GRATITUDE

Gratitude-the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

I just watched “Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru.” So much of how Tony approaches life inspires me. His passion and appreciation for having life is profoundly exhilarating. As he puts it, “life is happening for us, not to us.” We often feel, in moments of despair, that what is happening to us might be unfair, unjust or cruel. Throughout the film, he encourages his audience to view problems through a different lens which begs us to find value in the darkest of moments. There is no true love without heartbreak, no happiness without grief and no improvement without error. I’ve found that many of my inspirations crave the tug of war that happens when viewing opposite ends of a spectrum.

Gary Vaynerchuk claims to love both meritocracy and dictatorship because “when you’re pulling from both sides, you win. The contradictions are where all the magic is. You want to be successful and go fast? Don’t give a fuck about what anybody thinks of you. You want to go fast and win? Care about what every single person thinks about you. Yeah! Empathy matters as much ego. It’s the balance of the opposite things that allows the winners to really win.”

Ying and yang. Our problems are our gifts and our power is our caring (Tony Robbins). To be positive requires constant awareness of the negativity around us and a willingness to ward off its distribution. Is it any different than an entrepreneur finding an opportunity in a problem?

If negativity is identified as sociological pandemic, than individually we can provide a solution to ignite balance with fiery gratitude and optimism.