TED Talk Tuesday: Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful

Humans have an inherent urge to want to be happy. Looking at the world with a glass half full mentality can lead to others striving to be happy. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, believes happiness comes from being humble. In his 2013 TED Talk: Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful, he argues being grateful leads to being happy in your everyday life.

Steindl-Rast argues being happy does not automatically make you grateful and vice versa. Gratefulness he contends is birthed out of opportunity. You are grateful for an opportunity and if you take advantage of it, you will earn being happy.

“Every moment is a new gift, over and over again, and if you miss the opportunity of this moment, another moment is given to us, and another moment,” Steindl-Rast said. “We can avail ourselves of this opportunity, or we can miss it, and if we avail ourselves of the opportunity, it is the key to happiness.”

He said a way to harness being grateful on a daily basis is to stop, look at the situation and go. Too many times we will rush through life, trying to get things done quickly to achieve happiness. He related a story about the water situation when he took a trip to Africa. He had no drinkable water on his trip and when he returned to America and saw a running faucet, he was taken aback. He was so grateful for running water that he became happy. He said having opportunities like this can open up one’s thinking and lead to happiness.

“People are becoming aware that a grateful world is a happy world, and we all have the opportunity by the simple stop, look, go, to transform the world, to make it a happy place. And that is what I hope for us, and if this has contributed a little to making you want to do the same, stop, look, go,” Steindl-Rast said.

Nick Powills, CFE, founded No Limit Agency in 2008 and serves as Chief Brand Strategist for the Chicago-based firm. No Limit is a full-service communications agency that establishes and elevates brands by bridging Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Digital, and a lot of creativity, to best strategize well-rounded and successful campaigns for 50+ global franchise brands. By presenting visionary ideas and building real relationships, No Limit is able to create effective media branding strategies to help companies grow. Nick currently leads a staff of writers, media strategists, designers, social media experts and digital producers in an office think-tank where brands are humanized for strong, compelling media stories. Prior to starting No Limit at the age of 27, Nick spent four years working at a franchise PR agency where he mastered the art of building rapport with media outlets and creating newsworthy pitches for earned media placements. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Drake University in Iowa.

TED Talk Tuesday: Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful

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