given complete autonomy to get the best results in that project, it is natural for that employee to start owning that project. This sense of ownership creates a more personal relationship between the employee and the organization.

As people begin to feel their part in the success of the company, they develop a stronger desire to stay attached to those accomplishments.

“The attachment to the success of the company translates into long-lasting loyalty.”

In various studies, autonomy has been found to foster job satisfaction. Employees with freedom in the workplace feel happiness and enjoy their work. The workplaces where employees’ suggestions are counted, and actions are appreciated, become the best places to work.

A sense of options and choice allows people to accomplish tasks wholeheartedly rather than acting on command. They want to work in an autonomous environment forever.

“By giving autonomy, organizations invite their employees to contribute to the success of the company, instead of dictating it. Working directly for the success of the company rather than working on managerial orders, creates an emotional attachment for employees.”

Conclusion

In recent years, more organic structures rely on autonomy, empowerment, and participation of the employees to succeed. Autonomy creates a sense of responsibility that motivates employees to fulfill their responsibility with the desire for the company’s success.

When their performance is appreciated, and they are rewarded with more autonomy, they work even harder. They start feeling an urge to be a considerable part of the success of the company. Employees get more engaged with their work, and the overall performance of the company, and they keep thinking up more innovative ways to contribute. 

Autonomy at work results in increased emotional attachment with the company and loyalty.

Companies who make an effort to create an autonomous work environment, are most likely to end up with more devoted and loyal employees who will be most concerned about the success of the business.

We always show up our best when we are optimistic, hopeful, confident and resourceful with clear thinking and vision. When we are enthusiastic and highly motivated with envisioned purposes, lined-up desires, and set goals, we are operating with high emotional intelligence.

But life rarely behaves that way. Sometimes we get the blues that blur importance of our purpose and slow down our goals. This faded importance of life makes us feel down, and the foremost thing we lose in this gloomy state is motivation.

“With faded destinations any path loses faith, but life is too short to spend any of it in hibernation.”

It is highly desirable to get out of this feeling to pursue what we are living for — achieving our goals. It sounds much easier than done. Getting out of these down moods often requires a targeted effort by ourselves and a few external actors.

Psychologists agree that there are two ways to get motivated. It either comes from inside or external factors. Extrinsic motivation is driven by an incentive offered for completing a task or a warning of potential loss.

Such motivations or triggers may work for a mechanical task with repetitive actions, but it is completely ineffective or even drastic for most of the tasks that are creative in nature.

Tips to Trigger Self-Motivation

There is always something inside everyone that kindles motivation. It could be a goal of achieving mastery in a field of study, or work; a desire to buy the latest luxury car model, or a purpose to serve others.

“Most of the time, reasons for feeling down in motivation is an increased gap between you and your goals.”

Research suggests figuring out what you personally respond to best. Identify that trigger, which reinforces importance for you to reaffirm your goal, and tell yourself that you are working for a cause.

“When you associate achieving your goals with something meaningful in your life, that association can be a powerful motivator to keep you on track.”

Loss aversion is a very strong stimulus to induce motivation. Remind yourself that by being lazy, you are putting many important things at risk. It could be money, relationships, your career, or even the ultimate goal of your life.

It’s not about forcing yourself into doing a task out of fear, but a method to remind yourself that it can cost you a lot. Mentally connect missing a goal to something significantly meaningful to you, a life or death situation you create and control in your own mind.

Feeling bad about being demotivated leads to making matters even worse. It whispers negativities in your ear about your capabilities. Depression feeds on negative emotions, such as self-pity, self-doubt, fears, and feeling overwhelmed. Try to identify these negative thoughts and avoid them. Consciously replacing negative soundtracks with positive words will eradicate laziness caused by negative thinking.

Find a couple of short and motivating affirmations based on what motivates you personally. These affirmations steer your mind off of negative thoughts. Affirmations are a concise single sentence or phrase. It doesn’t matter how cheesy or tacky they may sound, all that matters is hearing them encourages you to move forward.

