How we can be grateful
Sandeep J Shah | TEDxLexiconMILE

All great things begin inside you.

Let’s count our blessings and be grateful.

Being grateful to life itself.
Being grateful for the Almighty’s blessings, for our parents’ love, for our family, for our friends, for our Mother Earth 🌎. Gratitude in the past shows up as hope in the future.

Gratitude has a very strong positive impact on us. It increases our self-belief and enhances our positive emotions. If we can change ourselves toward positivity, we can literally change our lives and the lives of people around us.

Be unconditional in your friendships and relationships. Be kinder to yourself and others. Be a reason for someone’s smile. Do not make your relationships transactional; make your connections meaningful, as taught to me by my Harvard professor.

Let me tell you a story about my experience. I have been wishing my friends and their loved ones on their birthdays and anniversaries unconditionally for many years. One day I realised I wish almost 6,000 people worldwide every year, and the list keeps growing. Over the years, reaching out selflessly has made my relationship with them very strong, built on trust, as they realised I was connecting without any vested interest, purely to make them feel happy on their special day.

I wish everyone equally, irrespective of who they are, be it a prince friend of mine, a CEO, my office staff, or my neighbour. Could I humbly request all of you to use your smartphones to reach out to someone you know on their birthday or anniversary whenever you can? Even a simple thank-you message can bring a smile to their face.

A person who respects others is respected in return. Those who treat others with compassion and care are protected and supported by others. Our environment is essentially a reflection of ourselves. Belief in yourself and resilience come from the strength of your relationships and the quality of those relationships. Investing your time and heart in them is the most powerful thing you can do.

Let me tell you another story of a gentleman who has had a profound impact on my life. I had the good fortune of working with the legendary icon Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. What I observed and admired most about him was his resilience and tenacity to overcome any situation. I have learnt a lot from him. He has been a great source of inspiration on many humane qualities that I have imbibed: gratitude, humility, kindness, compassion, magnanimity (being larger than life), grace, resilience, and above all, loving and respecting your parents, for which I shall remain grateful to him.

Make a positive difference in people’s lives. Make a positive difference in this world to make it more fabulous. Be a good-hearted human being who means well for others and seeks their happiness as well. Have their best interests at heart, and carry them along in this beautiful journey of life. When you have the privilege of changing someone’s life for the better, you not only change their life, you have an opportunity to change generations.

The recent pandemic has made us realise a paradigm shift: that as responsible citizens of the world we need to care for the environment through sustainable development, for people around us and for our precious Mother Earth.

We are all connected to each other, and we need to work towards serving humanity and saving our beautiful world through sustainable development (UN SDGs).

The legacy of love is all we leave behind. Thank you, and God bless.”