Everyone of us has on many occasions acknowledged the good things that happened to us. We have said “thank you” or “thanks” several times in our lives. I am talking about the feeling you get when you connect as an individual to something greater than you. It might be a higher power, nature and most of all people. This post is all about gratitude.

I met one Kenyan entrepreneur whose show of gratitude changed her life and made her to be what she is today. She told me how she started her successful coffee brand. She exports roast coffee to the US, UK and South Korea.

5 years ago she went to Korea for a two-weeks working visit. On one fateful day during her trip “my boss dropped me at the entrance of the office after lunch and left for another appointment”, Trisha said. She later discovered she had forgotten to collect the door code details from her boss. “It was freezing outside, I had no phone, I didn’t know my boss’ number off by heart”.

Trisha looked through a transparent door and saw a gentleman sitting behind a desk. I knocked at the door and he beckoned me to come in. Trisha did the “Annyeong haseyo” (Hello or hi in Korean). That was all she could say. “I didn’t understand Korean and he could not speak English”, she said. “It was a problem until we devised a method of using Google translate on his phone”

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He gave Trisha his laptop such she could check her email and get her boss’ contact. “He also offered me his phone to make the call that saw my boss rushing back”, she said. It was all so beautiful and I was filled with so much gratitude. Trisha couldn’t stop thanking the gentleman because he was a life saver.

A well thought out “thank you” can win you friends and also open doors to more meaningful relationships. It’s not just a matter of good manners. Gratitude should come from the heart.

Two months after returning to Kenya, she sent a gift with a thank-you note through her boss who was going back to Korea to the gentleman who helped her. “That’s how the opportunity came”

“I couldn’t believe that a bag of normal roast coffee did this to me”, she said with hands over her face. You could still see the gratitude she had for what happened to her. She was emotional with tears of joy flowing down her beautiful cheek.

Trisha had gone through a lot of suffering. She lost her father at an early age leaving her mother to bring her up in addition to her four siblings (3 sisters and a brother) alone. This was Trisha’s first real job and she was just about 3 months into it before this date.

“I thought several times before sending the coffee. I felt it had no value since it was cheap coffee”, she continued, “he may not appreciate it”.

Once you acknowledge the things that people have contributed in your life, new opportunities come in. “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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On one faithful day, she got a call from her boss. “I offered your gift to the gentleman and he loves it so much”, he said. He told her the gentleman wanted to know if she could help him to source out some good coffee in Kenya for his coffee shop. That was when her boss told her the gentleman had a range of coffee shops. The rest is history. I’m am truly grateful for nature to have made our paths to meet said Trisha.

Gratitude is when we acknowledge the good things we have received as well as the people who may have in one way or the other brought in goodness in our lives. You can show your appreciation as many times as possible. That is what she did. She thanked the gentleman for his help that day. She made sure to say “Annyeong haseyo” each time she peeped and saw him in the office during that trip. You can imagine what would have happened to her in that freezing cold if he wasn’t there. She was filled with gratitude until she thought she had to do more to really show how thankful she was to the gentleman.

“You see, I gave him the right gift at the right time. That’s how my little appreciation brought me to where I am today. An exporter of premium coffee to Korea, US and the UK”, she said.

Gratitude means appreciating the good things that happened in your life. Gratitude is essential in making you live a happy life. In times of hardships, our minds become veiled with worries and finds it very difficult to think about the good stuffs. Our gauzy mind fails to see the benefits that we gain from cultivating gratitude into our daily life. A well lived life is one of gratitude. A life that appreciates the little things as well as the big ones.

What are you grateful for today? Use the comments section below to tell us more.