Tag: gratitude

  • Ingratitude is the ultimate discourtesy

    Ingratitude is the ultimate discourtesy

    I recently finished reading Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong, a renowned author on comparative religion.

    There was a piece about the definition of kafir that piqued my interest. For my South African reader, you know that we have our own distasteful history with the word “kaffir” which we annexed with great gusto from the British writer, H. Rider Haggard (see footnote at the end of this article).

    But today we are talking about kafir >>>

    I’ve always been led to believe that kafir meant a non-believer who has malevolent intentions towards Islam and Muslims. The kafirun (الكافرون) of Mecca were the non-believers who rejected the God of Muhammad.

    According to Armstrong, kafir derives from the root KFR (“ingratitude”), which implies a discourteous refusal of something that is offered with great kindness and generosity.

    I find that definition more preferable.

    I understand that by being invited to this experience is no small thing. That I was chosen to play in this theatre called life is a gift beyond comprehension. One that should be viewed with awe and gratitude.

    Every time I blame and complain, and feel the destructive desolation of self-pity, I’m no better than a kafir.

    I’ve come to learn that self-pity is an operating system. The more I wallow in it, the more I attract that which feeds it.

    Gratitude is an operating system too, the more I revel in it, the more I attract that which feeds it.

    I’m going to start doing more of the latter because gratitude truly is the grammar of success. Do you want to join me?

    Footnote. I love looking for the etymological roots of words. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll know that South Africa has a unique relationship with the k-word. Not that it’s any consolation, but neither the Dutch nor the Afrikaner invented the word. The British writer H. Rider Haggard, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often used the word “kaffir” in his novels about Africa. This term was used to refer to black people in the region at that time. We may not have invented the word, but hell, we certainly milked it dry.

  • Gratitude

    Gratitude

    Gratitude is the grammar of your soul
    Without it life can be quite a mess
    Be mindful that you’re the point of it all
    The story you’re in now was written for you, to enchant, enrapture and elevate you
    You’re not here to play small but to stand tall
    The creators ask nothing in return … except that you burn
    Burn with awe
    Burn with gratitude
    Burn with joy, happiness and LOVE
    You’re the point of it all
    You’re a masterwork creating a masterpiece
    You’re getting to express your divinity
    You’re getting to play here for a little while and get to move the dial
    You’re your creators’ greatest work. Their magnum opus
    Be in awe
    Be in gratitude
    Be you … you who are the point of it all

  • Gratitude Produces Excellence In Humanity

    Gratitude Produces Excellence In Humanity

    Abstract: Gratitude is the fuel that could guide excellence. “Did you become excellent with the many gifts that were given you?”, will be one of the questions we’ll need to account for at the end of this game.

    Many of us baulk at the culture of mediocracy that has misshapen our world today. It has become the most prevalent disease of our age and has malformed us as a species. 

    It has turned us from craftsmen into caricatures of carelessness and from excellent to errant.

    Excellence has become a Grail quest for many leaders, consultants and authors. There’s a befuddling amount of advice on how to strive for excellence. I’ve decided to pick a lane and run my idea of excellence through the filter that I’m going to argue for now.

    In this piece of text I’m going to argue for one overarching reason to strive for excellence as a human being. The fuel that propels this premise is a concept called gratitude.

    Photo Credit: Get Stencil

    Why Strive For Excellence

    There are many reasons to strive for excellence. The usual suspects include becoming a better boss, a better employee, a better father/mother/son/daughter.

    We are told that being excellent is about how we show up in the world. The better we tackle the work before us, the more useful we are. The more useful we are the more our agenda for security, power, fulfilment and harmony is met. Most texts about excellence are concerned with the issue of people, production and profits 

    I argue that when it comes to excellence there’s a bigger concern than people, production and profits. That concern is gratitude to something infinitely wiser than we are!

    Gratitude should be superordinate to everything. And, excellence is the currency of gratitude which is due to our Creator who allows us to play here for a little while.  

    This story that we’re enjoying now was written solely to enchant us and to give us an opportunity to express the divine in us.

    Photo Credit: Get Stencil

    The Real Purpose of Excellence

    In my opinion, the real question is how are we going to recompense our creator for allowing us to experience the awesomeness that is our lives?

