Now it is the time of year when everything is about gratitude. And that’s amazing since gratitude is obviously an essential ingredient in happiness. But I always had an interesting question.
Do we have to be grateful all the time? Is it a good idea to try to live in an eternal state of gratitude?
The answer might be no. As uplifting as gratitude can be, it is often good to cultivate some honest dissatisfaction.
Everyone has areas where they can improve. Everyone has skills they would like to learn, goals they haven’t quite met, or ideas they haven’t tried out. It is perfectly OK to be dissatisfied that you haven’t learned everything you need to learn, that you haven’t yet reached all of your goals and that there are adventures waiting for you that you haven’t gone on yet.
In fact, it is more than OK. It might be necessary to cultivate some dissatisfaction in order to build drive and passion. Most people don’t achieve greatness by only focusing on what they are thankful for.
In fact, when taken to an extreme level, gratitude can turn into a sort of crutch.
Also, for people who are really down, looking for things to be thankful for is much less important than facing the hard truth that other things need to change. This is why trying to be grateful can occasionally have the opposite of the desired effect. If you use gratitude to hide from yourself how bad things really are, you will actually become even more unhappy.
Fortunately, it’s possible to balance gratitude with ambition and the desire for change. Most of the time, it’s clear when we should be thankful and when we should be dissatisfied.
So try to focus on the beauty of the universe, the power of your dreams, and the joy of your community. It’s always great. Just don’t be afraid or ashamed to be unhappy with things that really do need to change. The world isn’t always kind, and it needs you at your best. Which means it needs you to be constantly seeking improvement.
Becoming the best version of yourself requires a little bit of dissatisfaction.
I would love to know what are you greatful for today?
MIKI MOLNÁR
