In the past, my thinking about gratitude has been along the same lines as the attitude of a Depression-era parent. “Be grateful for what you have. Don’t ask for more. What you have is good enough.”

Since I have Depression-era parents, I came by this thinking honestly.

But it doesn’t serve me, or the world.

Being grateful doesn’t mean you don’t want more. I believe you can be grateful for what you have in this moment and expect more good things in future moments. It goes against the Puritan grain, but I believe this is how the world really works (I could be wrong—but I don’t think so.)

You can be grateful AND ask for more.
You can be appreciative AND make plans for bigger and better.
You can be content AND dream of exotic vacations, a big raise or a new job that is satisfying and lucrative, more love, more fun, more of anything you want.

Because if you can’t ask, plan, or dream, you’ll never have more than you do today. And today is good, today is great, but part of our nature is to strive for more. If you don’t allow yourself to dream and plan, you deny yourself of that glorious feeling of trying, practicing, striving!

And if you don’t grow, you can’t become the person you are meant to be in this world. And the world needs you, and needs you to be the best person you can be. I don’t mean that in an abstract way, I mean it in a very concrete way. The people you come in contact with every day need you to be the best you can be.

I’m so grateful for the contentment I feel about my life in this moment, and I’m excited about all my goals, plans, and dreams for 2012.

May you allow yourself to be content AND to strive for more as we close out 2011 and head into 2012.