If I would like to thrive in this society, I know that I would somehow have to capitalise. What would I have to capitalise? Money? What if I have received an education on money that sees it differently? What if I have the point of view that capitalism is bad, and rather a target for judgments than a honourable goal? Or if I have the point of view that I would first need to have money before I could do anything or capitalise anything? In that case, will I still be able to have success in business and life? Is money a condition for my success in business and my happiness in life, or is it a by-product of what I create? If I could capitalise something else than money and if that “something else” would bring me everything I wish and desire, money included, what would it be?

There is different approaches to success, yet all of them imply one pragmatic required element; the acknowledgement of Value. Your capacity to recognise value, or give a form to it, or create it, will make the difference and invite success. The most pragmatic way I know to generate Value and Success in every areas of life and business is: Gratitude. And what makes it extraordinary efficient is when you “capitalise” it. It is not about “ordinary capitalism” which is the activity of making money with the money of others. Truly that is not what you want to do if you really want to create a sustainable success. I mean; a success that will fulfil your personal targets and also contribute to generate a greater future. What you want to do is to create  an “Extraordinary Capital” and I would like to walk you through this very different approach of capital and gratitude. Are you willing to walk with me through an opportunity that you might have not yet considered and that could gift you with more than you can expect?

The first level of a different Gratitude

If the most pragmatic way to generate value and success in every areas of your life and business is “gratitude”, it would imply that in order to gather more value and riches, you shall be grateful for you, for everything you have done. Trouble is; we are more used to have judgments rather than gratitude for what we do and what we believe we are. That is were we fail. That is also where we fight against success in order to avoid it. What? Yes, because we somehow believe that if we would succeed, we would be even more judged (by others this time), we would be more judged by those who don’t succeed. You have to fight against success to avoid success. How much of the judgments from this society are you using to avoid your own success?

That is where gratitude comes into the picture. Gratitude is defined as the quality of being thankful; the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. In brief; gratitude is the ability to Appreciate. I have already shared with you how Appreciation is of primordial importance in business (particularly in my article “How do you Design your Life and Relationship with Money?”*) Remember; here I would like you to consider “gratitude” as the key for your success; as the element that would gather all what you’d like to get; whether it is ease, joy or glory, or happiness, money… Whatever you choose. Now, as gratitude for yourself might not be one of your most habitual choices, I would like to propose you another way to gather more gratitude, and eventually be able to “capitalise” it. So, usually gratitude is seen as the capacity to thank others for what they do for you, what they gift you with. This is a great thing, it is a basis of social life, it is quite a good ground for cohesion and living together. Good, but not enough. Let’s bring it a level up; let see what else is possible with this valuable product.

Now it’s necessary to acknowledge one thing: if you choose to be a successful person, you know that you will raise from other people more judgments than caring. So you may have chosen to remain unsuccessful, so that you avoid those judgments and still can be cared for, by others. What if you started to care for you yourself, truly, and be grateful for it, for you; for having survived this insane world and all the judgments of it? That would be the first level of gratitude; you being grateful for everything you’ve done and chosen, whatever it created in your life. Why that? Because you did your best, you did what was true for you at the moment, you were legitimate, and you even maybe have saved your life thanks to that. What if instead of valuing only those who do what you have not managed to do yet, you would choose, now, to make You the “valuable product”?

During my life, I have seen how much people have been grateful for me, yet I somehow have forgotten about it, and for a while this has drawn me into quite a difficult experience of life, particularly with business. Every time Someone would express her or his gratitude for what I have done, I was very happy about it on the moment, having a great feeling of value to be alive and in this world. Yet, letting time to carry me toward other matters, this joy was easily taken away by every kind of worries. It actually happened very often that the worries of this world (most of it being material worries) distracted me from my reality, meaning from what I was truly in this world and with others. Meanwhile, I found no time for having gratitude for me. Which created the worst experience of life ever. It created a double bind that kept me in non-satisfaction; on one hand I was expecting more gratitude from others to show up, and on the other hand I was losing the gratitude I already had received; I was losing even the memory of it; I had no “gratitude capital” on which I could build my satisfaction, my joy of being, or in other words; my success with life. That was a global bankruptcy. As I was doing that with gratitude, the same process was simultaneously operating in other areas of my life, for instance; with money. Whatever money I would receive, I could neither keep it nor make it flourish. What could I have done to make it different? Being the valuable product; having gratitude for me.

The second level of a different Gratitude

Now that you choose to make You the valuable product, let’s consider again gratitude; how different it will be now to apply gratitude at it is basically defined (being thankful for others)?  With this new awareness of the value you have and the value you are; what amazing capacities of yours do you acknowledge now, that would make your gratitude the springboard of all success? Now that you have gone over the judgments you had upon you; please do that: think of all the judgments you don’t want to receive from others… Yes, that. That is were you withdraw from success. That is were you loose all the gratitude you have for you, where you bankrupt your “gratitude capital”, and in turn your business activity, and your financial reality. Do you want to go on with that failure so that you can go back to being assisted by this society and be merely “grateful” for the help you receive (which actually is already quite good)? You can go back there and in the same time avoid the judgments that you think you are afraid of. It’s already better than most people, right? Most people are not even grateful for what they receive. Nonetheless, you can also choose a greater life, a greater reality, a greater future. Do you desire that? If yes, it depends on one thing; your Choice. What would it create for you and for your business if you would be willing to allow all those judgments?

