This week, I’m talking about how gratitude changes your outlook on money. Today, I’m talking about how gratitude helped me be a more patient person. 

Without gratitude, it’s easy to have this attitude of quickly moving on to the next shiny object and whatever is next. In my life, I find that whenever I work toward accomplishing something that I actually achieved, I was always surprised how the reality of the situation never felt like I expected it would. 

A friend of mine is in his mid-40s and has been working really hard at paying off his mortgage for several years. This was a major financial goal for him and his wife to own their house free and clear and it took sacrifices and years of focused dedication to pay off his mortgage. Well, he finally paid off his mortgage this past summer and you know what he felt after making that last payment? Nothing. That was very sad to me because I was happy for him and he never got to enjoy the fruit of all of those years of hard work. 

But I also understand why this happened to him, because it’s the same thing that always happens to me. I take about 3 seconds to enjoy my victory, then I’m over it and moving on. It doesn’t matter if I make the perfect lasagna or I just got a new client...the enjoyment lasts ever so briefly. I think what’s really going on here is that I lack the gratitude to appreciate the accomplishments and the good things that come my way, so I impatiently move on to the next thing I want. Only since I have been more intentional about being grateful and slowing down to appreciate the graces of good things, have I become a little bit more patient. 

But sound financial habits are built on patience. And since patience is a fruit of gratefulness, we need gratitude in order to have the patience to save for retirement, stick with a plan, pay off debt, and stay invested when the world is going crazy.

We need patience for all of that and we need gratitude to be more patient. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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