Can Gratitude Change Your Life? Resilience in Life and Leadership: Episode 049

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How can gratitude affect your perspective, your circumstances, and your life? Does it really make a difference? Stephanie talks about the importance of gratitude in your life.

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean and how to we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma; and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries, and, sometimes a few rants, to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way, and you want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com

INSPIRE your team to LEAD WITH SUCCESS and MOTIVATE others with Stephanie bringing 20+ years of speaking experience. If you need to EMPOWER, ENGAGE, and EDUCATE your people-Book Stephanie as your speaker today!

https://www.stephanieolson.com/ask-stephanie-to-speak

Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean, and how do we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, an expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma, and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries and, sometimes, a few rants to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way and want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!

https://stephanieolson.com

Episode Transcript

Stephanie Olson (00:00):
Thank you for listening. Please share with
anyone you think will benefitfrom this podcast. Hello, and
welcome to resilience in lifeand leadership. I am Stephanie
Olson, your host, and speaker ofa lot of things. So if you are
looking for a speaker for yourevent, whether it be a business

(00:21):
event, whether it be a women'sevent, a youth event at a
school, college, I am your go togal. Now some of the things I
speak on is trauma in theworkplace, or how trauma affects
us in life, resilience in lifeand leadership. The name of this
podcast is exactly what I talkedabout how we can take our trauma

(00:43):
and turn it into triumph. That'sone of the things I speak on. I
speak on things like deidiversity, equity and inclusion,
and how you can do that in yourworkplace and make it more
effective multi generationalconversations in the workplace.
Those are some of the thingsthat I talk about. And I would
love to come to your business toyour nonprofit, or your event

(01:08):
and talk about all of thosethings. I also do faith based
messages. And so women's eventsand things like that. Love, love
that stuff. But that is what Ido. In a nutshell, I would love
to come and be a part of whatyou are doing. But today, I want
to talk a little bit about ourthe way that we handle

(01:34):
circumstances actually, how dowe handle the things going on in
our lives? How do we handle thegood things? And how do we
handle the really negativethings? Because I think, right
now I can look out the windowand say, Gosh, it's a beautiful
day. But I don't really knowwhat the rest of the day is

(01:56):
gonna hold, do I? Life happens.
And so it could be a day that alot of incredible things happen.
Or it could be a day wherethere's a series of events that
just don't go well for me. Or itcould be a day where something
massively amazing happens. Or itcould be a day where something

(02:20):
tragic happens, God forbid. Butbut we all know, those are our
days, you know, I think back to911. And for those of you who
experienced 911, you knowexactly where you were, when
that happened. And it was amorning, just like any other

(02:43):
morning people were going towork. We were doing our thing, I
was actually a mom of a veryyoung baby. And I was I was
nursing my baby, when thathappened, my oldest daughter,
and had no idea that our world,our nation was going to change
in an instant. I mean, that'sexactly what happened. Our

(03:07):
nation changed in an instant.
And we had no idea. Now, thereare really hard conversations
that you could have around that.
Because when you're talkingabout things like you know, the

(03:29):
loss of a loved one, when you'retalking about the tragedy that
we we saw and experienced. Thoseare things that everyday life
just doesn't you don't connectwith that in everyday life
there. There are things thathappen that are just

(03:49):
overwhelming. But still, how wehandle those situations, how we
work through those tragedies,how we work through those
difficult days. That is the gamechanger. And I was talking to
someone the other day who youcould just tell they sounded not

(04:14):
good. There was something goingon their life in their life, you
could tell that was not good.
And so when I asked about thatthey were very honest and said,
You know, Ijust I just have a lot of stuff
that's happening. I have a lotof stuff that's going on and
it's just been a very difficultseason. They kind of listed the

(04:36):
things and you know, they weredefinitely I'm not I'm not gonna
say they weren't importantthings, but they weren't your
great tragedies. They werethings that are doable things
you have to deal with thingsthat kind of suck in life, but
nothing that comes to the levelof something like 911 nothing