What would it take, what choice? Being grateful for the judgments you receive from others. You have already the capacity to get over the judgments you had upon yourself. No? Oh… I thought you got it… Ok so if you didn’t get it yet, don’t worry; you will get it here. Training in allowing the judgments of others (rather than doing everything possible to avoid it), will free you from the judgments you had upon you. And whatever you’ve been told about the necessity of judgments, please ask yourself if judgment has brought you any peace, any joy, any ease and any glory… And if it would be great to have judgments, how comes you don’t like it when someone judges you? What can you make different to change that? Isolating yourself? Not listening? Go into conflict? How much have you harmed yourself trying to deal with all the judging points of views you or others have?

When you try to avoid the judgments that others have on you, you have to neglect, frustrate and even sometimes kill the best parts of you. Enough of that, right? No more. Take this decision: “Ok, I’ve done that all my life, I didn’t know how to do better and that was my way to survive, great; no fault, nothing wrong, I can thank myself for that survival, Thank you, thank me , but now it’s over; I know how to do better for my Living; so: No More! Ever. No – More.” And by the way, that’s also where you were losing your Gratitude Capital. Time to get it back to you. Is now the time to Be truly grateful for your capacities? Now is the time to be grateful for the judgments from others limited points of view that you are able to raise with your difference. They have capitulated? That is their choice, you will capitalise!

Difference is not encouraged in this world. We are supposed to copy, to follow, to obey. We are told to obey so many judging points of view! We are told to be guilty for so many things, so that we can walk the line and do what we are supposed to do. How much of that keeps you from being happy, successful and a true contribution to the future of our world? How much of it actually keeps you from Being You? Maybe because it would make you Being You, changing the world? ** Take the example of money; let say you wish to change things for the greater and contribute to a greater future; will it be easier if you have judgments upon money, or  will it be easier if you are free from those judgments? You know the answer. This year for Easter we have received from the church an updated list of the sins we shall confess. “Making too much money” is part of it. Because you know, “money is evil”. But if money is evil, then how is it that the church makes so much money?  How comes some priest in our country makes billions with the money of his poor citizens? Is that why we shall not make too much money; to let those kind of abuse in place rather than being able to change it? You see; this is the “ordinary capitalism”: making money with the money of others. It actually creates competition and conflicts. Not my people. We can create much more and a much greater future if we create “together”, not one against another in competition. And it creates money as much as as joy and ease. That’s where money actually flows in; where you choose the “Gratitude Capital” rather than the “ordinary capitalism”.

The possibility of having more in life

What’s next? Practice. Choosing is the one thing. Action is the second. Train yourself in being aware of the judgments you provoke around you. Rather than merely reacting to it or aligning with it, ask yourself “what am I perceiving now?”, “Who does it belong to?” ***, “Is it mine, truth?” Or am I just perceiving theirs? “And how much can I receive from it?” Train in letting the judgments of others pass through you, don’t hold on it, don’t make it yours! That is your best way to capitalise everything, together with gratitude and money. Yes money too. For every judgment you allow (meaning that you don’t have a point of view upon it), you will make a lot more of money this year. It works. Try me on that. Just do it and see what it creates. But remember that for every judgment you react to, or align with, you will lose even more money this year. Yes; Choice creates. How much money and gratitude have you lost by reacting to, aligning with or avoiding all the judgments others had on you? Would you be willing to let all of that go now? …

So if you choose to have more success in business and in all the areas of your life, you may consider this tool as the most precious. Play with judgments instead of being played by them. We have bought all the judgments we were surrounded with, this was our way to adapt to this world. We forgot that we have another possibility, this possibility is to Create this reality, Our reality, rather than adapting to it. Being aware of the judgments of others and being grateful for them to express your Difference (that’s actually what judgments do) will grant you all the means to create your reality and thrive in your life. “Ow, thank you for expressing how different I am and how much I create a different possibility! Thank you so much! That is a very interesting point of view you have, and I choose to let it go through me so that I will receive more from life! I’m so grateful for you and me to have generated this! How does it get any better?”: this is what you can tell yourself, if you choose to have more in your life.

Now to finish for today I will give you another tool that will tremendously help you to generate ease in all aspects of your life, rather than bankrupt your Gratitude Capital. This tool is “Interesting point of view I have this point of view”***. Every time you can’t appreciate things, every time you get stuck in your reaction to things, to people, to you, to all judgments… Use that, repeat this in your mind: “Interesting point of view I have this point of view”, again and again, until you get free of this fixed point of view you had that didn’t allow you to enjoy and thrive. This works wonderfully. Do that and see what it creates, see how much more possibilities you have now, and how much you can fulfil your wishes in this world, which is yours.

This world doesn’t own you; You own this world. Is now the time to be grateful for it?

Ivan Martin, accessivanmartin.com

* Being You, Changing the world (Dr. Dain Heer) https://www.amazon.fr/Being-Changing-World-Dain-Heer/dp/0984508813

** a tool from Access Consciousness ®