When you focus on what’s missing from your life, you will be left with feelings of emptiness and unhappiness. In order to catch yourself, it is important that you recognize the most common traits and beliefs of unhappy people.

Here are seven pitfalls to avoid:

1. Belief that life is hard.
2. Belief that people can’t be trusted.
3. Concentration on what’s wrong versus what’s right.
4. You compare yourself to others and harbor jealousy.
5. You strive to control everything in your life.
6. You look toward the future with worry and fear.
7. You fill your conversations with gossip and complaints.

When you focus on what you do have, you will experience true gratitude. Training yourself for gratefulness will create endless opportunities for you.

Here are just seven benefits of gratitude:

1. Opens the door to new relationships.
2. Improved physical health.
3. Improved psychological health.
4. Enhanced empathy and reduced aggression.
5. Better, more satisfying sleep.
6. Improved self esteem.
7. Increased mental strength

Get Drounded

The key to success - and feeling fulfilled in the process - is to understand that while we don’t have control over many of the universal forces that bring about change, we do have control over how we respond to this change and what we choose to focus on.

One of the simplest and most intuitive tools we can use to navigate through life is the ability to understand the Spheres of Influence: the three primary areas of activity that make up our lives

Sphere 1: Work - your profession, career, or the work you are compensated to do

Sphere 2: Self - your mental, physical, spiritual and emotional growth and well-being.

Sphere 3: Relationships - your family, friends and community

Like the legs of a three-legged stool, the three Spheres of Influence are all necessary to maintain stability. All three represent important facets of life and one sphere is not necessarily more or less important than any other.

The key is to learn how to balance these three spheres in a way that is unique to your needs but also allows you to change and progress over time, allowing you to feel fulfilled rather than empty. By identifying the unique relationship between these 3 spheres for yourself, you will be able to focus on what’s you have in your life and constructively focus on where you want to go, rather than what is missing.

Action Plan

1. Take a moment to draw what you think your three Spheres of Influence look like right now—which is bigger and which is smaller? See example below:

2. Then, ask yourself, is this where my Spheres of Influence need to be for the stage of life I am in right now? Is there one that's being neglected? Or one that is dominating too much space? How might you need to change your Spheres to create more balance and a larger sense of control?

The idea is to understand where your Spheres of Influence need to be in your particular stage of life to support you. As your responsibilities grow in each of these spheres, maintaining a healthy balance is the crucial ingredient to creating success and preserving your sanity.