Gratitude and Career Success: How to Cultivate Appreciation for Professional Growth

Gratitude isn't just a feel-good practice it can be a game-changer for your career and overall well-being. For many of us, gratitude doesn't come naturally, especially when we're navigating job uncertainty or workplace stress.

In this episode, we're moving beyond the gratitude journal to explore practical ways to build appreciation into your daily life. We'll cover:

• Why gratitude matters for your career success and mental health
• The real reasons gratitude might not be your default setting
• Simple, actionable tools to cultivate gratitude, even when you're not feeling it

If you're ready to shift your mindset and tap into the benefits of appreciation, this episode is for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Gratitude Frame
• 0:43 Why Gratitude Feels Hard
• 2:03 Stress, Nervous System, And Accessing Thanks
• 3:20 Achievement Culture And The Molecule Of More
• 5:18 Validation And Allowing Difficult Feelings
• 6:13 Science-Backed Benefits Of Appreciation
• 8:06 Tactics: Thank You Notes And Rituals
• 9:50 Inventory, Gratitude Box, And Mindset Pivots
• 11:38 Meditation, Micro-Joys, And Daily Glimmers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey there. Welcome back to the Career Refresh. I am your host, Jill Griffin. This week in the US, it's our Thanksgiving week, and I want to talk about gratitude. So I'm keeping this episode short and sweet, but still loaded with actionable tips. Because as many Americans gear up for the Thanksgiving holiday, gratitude talk is going to be everywhere, right? It's a time of year that on one hand we can spark cozy thoughts and feelings of holiday, festivity, pumpkin spice lattes, and all the things. But on the other hand, many of us are navigating real uncertainty right now. The job market, economic pressures, geopolitical tensions. It's a lot. So before you shrug and say, like, I'm not really feeling it this year, I just want to dig into why gratitude at times can be hard. And then also share with you to keep them top of mind some real benefits that go beyond you just getting to a gratitude journal, right? I'm sure you've heard that, but we're gonna go a little deeper. All right, let's dig in. So, first, why does gratitude beyond, you know, a national holiday where we're giving thanks feel challenging? First thing I want to remind you of is that there's a negative bias, right? This is evolutionary biology, nothing has gone wrong here. Our brains are here to protect us, which means at times it's going to give more weight to what can go wrong than what is going right. It's totally normal. This is what happens. Second, many of us are living in a state of chronic stress and overwhelm between back-to-back meetings, endless email notifications, the mental load of just keeping up. Our nervous systems are constantly activated. And when we're in a fight or flight mode, our brains literally cannot access the part that feels gratitude and contentment. It's not possible, right? So we're so busy surviving that we cannot even get into appreciation of thriving and enjoyment and that contentment. Next is that there is, we are often culturally conditioned to focus on achievement and acquisition, right? We're taught that success means the bigger promotion, the bigger title, the higher salary. Yes, and those are some measurements of success. But when we're always looking ahead to what we don't have, instead of pausing to acknowledge what we do have and what we've already accomplished, right? It's the acclimation, right? You don't, you don't just keep climbing to Mount Everest, right? You're you're finding ways places to acclimate along Basecamp along the way. That is what we need to be doing. And when we're not doing, we can feel exhausted because it keeps us perpetually chasing the thing, right? It's that dopamine. Dopamine is the molecule of more. It wants the thing. But if we don't pause to tell ourselves that we got the thing, then there's sort of like, I got the promotion, but I still kind of, oh, it didn't really make me feel how I thought I was going to feel. That's what's happening, right? We need to pause, we need to find that. And then the fourth thing is that there is this emotional bandwidth, right? We are plain tired. And when you're dealing with job uncertainty, financial stress, any personal challenges, you may have unlimited emotional bandwidth, right? Gratitude can feel like one more thing on your to-do list. I can't even harness it. I can't even rev the engine. And it can feel tone-deaf, like almost gaslighting yourself if you're generally struggling. And all of that's real. So I just want you to pause. And if you're in any of those situations, if it feels comfortable for you, just take a moment and say, like, of course I feel this way. It makes sense. Can I allow this feeling in this moment? Is it safe? Again, we're not driving, we're not in the conference room, we're not in places where it doesn't feel safe. But can we just process that emotion and let that shift for us? We know about positive psychology, and the research tells us that gratitude is strongly and consistently linked to greater happiness and contentment. So people who feel gratitude are going to feel more positive emotions. They might savor good experiences. It helps them improve their health, DLA diversity, build stronger relationships. Gratitude shifts us away from always reaching for that thing, that endless cycle of needing, right? That molecule of more, that dopamine, I need that more. And it can help us think when we want that, that that's the thing that's going to help satisfy us. And gratitude shifts us away from that and helps us refocus on what we currently have versus what we lack. It might feel a little contrived at first, right? But a state of gratitude, especially appreciation, actually grows stronger the more that we use it and the more that we practice. Gratitude might not be your default setting. I mean, that's okay. I think mine is somewhere between appreciation and anxiety. That's where my default setting sits into. So fostering that appreciation, that feeling of gratitude. There is a difference. I've talked about it a bit. Gratitude is sort of thankful that it happened. Appreciation is being appreciative for what you already have. So there's a little bit of a different energy there. Find which works for your brain. But appreciation is linked to lower stress, improved sleep, greater mental resilience, and increased overall self-esteem. Why? Because you're looking at what you have versus what you don't have, right? Self-esteem