For example, you can tell yourself repetitively, “No mood swings can stop me”, or “Nothing is tougher than my commitment to my own success”.

Self-berating induces self-negation and pushes us in even darker zones where no ray of hope can reach to motivate us. Try self-compassion. Pause and acknowledge your efforts. Tell yourself that it is normal and everyone experiences feeling down, overwhelmed or unmotivated.

“Offer yourself kindness, rather than being harsh and critical about yourself. Remember that your productivity doesn’t weigh your self-worth.”

No one can expect to complete all tasks during their down modes that were laid out in a high-spirit state of being. Both energy levels are drastically different. However, pushing yourself to go into action when you feel down is a proven way to get yourself back on track.

“Being in action is what induces motivation, not the other way around”

Instead of waiting until you feel motivated, give yourself a little push towards action. Cut short your expectations and try to perform a chunk of the tasks at hand. Once that is completed, you will begin to be more into the work. This will allow you to raise the bar and perform the next step. You are re-establishing your normal flow.

Tightly packed schedules with strict deadlines and a lot of work remaining to be done, prove detrimental when you are feeling down. You start to think it’s impossible to accomplish anything in time. The same is the case when you have a lot of instructions and boundaries.

You get stuck and decide that you can’t do anything. In such a situation, increase your autonomy. With increased autonomy and responsibility, you would be intrinsically motivated to put your best efforts forward. This also begs for reason why companies need to give employees more autonomy.

“Autonomy motivates people to get more done on their own terms.”

When feeling down, unmotivated, overwhelmed don’t give yourself time to dwell on the feeling. Wake up with as much vigor as you can muster. Make your bed. Shower and get dressed immediately. Perform a spontaneous act. Visit a mall, a bookstore, a theatre or a friend. Cooking something also helps to fight the sense of being down. Dressing up and grooming yourself can go a long way towards giving you a mental boost too.

If you need to perform more of a physical activity, you can try the reward technique. Decide a fun task or a treat for yourself after the job is done. For instance, if you need to organize your cubicle at the office and you are feeling lazy to do it, try inducing yourself with an incentive to have your favorite snack after it’s done.

There are multiple ways to accomplish a task when you feel down i.e. self-discipline, will power, etc. These tactics can be helpful for completion of tasks, but for the best performance you need to be triggered by intrinsic motivation.

“The way a highly motivated person works, leads to mastery and excellence. Tasks can be completed without motivation, but goals are impossible to achieve without it.”

To motivate yourself remember your goals. The cost of not being motivated. The importance of determination, and self-compassion. Positive affirmations and creating autonomy at work. These are all factors that can help you collect enough motivation to reach excellence even when you simply don’t feel like it.

Lastly, celebrate your wins and record them. Write weekly post-it notes of your wins and put them in a jar. Every time you feel demotivated, pull them out of the jar and read them to remind yourself of your accomplishments. 

This practice will give you the mental reminder of what it feels like to win, to be motivated, and remind yourself of how awesome you are.

Keep going!

Self-Motivation Tips Video

Mindfulness is retaining a moment by moment awareness of our thoughts, senses, and surrounding environment. Awareness and attention are at the core of mindfulness, and it also includes active observation without judgements of memories, and personal experiences.

When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune with what we are sensing in the present, rather than dwelling in the past or fearing the future.

“Mindfulness is being present without judgements.”

Mindfulness is observed to be an increasingly popular practice for top tier executives and celebrities. Improved mindfulness has scientifically proven to increase memory and awareness, reduced stress, and combat negative thinking.

How to Use Mindfulness at Work

Practicing mindfulness at work is simpler than most think. With just a few small conscious and simple practices each day, everyone can achieve a better mood, increased job satisfaction, improved productivity and better working relationships.

The first way to apply mindfulness at work is to be consciously present all the time and to be aware of what is happening around you without ever taking anything personally.

