ATTITUDE TO GRATITUDE

Societal influences are so confusing, aren’t they? With reality T.V. shows, films, news, music and an abundance of social media teens and even adults are being consistently influenced to conform to what’s perceived as ‘the norm’.   Women’s weight fluctuates between being anorexic skinny and being a voluptuous bigger woman. Whatever you are watching, your brain is digesting.  Are you watching shows like, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”?  What about the “Biggest Loser”?  Think about it; one show teaches you to work hard, watch what you eat, exercise and focus on a healthy way of getting in shape.  The other show, shows you how to make money looking good. They don’t really show you HOW they get to looking good.  My point is, we live in a society where people, especially the youth of today are influenced by what they see and what they hear. So many shows now a days teach people how to have attitude rather than gratitude. Our society seems to heavily influence people on how to have an image rather than how to be based in reality and just be you.

Living in the shadow of an image tends to spawn people with attitudes. Not necessarily the right type of attitudes. Kids are growing up with a sense of entitlement, a sense of wanting whatever they see advertised with zero regard for the hard work, authority or how to work for what you want.  Many youth grow up thinking they can just take what they want and worse than that, they think they can take from other people who have actually worked hard and earned what they have.  The sad thing is this attitude comes with them into their adult lives. As adults, what are we teaching our youth of today? What are we teaching each other? I think we need to be mindful of how we educate those around us with our actions and words.

In any area of your life, learn to be grateful. If you start your day giving thanks for what you have instead of complaining about what you don’t have, you will set the pace of your day on a positive path.  If you go through the day with a positive attitude and setting the example of gratitude, others will follow. If you have children, start teaching them how to be grateful for what they do have and not complain about what they don’t have. In a relationship, look for the positives and don’t focus on the negatives. What can you fix? What can you work on? Of course, the most important factor is to never give up on yourself. Find your positives and be grateful for them. Every day remind yourself of what good you do rather than focusing on things going wrong or what you don’t have. We are completely capable of influencing our own mindset and influencing those around us. Go through every day with gratitude not attitude. You will see it make a difference.

Written by: Sue McGaughey