Grumpy versus Grateful: Why is it that some people manage to find happiness during tough times?
“Choosing to Feel Happy Is Good for Our Health.” ~ www.jaywren.com
Grumpy versus Grateful: Why Does It Matter?
Few people choose to make themselves unhappy. However, many people are unhappy. Additionally, many of those people don’t know that they have choices in how they feel.
In the case of our careers, holding on to painful feelings can lead to career-ending job burnout.
A Grumpy Versus Grateful List
Here is a comparison table of what I have in mind. Do you see your job for the things that gripe you or the things that make you can feel grateful?
| Negatives | Positives |
|---|---|
| Income Uncertainty | I have food on the table. |
| Long Commute | I have free time for podcasts, music, and radio talk shows. |
| Stupid Co-workers | I can lead the team with fresh ideas. |
| Boring work | I can infuse my work with creativity. |
| Noisy Place | I can focus on my work and not the distractions |
| Work is not fulfilling. | I can volunteer for exciting projects. |
| Job futility | I create a plan for better tomorrows. |
Straight to Grateful
Making a gratitude list every day is one way to ease the pain of tough times. Another way to feel grateful is to think of some of the good things in our lives before we go to sleep.
Grumpiness Is a Painful, Infectious Life Choice.
Even the most compassionate people struggle to deal with a person who is continually griping. Constantly having to listen to negativity from other people creates negativity in ourselves.
To draw an analogy, negativity is like an infectious disease. It spreads from one person to the other. For example, therapists become infected from listening to the problems of their clients. Because of the negative impact of their jobs, many mental therapists seek help from other therapists to recover from doing their job.
Attitude of Gratitude
In conclusion, gratitude is one of the tools for dealing with tough times. The method above and other methods of writing things about our troubles can help take the power out of negative thoughts and feelings.
It is healthy to check in with friends to get their ideas on solving problems.
However, it is not okay to hold pity parties for ourselves when we are alone or when we are speaking other people.
Sometimes, just realizing that we have a choice about how we feel is all we need to begin to take the steps to feel grateful.