Founders, does gratitude really transform your brain? How has practicing gratitude helped your business mindset?
To help you acknowledge the benefits of practicing gratitude in business, we asked founders and other thought leaders this question for their best strategies. From helping you develop a growth mindset to improving sleep quality, there are several ways that gratitude can transform your brain and in turn, improve your overall mindset to best run your business.
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Here are 18 ways these founders use gratitude to improve their business mindset:
- Gratitude Helps You Develop a Growth Mindset
- Gratitude Builds Advocates
- Gratitude Has Created Abundance in My Business
- Leverage Gratitude for the Clients and the Team
- More Happiness, Less Stress
- Gratitude Makes You More Solution-oriented
- Gratitude Promotes Cognitive Restructuring
- Gratitude Empowers Me to Take More Risks in Life
- Practicing Gratitude Helps Me to Focus On the Positive
- Being Grateful Encourages Generosity
- Gratitude Fuels Me to Help People in Need
- Promotes Better Moods and Health
- Helps Change Your Perspective
- Gratitude Changes the Chemistry of Our Brain
- Gratitude Creates a Cycle of Positive Energy
- Gratitude Helps With My Energy Levels and Patience
- Gratitude is Only One Part of the Balancing Act
- Improve Sleep Quality
Gratitude Helps You Develop a Growth Mindset
Chronic stress tends to dampen your outlook on life from all angles. This encourages you to stay stuck in a fixed mindset—believing that things will never change and allowing roadblocks to stop your progress as an entrepreneur. I know that feeling all too well.
Practicing gratitude helps to banish the inner critic that enforces a fixed mindset. Being thankful encourages you to be creative when solving problems. If you work with a team, your growth mindset will likely spill into your professional relationships and motivate others to think outside the box. That’s what it did for me.
Brian Nagele, CEO, Restaurant Clicks
Gratitude Builds Advocates
We all want a happy, productive place to work, and one of the best ways to achieve this is to show the people that you work with that you appreciate them and what they do. A few words of thanks said with sincerity can uplift the workforce collectively, but it means so much more when said personally to an individual. It shows the employee that their contribution is important on both a singular and on group level.
A thank you is a sign of encouragement and it can be a very effective stress reliever. It shows that you respect the person being thanked and helps to forge a closer relationship with them.
Building a culture of gratitude within the business can assist greatly with motivation, and employee retention and make your business a place that top talent wants to work for. Your employees will become advocates for the business when they talk with their network, proudly telling others how they enjoy working for a company that respects and appreciates them.
Colin Toh, CEO, Headphonesty
Gratitude Has Created Abundance in My Business
When I first started my business, I was deep in the mindset of scarcity and lack. Inwardly I believed that my products weren’t good enough and that the market was too competitive.
I brought that mindset into my business and felt desperate to make sales. But clients can feel it when you approach them with desperation, making them even less likely to buy. The belief in lack becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Starting a gratitude practice changed everything. When I began focusing on the good in life, it changed the way I approached my clients. Instead of seeing them as a meal ticket, I had to convince them to give me money, so I started creating relationships with my clients.
But by focusing on what I already had and investing in my client relationships, the whole dynamic of my business changed. I focused on the value I could add to their lives, and people became naturally drawn to me and my products. I now run an abundant business, in large part due to gratitude.
Jodi Sharp, Founder and Marketing Director, Jodi Sharp Art
Leverage Gratitude for the Clients and the Team
Appreciation and gratitude have been integral to keeping my energy levels high, transforming my brain, and pushing projects forward.
To keep things simple, I write daily reminders in my 5-minute diary about two things I am grateful for as a founder: my customers and my team. It gives me a deep, burning gratitude to know that clients trust us so much that they refer their fellows to work with Loopex.
Second, I appreciate my SEO-driven army. Seeing my team grow day-to-day, not only in quantity but also in the quality of everyone’s individual growth, all these accomplishments have significantly impacted the overall development of LoopexDigital.
This practice helps me understand and realize our huge growth from the very beginning and what we have now. It keeps my motivation on the flow, directly impacting employee and client satisfaction. Practicing gratitude also enabled me to make employees feel more valued, boost their self-esteem, and motivate them to do even more.
Maria Harutyunyan, Head of SEO, Loopex Digital
More Happiness, Less Stress
When I founded Poh Ern Si Penang, I was actually in a financial mess. Granted the fact that I had to open the institution as part of my work for God, I was under huge stress, with limited options on financial survivability, not to mention, my weight of responsibility in maintaining the structure.