    There are only two possible ways we can present ourselves to our creator one day: 

    1. F$*k You
    2. Thank You. 

    If it’s a f$*k you it’ll mean that we treated this life as an arbitrary, throwaway thing that has no meaning. At best, this attitude justifies us embracing the mediocrity that is the dominant Zeitgeist in today’s world. At worst, it turns us into selfish predators concerned only with the issues of survival. 

    If it’s a thank-you, then it means that we treated this life as something wonderful, adventurous and treasured. It means that we strove to break the shackles of mediocrity, ingratitude and self-interest to become the most excellent version of ourselves.

    There’ll come a day when you and I will be ferried by Charon over the River Styx to meet our creator.

    What will our coin be? How will we show our gratitude for this brief interlude that is our life before our continuation date? Will our best work be a dung heap of mediocrity, misery and malice? Or will we present as a piece of excellence, a work of art and the greatest version of ourselves?

  • Great artists crave appreciation

    Great artists crave appreciation

    There’s one thing artists crave more than food. And, that’s appreciation.

    All humankind craves appreciation.

    The thing is that we were created to be appreciative by the great artist.

    When he spoke his first words, “Let there be light”, he got the ball rolling. He called light, day and separated it from dark, night.

    He was pleased. And, this was only day one.

    Like all artists, God wanted someone to appreciate and be in awe of his great work.

    So he created humankind in his own image to be in awe of his creation.

    He saw the world through each one of their eyes and he was pleased.

    Humankind appreciates little

    But, soon he must have realised that humankind appreciated little.

    So, he manufactured the original sin. Humankind fell from grace and was separated from Eden. And from him.

    He brought darkness and separation to humankind.

    It was only when humankind was disconnected from God that they realised what they’d lost.

    And, ever since then, humankind has been trying to get back to their source and reconnect with it. That’s our real journey, today.

    • If there’s not darkness, there cannot be light.
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer, how do we know what happiness is?
    • If we don’t struggle and suffer how do we appreciate it when the struggle and suffering ends?
    • How can we be grateful?
    • How can we be in awe?

    Our greatest sin

    Our greatest sin is ingratitude. We were given the perfect home and the perfect life. All that was required of humankind was to be in awe and gratitude for the great work of art we live in.

    Humankind and its self-indulgent, entitled nature stuffed that up good and solid.

    As instruction, let’s take a tiny event in time. The impending ‘Day Zero’ in Cape Town is almost upon us. The day the taps run dry, darkness will descend upon South African humankind.

    Nobody appreciated the Eden we were in. Nobody appreciated the water supply. There was no awe and gratitude for this great blessing. Judging by the way we’re destroying God’s masterpiece, the darkness is only going to get worse.

    Oh, you thought you were his masterpiece?

    Maybe.

    But, perhaps you and I are just meant to be the witnessers of his masterpiece.

    And, if you believe we are his masterpiece, then we’re stuffing that up as well. Our smoking, drinking, drugs, avarice, selfishness and carelessness is destroying humankind.

    Can you imagine how aggrieved we’d be if someone defaced Leonardo da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa? The world would be in uproar. We would find it hard to believe that a right-thinking human could commit such a terrible thing. Why, it could only be psychopathic degenerate who could do such a revolting deed, couldn’t it?

    By that logic, then it can only be a degenerate who would stuff up his or her own body and the planet that houses it, couldn’t it?

    It’s sad that we would be more upset by the destruction of a Mona Lisa than the destruction of our own bodies and planet.

    HumankindThus, we were created to bear witness to God’s great masterpiece. He sees every nook and cranny of his art through our eyes.

    He painted this picture and gave us this story to enchant and entertain us. All he wants in return is appreciation. He doesn’t get that enough (or at all) so he gives us his great gift, the gift of suffering. It is only when we don’t have that we appreciate what we do have.

    For there to be light, there has to be darkness. It is the way of things.

    The trick for us is to appreciate every moment we have left on this plane. Let’s be in awe and gratitude for this great gift that we have right now.

    God’s an artist. You’re an artist. Let’s celebrate and appreciate this.

    Jacques de Villiers helps organisations, professional speakers, authors and entrepreneurs triumph through: sales training, motivational speaking and consulting.