We've all heard the expression, "Happiness is wanting what you have," and can intuitively recognize its wisdom. Why, then, do so many of us struggle to cultivate a sense of gratitude in our everyday lives?
An outlook of gratitude and appreciation can be difficult to find when our default mode is one of constant anxiety, ambition and striving -- we're so focused on getting the "next thing," on improving ourselves and our lives, and on getting what we want, that we rarely stop to appreciate what we already have.
We're partly ungrateful out of a fear of accepting things the way they are, and as a result, contentment can feel dangerous to us, explains a video on gratitude created by Alain de Botton's School of Life. If we're content, we think, we won't have the willpower to take on new challenges. But ultimately, dissatisfaction won't make us happier or help us achieve meaningful success.
If we stopped and looked at the bigger picture of our lives, we'd feel a sense of appreciation for all the little (and big) gifts that we'll one day lose.
"There is so much, if we learned that we'd be dead by nightfall, we would promptly remember to value," the narrator explains.
Check out the video above, and head over to the School of Life's YouTube channel for more wisdom on living well.