This is where Gratitude plays an important part in transforming my outlook toward my temple life. Being grateful is something that was a part of me a long time since, but it was more of a run-in-the-background mode. When I truly embraced Gratitude despite all the challenges that come with establishing Poh Ern Si, this was when I feel more contented, calmer, happier and more accepting of the bad things that have happened to find solutions next.
Practicing gratitude makes me feel less stressed and empowers me with more positivity to pull through dark times. I may be speaking from the perspective of founding a religious institution, but in fact, all of these apply to businesses as well.
Bhante Thi-O, Founder, Poh Ern Si Penang
Gratitude Makes You More Solution-oriented
The best part about shifting to a mindset of gratitude is that it helps you see that things aren’t irreparably bad, even amidst a crisis. This optimism can carry you through challenging times because it brings a sense of stability that fosters solutions. Moreover, it allows you to shift all your focus away from the problems and direct your energy into doing what needs to be done at that moment instead of fixating on what’s wrong.
Gratitude Promotes Cognitive Restructuring
A gratitude mindset means replacing maladaptive patterns with forward-thinking alternatives. This means that the next time you suffer a setback or fall on hard times, you’ll think of ways to get around it rather than a list of reasons why you should quit.
If your business had a poor month of sales, this is the difference between telling yourself “My product isn’t good enough” and “The needs of the market have changed, so let’s see how we can adapt”. This new pattern directly leads to business success, as rather than struggling with avoidance or withdrawal, you’ll make logical adjustments out of your professional best interest.
For me, incorporating a daily gratitude practice transformed my brain and paved the way for complete cognitive restructuring. It conditioned me to first consider the positives so I felt able to find solutions. Even when a situation feels challenging, this mindset keeps me in the driver’s seat and puts everything into a clearer perspective.
Andrew Gonzales, President, BusinessLoans.com
Gratitude Empowers Me to Take More Risks in Life
Psychology and science have supported that practicing gratitude can trigger positive changes in the brain and well-being, with studies stating that this emotion stimulates the right anterior temporal cortex part of the brain, causing it to release happy hormones.
Gratitude is one of my favorite English words because of its impact on my mindset as an entrepreneur. I feel happier, calmer, and more present if the first emotion that tugs my heart the instant I open my eyes in the morning is being blessed and thankful. Gratitude empowers me to take more risks in my life and business because I know with confidence that whatever I will lose, I’d still feel plenty abundant because I count my blessings.
Daniel Apke, CEO, Land Investing Online
Practicing Gratitude Helps Me to Focus On the Positive
Gratitude transformed my brain. I’ve found that when I’m grateful for what I have, even if it’s just a little thing, it helps me to focus on the positive and to be more creative. It also helps me to be more open to new opportunities.
Gratitude also has helped me to deal with difficult situations in business. When I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, remembering all the things I’m grateful for helps me to reframe my thoughts and to see the situation in a more positive light.
For example, if I’m dealing with a difficult conversation with a customer, remembering that they’re ultimately doing business with me because they appreciate what I do helps me to stay calm and to resolve the situation.
Erik Pham, CEO, Health Canal
Being Grateful Encourages Generosity
Living more simply has been made possible for me by being grateful for the necessities and appreciating what I already have. Having a gratitude practice has made me happier and a better person. Understanding how fortunate we are through the observation of gratitude naturally inspires us to give. Since I don’t find material gifts to be as fulfilling as other types of giving, I prefer to avoid giving them. Sure, it’s nice to give someone a gift they need, but in my opinion, lending a helping hand or your time is more valuable.
People rush from one place to another, leaving them exhausted and dissatisfied at the end of the day. I’ve learned that giving up my time or aiding the less fortunate brings me great joy. It’s rewarding to be able to contribute, whether it’s by holding a door open or by providing food for the hungry.
Brian Clark, Founder, United Medical Education
Gratitude Fuels Me to Help People in Need
If there’s one thing that fuels me to establish a charity and help people in need, then it’s the gratitude I have for everything I achieve in life. Having an attitude of gratitude allows me to see through the lens of others. That said, it motivates me to use whatever I have to uplift the lives of many, especially those families and children in poverty-stricken areas.
Whenever I experience life failures, I see them as challenges that will make me stronger and more ready to face more complex battles. This is the same experience I want others to feel – that there is always hope amidst hardships, and our charity is always willing to lend a hand to help them with their journey.