is often tied to self-worth. And if I don't feel like I have a lot, then I am worthless and therefore I may feel worthless, right? It's all tied in. So things that you can do to cultivate gratitude on a regular basis. That's how you to write that thank you note. You will find yourself more content if you nurture, if you nurture relationships with writing thank you notes. And whether it's an email, a handlit and letter, a text message, tell someone how much you appreciate them and the impact that they made. Not just thank you, but it's thank you because or thank you why. Give them the reason why so that they know what they did and the impact they had on your life, and so that you also know the impact that someone did something for you and send it. And if possible, you may even want to read it to the person or the next time you got the phone with them, tell them, right? But making a habit of acknowledging and where possible, sending at least one letter or email a month is going to really help you get to that place and really flex that muscle of being in that gratitude mindset. If that's not possible, is there someone you can thank mentally? No time to write? Fine. Just thinking about that person and sending them some good thoughts. You know, some people believe they can feel it. I don't have proof of any of that. I know that I feel it. I know when I sit there in a moment and really think through who I'm appreciative to that I feel better. And that's what we want. We want to make sure that I'm up being in that uplifted place because when I'm in that space, I'm going to show up and take different actions, and then it's going to show up in my results. The next thing that you may want to do is do an evaluation. Take an inventory of all the things that you have to be appreciative for and that are working for you in your life. It could start with that you got up today and you have your health. It can start with looking around you and seeing what's what beauty and creativity is around you that you can be grateful for. It could be your job, your family, your faith, any of the things that you can pause for a moment and just do an evaluation to remind yourself of the abundance that you do have in your life at every level. This is again, we're not comparing to others. It's looking at what is uh feels like an appreciation of things that you want to be grateful for. The next is you may have heard the concept of a God box or a gratitude box. For you, it may be its source, maybe it's universe, maybe it's spirit, maybe it's higher self. Again, figure out, don't let the words block you from taking the exercise. But there's something around, um, there's a book on writing the precipitous mind. There's something around writing down the thing that you're grateful for and maybe doing it on a small note, small post-it, and putting it in that box and actually being like, I'm so grateful for my husband, I'm so grateful for, you know, the warmth in my home. It's a freezing day in New York City today. So the warmth that I'm experiencing, it could be I'm grateful for my clients, I'm grateful for my job. Rev those engines and where you want, put them on notes and then put them in a gratitude box. Here's why. Because when you're having a crummy day and you're all down on your jerky thinking, and this happens to all of us, it's natural again. Going into that gratitude box and seeing it filled with all those notes to me has always been like, and look at all the things I have to be grateful for. It kind of gets me out of that rut of my thinking. And that's what so much of success is. Yes, it's the right place, it's opportunities and the right time, but it's also learning how to pivot and manage our minds that we can show up and see those opportunities that are posing themselves in front of us. And the last thing I'm gonna say is meditate, right? Even if you're not sitting there for 20 minutes a day, just finding moments in the morning if possible, or at night if that works for you, or frankly, any time of the day, just do it. I used to do it on the subway all the time, right? Because that was often the only time that I can. Now I've made a practice where I just get up a little earlier because that's what works for me, and I sit button seat and just reflect. I might have a cup of coffee, I might do some journaling, I might just sit for a moment and observe whatever I can see out my window and be appreciative for life moving on and life um happening and the creativity and the beauty all around me, because I do feel that beauty and angels are everywhere. And I mean the better angels are our future, right? They're everywhere if we open our eyes and look for them. And that is always gonna put me in a place that is gonna make me feel more content. So focusing on that present moment without judgment, um, you might want to focus on a phrase. Maybe you're saying peace or love or release, but just reminding yourself that the things that you're grateful for, the warmth of the sun. Uh, we had a little bit of a snow flurries in New York yesterday. For me, it's like very childlike. There's something about the first flurries of the season that just kind of get me giddy and excited and being grateful for that little spark of joy. Whatever is present for you, it's finding those small glimmers and those pieces of joy throughout the day that are going to help you build the resilience against the insanity of, you know, your job market, geopolitical situation, social economic issues, whatever's going on wherever you are. This is the way that we kind of balance that. All right, friends. So as you're going into this week, find the moment to just with yourself. Maybe you share it with someone, maybe you keep it for yourself. Again, telling someone else where you appreciate them, whether it's a phone call, an email, a handwritten letter, a text message is going to help you also feel better because you're acknowledging the abundance around you and try any of these tips. You know, I always love to hear from you. So you can email me at hello at JillGriffinCoaching.com and tell me any of the tips you tried or share with me. Tell me your tips. Give me an opportunity to learn from all of you. I would love that. All right, friends, if you are looking for support, I would love to be your coach. You can check out my website, Jill Griffin Coaching, and you can learn about how we can work together. So I'm wishing you a beautiful week, one filled with abundance and gratitude all around you. And always, always, always be in that gratitude and always, always, always be kind. All right, I'll see you soon.