Stuck lives are often ungrateful lives

​"If only I had."

They are words and they are a place that is easy to get stuck in.

Often, when we get to thinking about where we want to go, or maybe even where we think we should already be, we fall into the trap of believing we'd already be there if only we had this or if only we had that.

We fall into the trap of believing we aren't enough because we don't have enough, instead of building on the strengths of all that we already are and all that we already have.

I've heard it said that gratitude is an attitude.

I believe it's more a change of focus than it is an attitude.

We are all builders. Builders of lives. We are constantly at work building our own lives, while at the same time - hopefully - taking great interest in building up the lives around us.

But builders build. They see the possibilities in the materials at hand, and they build. They see strengths in themselves and in others, and they say, we can do something with this.

Builders don't wait, they build. They put blocks on top of the blocks they already have. They see little value in stopping to grieve over blocks they are sure they need to keep building; blocks that are nowhere to be found.

Stuck lives are often lives that see rivers that can't be crossed instead of rivers that would make the perfect place to build a bridge.

Stuck lives often count the holes in front of them instead of the countless holes that have been filled on the way to getting where they are.

Stuck lives are often ungrateful lives.

The quickest way for stuck lives to get unstuck is to begin focusing on all that one has to make the next step possible instead of counting all the 'if only I hads' that surely make the next step impossible.

Gratitude is a momentum builder. It is a life builder. It is a shift in focus.

A shift from stuck to moving.

Forward. Forward and building and counting blessings.