Growing with Gratitude

CHAPTER 4Address the 5 Habits of Happiness

It was a crisp winter's morning during the school holidays. I was working as a teacher at the time and it was always great to have a couple of weeks away from the school gym to refresh and reset. I was sipping on a cup of instant coffee (please don't hold that against me) and investigating my new-found interest in property investing. Enthusiastic and excited, I had recently discovered that the deposit required to purchase an investment property was nowhere near as much as I had thought.

Motivated to learn more, I was on my laptop googling successful property investors. What happened next was totally unexpected — yet life defining. While I was reading profiles about the big moguls, a pattern started to emerge and it wasn't directly related to property investing at all. I can't remember who the property investors were, but individually they consistently referred to this idea of happiness leading to their success, and, furthermore, gratitude leading to their happiness.

I was instantly intrigued. I didn't yet understand the connection between happiness leading to success and gratitude leading to happiness (let alone its connection to me being able to afford a house!). Soon, the googling switched to ‘gratitude leading to happiness’.

What popped up on the results page was my first introduction to positive psychology and positive education: how we help others lead healthy, happy lives.

Traditionally, psychology has been associated with ‘waiting’ ...