The other important requirement is to stay connected with your senses rather than getting lost in thoughts. For example, multi-tasking may sound more productive to many, but actually it’s counterproductive. Switching between tasks often result in losing important thoughts, and data points, and not giving 100% to anything.

It’s more effective, and mindful, to always pick a single task at a time. It will consume less time and energy and the outcome will always be more reliable, because it was done with acute intention and awareness.

Another mindful way of working is to deliberately slow down a decision. Effective leaders and entrepreneurs who slow down and take a breath before making important decisions and actions, make better overall decisions with increased efficiency.

Mindfulness exercises are also recommended. These exercises include conscious attendance to the present, mindful breathing, mindful immersion and conscious focus. During work hours our mind dives deeper and deeper in the ocean of thoughts and becomes less connected to the present moment. To bring it back to the present, set reminders to practice mindfulness on your phone calendar. When the reminder comes up, take a few moments to relax your spine, breathe, and connect to your senses.

Ways to Implement Mindfulness Programs at Work

Every person is different and thus needs different types of mindfulness training. Companies can choose to use apps and tools that help workers personalize their approach towards the trait. Similarly, courses and training can be provided with instructors. These instructors can identify the needs of the company and the pitfalls of employees and design training and courses accordingly.

You can also hire a mindfulness expert who could be available to employees as situations come up. Whatever program a company chooses, it is important to be consistent with it, dedicate the time and space needed for it, and show complete support for the development of the skill.

“Being present in the moment makes the moment more productive.”

Productivity Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness reduces stress at work, which is a dominant cause of employees’ disengagement and reduced productivity. To combat stress, various top organizations like Google, Adobe, General Mills, Mayo Clinic all have taken up formal mindfulness programs.

When the human brain takes a break from problem-solving, critical thinking and judgment, the possibilities of learning and creativity increases. With mindfulness the brain just observes and avoids judgments, and it is more adaptive towards new information.

Better focus is another positive outcome of mindfulness. This practice enables you to live in the moment and pay attention to it. Hence, anyone with this trait is more focused on tasks, and events. The best part about practicing it regularly is that it works to reduce distractions and ultimately makes you more productive.

“Mindfulness improves resilience. It helps you accept things as they are. Allowing you to approach stressful situations more calmly and objectively.”

This resilience results in empathy and improved workplace relationships. A study by NCBI showed that mindfulness develops a higher degree of empathy and altruism. You are able to understand your colleagues, connect and relate to them better, so you can be more attuned to their emotions. Thus, mindfulness helps improve workplace relationships.

Indirectly, mindfulness brings happiness, job satisfaction, creativity, and productivity at work. The ultimate outcome is better performance and more successful careers.

Mindfulness is among the leading traits that can help any business to grow because it helps employees develop positive strategies to deal with highly stressful situations and work pressures. This results in better problem-solving skills and more peaceful work environments. Such companies become stronger and more resilient.

Employees with improved mindfulness see failures as growth and learning opportunities. They never quit jobs due to difficulties, rather they try to creatively fix things. A positive, creative, and attentive workforce results in the best performance, which leads to maximum productivity for the business.

Mindfulness helps us produce better work because the roots of mindfulness training is attention training. More attention to details means less errors, and faster intentional output focused on what really matters. The clearer we are on what matters, the less we will get distracted, the more likely we are to actually produce meaningful outcomes.

In the case of businesses, increased productivity results in more profits. Employees with mindfulness traits help companies grow. Every company should realize the benefits by organizing mindfulness training for its employees.

Today every company expects meaningful work from the workforce. That meaningful work encompasses working with a strong team in addition to having your dream job and realization as a valued member of the company.

It’s important to develop strong relationships with team members, project managers, senior management, vendors, clients, customers, direct reports and administrators.

Cultivating good relations at the workplace is essential to experience meaningful work, good institutional performance, career growth, and promotions.

