Superpower: How to Think, Act, and Perform with Less Effort and Better Results

Chapter 16

Gratitude and Appreciation

We're still discussing leverage, and we've just talked about using mentoring as a superpower. I feel it's important to discuss the benefits of gratitude and appreciation next, whether that means telling your mentors how much you appreciate their time and insights or thanking your team for helping you get things done. The world moves along more efficiently when you show people a little love and appreciation.

Once you've unleashed and developed superpowers, you'll find ways to benefit from virtually any situation, even a difficult situation…and you'll find you have a sense of gratitude and appreciation for whatever has come your way.

Harnessing gratitude and appreciation can be a difficult skill, but it is essential to your emotional survival. Without denying whatever just happened to you, whether it seems positive or negative at the time, you have to find some way to process it emotionally, learn from it, and, once you've mastered the lesson and come out on the other side, be genuinely grateful that it happened to you. That takes a little practice. But you can't be a true superhero without it.

Let me give you an example. When I joined EO, the Entrepreneurs' Organization (eonetwork.org), I went through an orientation to become part of the EO Forum. People talked to us about forum group rules, guidelines, and the benefits and procedures of the mastermind group. So that everyone could get acquainted with each other, they asked us to record a timeline ...