Sam Tabak, Board Member, RMBH Charities
Promotes Better Moods and Health
I had to face some losses in 2018. The losses that made me feel most grateful were the death of my grandfather, the home where I grew up, as well as a job that I loved and left behind. Practicing gratitude helps to train your brain to look for the good things in life and express appreciation for them. This can assist with overhauling your mind and your considerations, which assists you with seeing all the more beneficial things throughout everyday life.
There are many benefits associated with gratitude.
Increased positive emotions: Grateful people experience more positive emotions, such as joy, contentment, and peace of mind. Grateful people experience improved physical and mental health, including lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
Strengthened relationships: Practicing gratitude can result in closer and more trusting relationships. Gratitude can help improve both our moods and our health by reducing stress and boosting our bodies’ cellular repair systems.
Sandeep Bhandari, Cofounder, Askanydifference
Helps Change Your Perspective
Simply put, developing and expressing gratitude every day can help you change your perspective. This is a more positive change, shifting from the concept of self to that of society.
When you adorn a positive mindset, self-confidence is assured, both in you and the person, you are expressing it to. For businesses, this can help in developing a positive progress rate. People would measure their goals, build motivation to work towards them, and succeed in them. Especially, if you as a founder encourage employees who did well to excel more, their outcome would be more effective.
This does not mean leaving back the ones who are lagging, you can always motivate them to upskill and practice more. As long as you have individuals willing to work together and on themselves, your company can grow holistically.
Vance Tran, CoFounder, Pointerclicker
Gratitude Changes the Chemistry of Our Brain
By practicing positive and grateful thoughts, our brain stem starts to produce dopamine – a chemical in our brains responsible for pleasure. Practicing gratitude daily helps to boost serotonin – a neurotransmitter in the brain, and oxytocin – a social neuropeptide.
These chemicals enhance our mood and motivation and improve our willpower. Furthermore, practicing gratitude as an entrepreneur improves your business relationships, elevates the mood in an office setting, and motivates your co-workers. Including a gratitude workshop in your daily work meetings will set your company up for success. Counterintuitively, gratitude leads to increased dopamine, which can become addictive and, as a result, increase employees’ productivity.
Natalia Grajcar, Co-Founder, Natu.Care
Gratitude Creates a Cycle of Positive Energy
Gratitude transforms the brain in that it comes from a place of positive affirmation, and that can have a dramatic impact on your business. Just like an object in motion will more likely stay in motion, negative thoughts will do the same, and eventually create a vicious cycle that feeds your decisions and creates negative energy all around you.
The mindset of being grateful is a positive one that allows me to be able to more readily rise to challenges, rather than taking a defeatist attitude, in which I am unable to look for solutions, and in which those around me are deterred from offering assistance. By making gratitude my focus, that positive energy spreads to my team, fueling our creativity, and transferring those good feelings to our clients.
Haley Wood, Founder, The Look
Gratitude Helps With My Energy Levels and Patience
Practicing gratitude has kept me energized and patient with my entrepreneurial progress. It’s critical to keep pushing forward with tasks and projects that would otherwise be daunting and overwhelming without being thankful to my team and the factors that drive their success. It may seem like the phrase “look at the brighter side of things” is empty, but it is an excellent motivational tool when things don’t go our way.
Being an entrepreneur is a process, and nurturing a healthy business mindset every step of the way is crucial. Gratitude has helped me develop this attitude towards my work, colleagues, and journey to success.
Nat Miletic, Owner and CEO, Clio Websites
Gratitude is Only One Part of the Balancing Act
Reminding ourselves of the things that are meaningful to us is a great way to boost mood. At the same time, it is important that we look at things that we want to change too. We can be grateful and wishful at the same time about the same thing or different things. Any time we search for “the thing” that will help us, we shortchange ourselves because we benefit from different emotions and practices at different times. Some of it depends on our purpose in the moment. Are we trying to feel good, connect with others, drive change in ourselves, learn?
Ruth Pearce, Chief Inspiration Officer/Coach/Trainer/Speaker, ALLE LLC
Improve Sleep Quality
In today’s era, everyone is busy with their work and they don’t have time to pay attention to their mental health. They’re busy thinking about their families and business. That is the big reason behind anxiety and depression. To save yourself from all these concerns, I think it is better to practice gratitude. Gratitude removes all the toxic emotions, stress, and negative thoughts from your mind. That will help you to sleep well and wake up with full energy.
Remember that a business can’t grow without its full potential. So, when you wake up with full energy, you can spend a good amount of your time and effort on work that plays a good role in your business success.
Adam Fard, Founder, and CEO, Adam Fard UX Agency
