(ThyBlackMan.com) On September 4, 1622, the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha set off from Havana, Cuba, with a flotilla of nine ships bound for Spain. Loaded with a cargo of silver, gold and other New World riches, the ships ran into a wicked hurricane as they entered the Florida straits the following day. Hundreds perished when the ships sank. It is estimated that the worth of the treasures aboard in today’s currency would total $400 million. Many expeditions have been launched in modern times to recover the sunken riches, but only a few have succeeded.
Like the haul at the bottom of the Florida Keys, many of us are searching for the ‘lost treasure’ we believe will lead to our ultimate happiness.
Money, relationship and career are the paragon of the American dream, the dream that so many people pursue – to the detriment of their emotional, spiritual and physical detriment.
When we consider the expenditure of emotions, energy and tears, it becomes apparent that money, relationships and career don’t really give us the payoff we imagined. Many lives have become casualties of that expedition.
Let’s focus our energy on something greater, something bigger and something more lasting – the treasure of gratitude, goals and God.
This is worth discovering and the good news is it is within us.
Show me a person flummoxed by life – someone who doesn’t know if he or she is coming or going or up or down – and I will show you someone who has not paused long enough to consider how blessed they really are. They are lacking in gratitude.
Really, though, it’s not that they are ‘ungrateful’, as much as they just don’t know how ‘comparatively blessed’ they are – they don’t stop and think about the fact that, whatever they’re present condition, they are doing better than ninety percent of the world’s population.
The fact is our greatest challenge is nothing less than an opportunity to recognize the greatest gift at our disposal: the gift of gratitude.
What’s your obstacle? Is it finances? Are you searching for love but frustrated? Have you reached the proverbial glass ceiling? Stop for a minute. Consider what you do have.
Underpinning the life which lacks gratitude is a life absent of goals. Goals are the magic of life; they are the rudder that keeps the ship afloat and headed in the right direction. Without goals we severely reduce our chances of happiness. Ask the person who lacks gratitude what it is they really, really want and you will likely get a blank, long stare and subsequent reply, “I just want to be happy”.
Happiness is not a goal, nor is it a destination. Happiness is a state of mind – it’s a choice. Be happy now.
And where would all of this be without the source of all that we are and hope to become? However we may refer to the Higher Power we choose to recognize in our lives, God is the foundation of our gratitude and our goals.
God is our faith commitment, and as such, our experiences in this domain contribute much to our success in life and measures to a great extent whether our lives are fulfilling or empty. We now know that high levels of faith commitment correlate with lower levels of depression and stress and give us a greater ability to cope with stress.
Gratitude, goals and God are the true treasures of life.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.