(04:58):
that comes to the level of aloss of a loved one or anything,
just stuff in our life that wedeal with every day. And this
was my suggestion to thatperson. And this is something
I've tried to do on a dailybasis, as much as possible. We
aren't all perfect at this. AndI'm not going to pretend that

(05:21):
that I am, or that any of uswill ever be or attain that we
won't. But one of the thingsthat I heard, or let me say it
this way, I heard someone sayonce, and I thought this was
extremely profound. What if youonly had today? The things that
you thank God for yesterday? AndI really sat in that and

(05:49):
thought, Okay, what did what didI think God for yesterday,
because I don't know if it wasanything at that moment. But
what are the things that we canbe grateful about, because
there's always something there'salways something we can be
grateful for. And even if it's atragedy, like 911, a loss of a

(06:12):
loved one, I'm grateful that Igot to spend that amount of time
with that person, my dad passedaway, three years ago, and I can
say, he adopted me when I wassix years old, and married my
mom, and I can say I amgrateful. As much as I miss him,

(06:37):
as much as that loss really washard. I can say, I'm grateful
that he adopted me, and that hewas in my life was imperfect.
Here's my dad, I was a teenager.
At one point, it wasn't alwaysperfect. But I am grateful that

(07:00):
he was in my life. You know, Ithink sometimes we need to look
at the things that we aregrateful for. And maybe it's not
even something as serious asthat maybe it's something like I
am just having a crappy day atwork. I am struggling. What am I
grateful for right now? Well, Iam personally very grateful for

(07:23):
my dog who is sitting next to meright now. I'm grateful that
even through this crazy pandemicthat we had, that now I get to
work from home. And we, youknow, have the ability to do
things like what I'm doing rightnow, or to connect with people

(07:47):
over overseas that we wouldnever have been able to connect
with back in the 90s, or the80s. I'm grateful for that. I'm,
I'm grateful that I have a job.
I'm grateful that I have a houseand a home and shelter during
the storm. I'm grateful that Ihave milk in the fridge. I'm

(08:08):
grateful that I have shoes on myfeet and clothes on my body. I'm
grateful for those things. I'mgrateful that I have an
incredible family that I have anamazing children, that I have an
incredible husband and awonderful support system and

(08:29):
friends and family at church.
Those are things I'm gratefulfor. And none of those things
are perfect, except for my dogover here who is yes. But
otherwise, none of those thingsare perfect. But what are you
grateful for? Because what thatdoes is it takes you out of that

(08:52):
things are crappy right now. AndI'm gonna sit in that I'm in a
camp in that and that's whereI'm gonna go. And it puts you in
a different place of, you knowwhat, maybe things aren't that
bad. And if things are reallybad, maybe there's some things
that I can pull the positive outof. That's important. What are

(09:15):
you grateful for?
What are the things that you canlook at today and say, okay,
yeah, this is good. Even in themidst of the storm. That person
I was talking to said, said, youknow, yeah, I do that when when

(09:36):
things are great. Well, we canall do that when things are
great, right? But it's whenwe're in the storm. There's a
song by Casting Crowns calledpraise, y'all pray called,
praise you in the storm. And Ilove that song and I've sung it
before. If we can all praise Godduring the great times, right?

(09:58):
Sometimes we do some times wedon't, we can all put a smile on
our face when things arefabulous. But what when? What
about when things aren't? Whatabout praising God in the midst
of the storm? That's when it'spowerful. What about saying I

(10:19):
have gratitude in the midst ofridiculously difficult
circumstances? That's when it'spowerful. And you have the
opportunity to take a newperspective, to look at things a
little differently. And to maybelook at somebody else's life and

(10:43):
say, Wow, look at how they'rereacting to their circumstance.
And mine is this. What can Ilearn from them? So, my
challenge to you today is towrite a gratitude list. Doesn't
have to be long, doesn't evenhave to be profound. Just write

(11:03):
a little gratitude list in whatare you grateful for? Maybe do
that every day. I think that's agood plan I might do that
myself. Grateful for I'mgrateful for you. Thank you for

(11:23):
listening. Please share withanyone you think will benefit
from this podcast.