Having good workplace relationships is not just about getting together at happy hour, it is about the quality of teamwork leading to lasting professional bonds that benefit your career, and your quality of life.

Ways to Improve Working Relationships

There are two important ways to improve your relationships at work. First and foremost is gratitude. The simple act of being grateful for where the company is and the trailblazers that got it there, will set the context for how you relate to everyone at the office.

The second way is to listen. Listen carefully to everyone. Listening is a more recommended communication skill than speaking. Listening also enables you to give more appropriate responses when needed. If you insert your commentary into everything without understanding actual situations, you will often lose respect.

“If you know the culture, norms and ways you can contribute value at work, it will enable your ability to freely express yourself.”

Good etiquette and manners are also needed to establish good relations with colleagues. Always behave politely and accurately when you are around your co-workers. Keep your voice down while on calls to avoid creating disturbance for others who are trying to work, this is especially important in open office spaces.

Request help with “please” and receive it with “thank you”. Observe table manners while eating. Such small things would eliminate the chances of others getting irritated by you.

“While you are not responsible for other people’s feelings, you are responsible for how you show up with your behavior and mannerisms, which can trigger other people.”

Another good way to improve your relationships at work is to schedule time to build and maintain relationships. Fix some time, even if just 15 minutes, to interact with others in the office; reply to their posts on social networks; make time to share in their celebrations and time of grief. The practice of making time for others proactively is essential to be able to get closer to colleagues.

If you are a remote worker, invite people to have a virtual lunch or coffee with you over a video call. Just because you are not physically in the office, it does not mean you need to operate as a lone wolf.

“All it takes is a little bit of effort to let people know you want to be in a positive mutually supportive workplace relationship with them.”

If you want to strengthen professional bonds, it is important that you consider that everyone else at the workplace is human just like you. Your colleagues are not resources, human capital, workers, or even employees — they are people just like you.

If someone for example isn’t performing well, they might be going through some personal or emotional crises. Get to know them. Talk to them to know their interests, dreams, personal lives, hobbies and problems. The more you know them, the more your relationships will grow.

It is sometimes intimidating, challenging or even nerve-wracking to bond with co-workers that have a different nature, beliefs, and opinions than we do. One general rule is to practice care and respect for them and their opposite nature.

“Don’t declare others on the wrong side if they are not on your side on views and beliefs. Differences don’t mean better or worse, they are simply differences.”

We often try to avoid differences; this is a big mistake and small-minded thinking. Rather, take differences as a way to learn more about why people do what they do. If some of your team-mates have different ways of doing things that you can’t understand, don’t demonize them for it, and don’t write them off either. Rather try to learn the reasons behind their thinking with the simple intent to understand, you don’t have to agree.

Remember, there is never a perfect way to do anything in life. Differences are always the basis of learning. By respecting other people’s way of working, and being, this will create a positive bond.

Your behavior should express that you want to learn from other’s expertise, and you have the ability and willingness to help them too. Ask other team members if you can help them with their tasks and ask for help with your work. Increasing engagement at the workplace will enhance your probability to have positive working relationships.

It is very important to show gratitude to the people that assist you with your training and development. Thankfulness will increase your respect in the eyes of others and increase their desire to work with you.

“Gratitude is an expense-free credit for others. Everyone loves to receive gratitude, and by giving it, your own value increases in the eyes of the recipient.”

In the case of failure in any project, acknowledge the challenges and issues that caused strains and take responsibility, instead of blaming others. Take feedback about the failure from others and learn from them. This will increase your respect in the eyes of co-workers.

If you are a leader, don’t forget to regularly show appreciation for people’s contributions. 79% of the workers quit the job due to lack of appreciation from leaders. After putting a lot of effort and hard work for weeks, if your team is not getting a gesture of appreciation from you, that will drive them to the edge.

Lack of appreciation will create a rift between you and your team and ultimately workplace relationships deteriorate. To establish and maintain a good relationship, appreciate generously. Praise and recognition ensures employees they are valued.

