5 Reasons Why Being Grateful is Good for Us

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As you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re like me, always searching for ways to be more productive. By now you’d have figured out that the lion’s share of productivity hacks concentrate on helping us become more efficient through better time management, getting more organized, boosting our energy, and the like.

While it’s true that these kinds of strategies and productivity hacks will improve your efficiency if you practice them long enough, there’s no guarantee they will actually improve your life. You must also make sure you pursue a degree of self-improvement if you are to avoid burnout. Read more about how fatigue can affect productivity and work performance.

One way to pursue self-improvement is to practice gratitude. Doing so can benefit us in several surprising ways.

Want to find out how? Let’s explore reasons why being grateful is good for us.

Later we’ll discover how crucial it is to show gratitude. First, we’ll find out how being grateful can help make us happier.

1. Practicing Gratitude Increases Happiness

It’s easy to forget about the good things in life when we’re rushing from one thing to the next without pause.

If we instead slow down a little and take time to reflect on the good people, great opportunities, and lovely stuff and possessions we have around us, it can make us feel happier. It could even lead to a more positive mindset, according to research conducted by Harvard Medical School. If you focus on all the best aspects of your life, it’s easier to feel satisfied with that life.

Reflecting on the positive things in life and remembering to be grateful for them only occasionally may not be enough, however. The best thing to do is to practice being grateful often through actions. For instance, you might write thank you letters for gifts you’ve received, or kindnesses done to you, with the aim of making others feel happier too.

Here are 3 other ways you can practice gratitude often to make yourself — and those around you — happier.

• Let people know you appreciate them. Do so often.
• Keep a gratitude journal, and write it as often as you can – daily if possible.
• Keep in touch with old friends and family. Put aside time to call or visit them to let them know you value and appreciate them.

The best thing is, if you succeed in boosting your happiness, it is very possible that’ll become more productive. Read our post on how being happy can make you more productive. 

Showing gratitude has an especially marked impact on employees in lower-level positions because they are more likely to believe that their contributions go unnoticed and unappreciated.  

2. Being Grateful Helps Us Cope with Challenges

We tend to be least grateful when we’re dealing with frustrating challenges. However, It’s at these times when being grateful is most vital to our well-being. According to The American Psychological Association, if we practice gratitude we can increase our resilience and become better at managing stress, particularly at recovering from stressful situations.

This has an important implication for productivity because if we can better cope with stress, being in stressful environments and situations will have only a limited effect on our productivity.    

Why does being grateful help us become more resilient and more able to face challenges?

• People with poor psychological resilience often allow the challenges in their lives to consume them. By contrast, people who focus on aspects of their lives they are grateful for tend to experience less negativity.
• When you recognise the positive things in your life, it makes it seem that you will be able to change your life for the better. If you don’t do this, it is far too easy to believe there is nothing you can do to improve your situation.

This means that if you work to actively build a habit of expressing gratitude to others and just being grateful for the good things in your life, you can develop the psychological resilience needed to cope with any challenge you encounter and remain productive.

It’s time to discover the effect of being appreciative on our motivation, and that of the people around us.

3. Being Appreciative Motivates Those Around Us

This one is particularly important if you are in a leadership role. Researchers have discovered that when managers and leaders express their gratitude to their employees, it inspires them to work significantly harder. You can read more reasons to become a productive leader.

If you don’t make a habit of thanking your employees, the lack of acknowledgment can chip away at their motivation, and they may not strive to do their best because they feel their efforts go unnoticed.  The results of one study suggested those who work for managers who expressed their gratitude were up to 50% more productive than people who work for managers who did not do so.

Showing gratitude has an especially marked impact on employees in lower-level positions because they are more likely to believe that their contributions go unnoticed and unappreciated.  

If you’re a leader or run your own business, your success is in no small part dependent on your employee’s productivity, so it’s worth your while to make it a habit to be more grateful so that people feel more motivated and will operate at peak productivity.

4. Showing Gratitude Facilitates Collaboration

We know that practicing gratitude helps us foster stronger relationships, and help people feel more connected to the company they work for, or a more integral part of the team they work within.

Showing gratitude helps us work together and build trusting relationships with people outside of our family. It’s clear that gratitude — whether the secret lies in expressing it to others or receiving gratitude and feeling valued yourself — plays an essential role in our lives and work. It may even help us become more productive.

5. Being Grateful is Good for Your Physical Health

As hinted at in the previous section, being grateful can improve your motivation, as well as that of those around you. It can also have a surprising effect on your health. One study found that practicing gratitude can mean that you suffer fewer minor health complaints such as headaches and stomach problems.  

Obviously, being in better health means you are more likely to accomplish more and be more productive.

The most likely reason for this positive effect on health is that practicing gratitude lowers stress levels. We know that long-term stress can cause headaches, negatively impact the quality of our sleep, and even weaken our immune system, so it makes sense why being grateful is so good for us.  

Wrapping Up

Now you have a better of why gratitude is good for us, why not start practicing gratitude today to see how it could have a positive impact on your life work and overall happiness,

Remember, to get the maximum benefit from practicing gratitude, you should:

• Practice it often.
• Choose two ways to make practicing gratitude part of your daily or weekly routine. These could include activities like keeping a gratitude journal or regularly writing thank-you notes to people.

If you set aside time in your day to practice being grateful, you might be surprised by the potentially far-reaching impact doing so can have on your life. Who knows? You might just find that being more grateful can help improve your productivity too.