With the holidays around the corner, it is the time of year where we are more apt to focus on thanksgiving and gratitude. Much has been written about the power of gratitude and how it helps us to manifest our goals, both at work and at home, so let’s take some time now to understand how this works.

Here are just a few things said about gratitude:

Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. Christiane Northrup 

What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it - would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have. Ralph Marston  

Deficiency motivation doesn't work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are. Wayne Dyer  

Why does expressing gratitude work to motivate and inspire others?  When we focus on gratitude we are focusing on what is happening that we like. We are saying in effect: “Yes!  You got the ball in the net…I want more of that!”  This kind of positive reinforcement helps people to understand what you want and reminds them how good it feels to be praised. Many people, in contrast, work from the “not goal” and only express their disappointment when they are not getting what they want. Don’t get me wrong, being specific about this can be helpful too, when given in smaller proportions to the praise technique of gratitude. The reason praise and gratitude works better is that people begin to see themselves doing it right. When continual disappointment is expressed people actually see themselves as “not enough” and perform out of that vision of themselves.
Do you use gratitude to motivate or criticism? Which do you think works best and why?