Gratitude: A Gentleman’s Greatest Quality

Afternoon gents, it’s Max from The Young Gentleman’s Guide here! First of all, my sincerest apologies for not putting anything out for the past few weeks. I was caught in the darkest pits of finals at San Francisco State, but now that school’s out, I should be back to posting regularly for you wonderful readers! With all of that out of that out of the way, let’s get to today’s topic.

For starters, why is gratitude so important? Well, in short, it just makes us happier. Gratitude leads to satisfaction, and satisfaction leads to happiness. Here’s an example of what I mean.

Two men working a decently-paying office job get their paychecks at the end of the week. After getting their checks, one man says to himself “I earned this, this is a testament to a job well done. Maybe if I work harder, I can make a bit more and maybe get a promotion.” However, the other man says “This is all I made? With the amount I’ve done for this company, I clearly deserve more than this.” What’s the difference between the two? The first man was grateful for what he had earned, which made him satisfied with the work he had done, and that will, in turn, make him happier not just at work, but in the rest of his life if he continues that attitude. The second man obviously felt entitled for more money than he earned, which only angered him, and that’s the biggest reason why gratitude is so important. If you take the time to appreciate what you have and what you earn, you’ll get more satisfaction out of them and therefore will be more happy as a result. Whereas an ungrateful will only demand more and be unsatisfied with what they already have. Unfortunately, with today’s increasingly materialistic attitude and increased feelings of victimhood, people in general are leaning more towards the latter.

It’s impossible to deny, people in general (at least in the U.S.) just have an increased idea that they’re victims, and multiple different activist groups will are trying to convince the mass public that they’re victims of patriarchy, white privilege, or any of that nonsense. And it’s very clear to see where this narrative comes from, and that’s ingratitude. Now I am in no way saying that every single person in any of these activist groups acts this way, it’s just that they are the most vocal minority and the ones who get the most attention. In any case, the people who spew this narrative simply refuse to or just simply can’t see how lucky they actually are, and as a result, they are unsatisfied with everything they’ve already been given (it’s practically become a joke that SJWs will never be satisfied). And I’m just going to stop here, since this is becoming much more political than I was planning it to be. In short, just keep in mind this mantra: gratitude leads to satisfaction, satisfaction leads to happiness. Ingratitude leads to entitlement, entitlement leads to anger.

So there it is. Gratitude, in my eyes, is the greatest key to happiness in anyone’s life. To any of you gents reading, ust take a little bit a time to acknowledge what you have and how lucky you are to have such things. If you do that, then I guarantee you that you will be much happier down the road. In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading today’s article. Please be sure to share it, follow the blog, follow The Young Gentleman’s Guide on Facebook and Instagram, and support us on Patreon. Also, keep an eye out for a collaboration between me and my dear friend Elena, the owner of A Vintage Athenian. She’ll be interviewing me for an article on her blog that I’ll reblog here once it’s up. And on that note, this is Max from The Young Gentleman’s Guide, and I’ll see you next time!