“As much as people know their own value, proactive and regular recognition goes a long way to foster better working relationships.”

Workplace relationships can deteriorate fast due to gossiping. You talk about someone, and it ends up being transmitted the way you never meant. He said, she said never ends up well, hence, avoid gossip to your best abilities. Take the opposite route. Talk positively about your co-workers and express their skills to others, especially to leaders in the company.

Despite making all these efforts, disputes will come up. When they do, don’t take too long to make up. Go to the colleague. Talk about the misunderstanding and ways to resolve it. This increases mutual respect.

Personal Benefits

An overall friendly environment at the office helps to make the work easy and enjoyable. In this state of being, colleagues share their expertise and work as team members, leading to more ease and convenience to accomplish tasks.

If many minds help and cooperate on projects, more ideas will always emerge. A workplace with good relations among co-workers opens the doors for innovation and creativity.

With active discussions, all aspects of certain projects are explored. Some of the colleagues share ideas, others can give constructive criticism without a focus on finding faults. When teams work this way, they are operating from a place of mutual respect. This kind of environment create a sense of satisfaction among all team members.

Conversely, leg-pulling and negative attitudes at the workplace not only impact the personal performance but also halt ways to develop as a team and make progress. If you have better relationships at the workplace your ability to advance and gain recognition will also increase. Better workplace relationships are crucial for quality work and consequently career advancement.

Organizational Benefits

When the employees don’t waste their time and energy on overcoming the challenges of negative attitude and bad organizational relations but focus on their jobs and cooperate to accomplish tasks, it is sure to result in a successful company.

The reduction of stress increases productivity, creativity and innovation. Better working relationships definitely enhance the performance of the company. Furthermore, in a friendly environment, everyone supports each other, and it becomes a cooperative team environment with shared goals and passion.

Good relationships in the workplace are the key requirement today to achieve excellence in any business or organization. Friendly environments result in maximum productivity, innovative creativity, ultimate satisfaction, career development and overall best institutional performance.

Gratitude is the readiness to express appreciation for anything you receive from people or the Source of everything. Being grateful is crucial to sparking a positive personality and attitude. It also impacts your relations with society. At the same time, it has proven to have various medical and physical benefits.

“Being grateful is a way of living that can enhance your whole life, and when difficulties arise, gratitude can change the outcomes of your life.”

The first and priceless gift of gratitude is the happiness and contentment it brings to the person pursuing it. Various studies have confirmed that people who live in a state of gratitude are more prone to experience life in a delightful and positive way, even when difficulties arise. Grateful people realize and are thankful for what they have. That induces a state of positivity in them.

When one is well-aware of the importance of what they have, they turn out to be more confident and compassionate, which results in a boost of self-esteem. Moreover, when you appreciate others, you are more likely to adopt appreciable things from them. You can incorporate their positive qualities within yourself, helping you become a better person. In a nutshell, gratitude is the way to ultimate satisfaction.

Our physical well-being is also connected with our attitudes. A study by the department of psychology at the University of Illinois in 2013 states that grateful people are psychologically and physically healthier. They are less likely to have aches and pains.

Being thankful means, you are satisfied. There are fewer symptoms of stress and depression in people with gratitude, and they sleep well to boot. Less stress and depression mean that you are unlikely to be hit by many dangerous diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

In another study, researchers found that the people who keep gratitude journals are more likely to engage in physical exercise. Hence, while gratitude makes you a better all-around person, it can help you improve your health too.

In addition to the personal benefits from practicing gratitude, we reap a lot of social benefits. The people who express their gratefulness to others have stronger social integration. They have more friends as people inherently love to be praised and acknowledged; society is more attracted towards positive people.

Many complications in relationships can be sorted out simply by being grateful for what the other person is doing for you, rather than complaining about what they are not doing for you.

