Entitlement, Inconvenience, and Gratitude

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Nate Regier / 1 comments
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It’s really quite remarkable that most things we take for granted have continued, if not improved, during the Covid pandemic.

  • Food supply
  • First responders
  • Healthcare
  • Internet
  • Infrastructure
  • Cheap gas
  • Utilities
  • Retail
  • Celebrity holiday music specials!

For a segment of our population, Covid has caused significant suffering. For the rest, it’s been an inconvenience. Notwithstanding the incredible suffering, it’s easy to get entitled when we focus on the inconveniences and take for granted so many amazing things in our lives.

The problem with entitlement, says Seth Godin, is that it “…doesn’t increase the chances you’ll get what you want. And it ruins the joy of the things you do get. Win or lose, you lose.”

Those who have thrived over the past year have done so not because they were unique or were somehow spared the hardships. They thrived because they chose gratitude over entitlement. They embraced inconvenience as an opportunity to innovate.

We aren’t out of the woods. Life is never going back to the way it was. How will you approach 2021?

Copyright Next Element Consulting, LLC 2021

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1 Comments

Photo of Amy
Amy
Posted on December 30, 2020

Appreciate this post Nate. I’m reflecting on gratitude, joy and suffering with your words. We lost some family this year and the grief carried a deeper pain as no one could gather for the funeral. And yet we are all coming out of the events closer in relationship than we have ever been. Before Covid we could take for granted the things that gave us the comforts of momentum in life and relationships were just in the mix as we had time or thought of them – now after
Covid – we see who is most important and relationships are central. Letting go of some of the trappings of my performance life / self has helped me sustain a seat in peace with the people and priorities so beautifully now – that looking back – should have been my orientation to life pre-Covid.

I definitely have come out of 2020 far different than I came into it. Feeling closer and loved by those I also love.

For this. I am profoundly grateful and it is something. This is maybe what is meant by finding joy in suffering.

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Nate Regier
Posted on January 3, 2021

Thank you so much for sharing this Amy.

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