The answer might be no. As uplifting as gratitude is, 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, or that you haven’t yet reached all of your goals & there are adventures 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 the drive & passion needed to live your best life. Most people can’t achieve greatness by only focusing on what they are thankful for. They spend at least some time paying attention to what they are unhappy about, what disgusts them, what they know is wrong, in order to motivate a change. I see this with health... in particular weight loss, several times a week. 

In fact, when taken to an extreme, gratitude can turn into a sort of crutch...a cop out of sorts.

If your self-esteem is fragile,  gratitude can actually mask a problem. Instead of focusing on challenging yourself & changing your direction & perspective, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just settling where you are. 

When you’re in a tough spot, looking for things to be thankful for can be much less important than facing the hard truth that things need to change. 

This is why gratitude can occasionally have the opposite of the desired effect. If you use gratitude to hide from a fight... Ask yourself if it’s really gratitude? Or is it a lack of motivation to change, to be uncomfortable, to acknowledge how bad things really are, & actually do something about it...

Fortunately, it’s quite possible to balance gratitude with ambition & the desire for change.

So go ahead & focus on the beauty that surrounds us daily. Just don’t be afraid or ashamed to be unhappy with things that really do need to change. The world isn’t always kind, & the people we love need us at our best. Which means we need to be constantly seeking improvement.

A great life requires balance between the pride for what you have & the desire for what you want 

inSight Nutrition & Lifestyle, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Get in touch: neil@insightnl.ca or Contact Us here

Providing nutrition and lifestyle advice for clients in Fredericton, NB and across the world, Neil Burchill brings a wealth of knowledge and insight from his real life experiences struggling with sustainable nutrition, lifestyle and fitness challenges.