Ways to Increase Gratitude

There are various ways to incorporate the attitude of gratitude in your life. A little gesture of thankfulness for what nature has blessed you with and a small token of appreciation for your significant others can bring all the above changes to your life.

James Pennebaker, a prominent researcher on expressive writing, says that writing helps to comprehend experiences. For gratitude development, it is highly recommended to keep a journal of great things that happen to you.

You can also keep a collage with pictures of the people and places and things you are grateful for having in your life. This practice will result in a positive boost to your personality.

If pen and paper is not your style, fix some time for yourself. Be close to nature and appreciate the beauty and all the little things that you feel you would miss if you were away from nature.

Thinking about the lessons and positive outcomes from stressful situations in your life would also help you to inculcate gratefulness even for the hardships that made you stronger, more resilient and in some cases, more human.

For instance, your boss fired you. You went through a tough time. But eventually you landed your dream job where instead of bosses you are surrounded by leaders who care about people. You can be grateful to that boss who fired you and for that stressful time because it was nothing more than an inconvenience that re-directed your life towards a better outcome.

Put an effort to minimize or completely erase the complaining behaviors, and then figure out how much energy and time it was costing you.

“We waste a lot of energy and time complaining, which creates negative outcomes in our lives. This is energy that can be shifted towards practicing gratitude, which will have a positive impact on our lives.”

Write a note or make a call to say thank you when you realize that someone helped you out of a bad situation. Develop a habit of saying thank you for the seemingly minor but significant convenience or support from others.

It is difficult to practice gratitude when you have many things going on at the same time. Yes, that’s life, but if you take the time to really focus on the person you are with and what is happening in the moment, that simple act of presence can make a big difference in your life.

Put on your calendar a reminder for gratitude. Just like you schedule meetings, and important events on your calendar, schedule moments of gratitude. In those moments you can practice any of the above-mentioned ways to show gratitude.

Why Companies Should Encourage Gratitude

Gratitude is perceived more as a social nicety than a tool for improving organizational performance. But it has influence on the performance of people in the workplace.

A Gallup survey shows that companies which encourage workplace gratitude, see an increase in quality work and reduction in absenteeism.

Another study by Harvard Medical School found that employees who receive an expression of gratitude before starting work made 50% better on their goals.

Workplace recognition and appreciation motivates people, improves a sense of accomplishment in them, boosts emotional resilience, fosters cooperation, and reduces harmful emotions such as envy.

Using gratitude in a company is effective to resolve team conflicts and encourages a contagious chain of helpful behaviors. When leaders show gratitude, the same habit develops in the employees for each other, that results in a better environment and cooperation among the staff.

“Gratitude can really add to improved organizational performance.”

Activate a Better Life

Gratitude has the potential to change lives. If you are looking only at the have-nots of your life, and are not grateful for what you have, you will be unsatisfied and depressed. This can result in having a troubled relationship, stressful job hours, and overall, a life you hate to live.

“By simply shifting your focus from the have-nots to the things you actually have in your life, you can improve your life dramatically.”

You would discover that you have many things that others may be deprived of and spend their whole lives to cope with situations you are not in. Appreciating those things would bring positivity in you and increase love for your life.

The known spiritual figure Rumi writes that “if you wear gratitude like a cloak, it will feed every corner of your life.”

“Being grateful for the good around you makes you realize the great things within you. It converts your haves into enough and opens you up to living in a state of plenty.”

The key to practicing gratitude is three-fold. First focus inward at yourself. Appreciate who you are, what you have, where you have come from, where you are going. Gratitude starts with you. Second, focus outward towards the people in your life, nature, and things you find interesting and worthy of admiration.

Finally, make time to share your gratitude openly with others. Making affirmation of what you are grateful for on social media for example. Sending letters to people you are grateful for, be it email, DMs or snail mail, will activate more gratitude in yourself, and the recipient. Share the gift of gratitude with others.

Gratitude opens the door to living the fullest life possible for all involved. Let’s show each other more gratitude and make each other’s lives better.