Here’s something I need to be honest about: I write about gratitude. I coach others on gratitude. I’ve even created products to help people develop gratitude practices. And yet, I’m still learning how to live it consistently in my own life. It’s easy to teach something. It’s harder to embody it daily, especially when you’re navigating the exhausting realities of mission-driven work, leading through challenges, and carrying the weight that comes with caring deeply about outcomes that matter. I know the research. I understand the power of gratitude practices. I’ve seen them transform the lives of people I work with. But knowing something intellectually and living it consistently are two different things.
And that’s okay. The journey of gratitude isn’t about perfection. It’s about continuing to show up, continuing to practice and continuing to learn, even when we’re still figuring it out ourselves. What I’m discovering is that gratitude isn’t just a feel-good practice or a nice addition to our wellness routines. The research is showing us something profound: gratitude practices can literally extend our lives. And for those of us doing work that matters, work we want to sustain for the long haul, that changes everything.
When Gratitude Becomes a Matter of Life and Death
We’ve long known that gratitude feels good. It lifts our spirits, improves our outlook, and helps us navigate difficult seasons with more grace. But recent research from Harvard Medical School and JAMA Psychiatry has uncovered something remarkable: gratitude doesn’t just make life feel better, it can actually make life last longer. In a 2024 study, researchers found that people with higher levels of gratitude showed a 9% lower risk of mortality over a four-year period. Let that sink in for a moment. Nine percent. That’s not a small margin, that’s significant, measurable impact on longevity.
For those of us in mission-driven work, nonprofit leaders, faith-based professionals, coaches, and changemakers, this research carries profound implications. We pour ourselves out daily. We carry the weight of communities, organizations, and causes bigger than ourselves. We’re intimately familiar with compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and that bone-deep exhaustion that comes from caring so deeply about work that truly matters. And here’s what the research is telling us: gratitude isn’t just a nice spiritual practice or a pleasant personality trait. It’s a sustainability tool. It’s preventative medicine. It’s a pathway to staying healthy, whole, and present for the long haul so we can continue showing up for the work we’re called to do.
The benefits extend beyond longevity. Studies show that regular gratitude practices reduce stress hormones, lower inflammation, improve sleep quality, and even strengthen immune function. For healthcare workers, whose work shares many parallels with nonprofit and mission-driven environments, gratitude journaling has been shown to significantly decrease stress and burnout. We’re not just talking about feeling thankful. We’re talking about practices that literally change our biology, our health, and our capacity to sustain purpose-driven work over decades, not just months or years.
The Gratitude and Burnout Connection
In my August post about reigniting your spark and nurturing purpose through seasons of burnout, we talked about the importance of rest, boundaries, and reconnecting with the “why” behind our work. We explored how burnout isn’t a personal failing but a systemic issue that requires intentional response.
Today, I want to add another dimension to that conversation: gratitude as a burnout prevention practice.
When we’re in the thick of difficult work, navigating organizational challenges, supporting people through crises, managing limited resources while trying to maximize impact, gratitude can feel like a luxury we don’t have time for. Or worse, it can feel like toxic positivity, a forced cheerfulness that ignores real pain and legitimate struggle. But authentic gratitude is neither luxury nor denial. It’s a practice that helps us hold both the hard and the good simultaneously. It doesn’t ask us to pretend everything is fine. Instead, it invites us to notice what’s sustaining us even as we navigate what’s depleting us.
Research on healthcare workers provides powerful insight here. These professionals face relentless pressure, life-and-death decisions, and the weight of others’ suffering daily. Sound familiar? For those of us in nonprofit work, the parallels are striking. We may not be in emergency rooms, but we’re often on the front lines of community crises, systemic injustice, and human need.
Studies show that when healthcare workers engage in regular gratitude practices, particularly gratitude journaling, they experience measurable decreases in stress and burnout. The practice doesn’t eliminate the challenges of their work, but it does something crucial: it helps them stay connected to meaning, purpose, and the positive impact they’re making, even on the hardest days. This matters deeply for those of us in mission-driven spaces. Compassion fatigue is real. Secondary trauma affects nonprofit professionals whether we acknowledge it or not. We cannot pour from an empty cup, but gratitude, practiced consistently and authentically, helps refill it.
I’ve experienced this firsthand in my own leadership journey. There have been seasons when I’ve felt so depleted that gratitude felt impossible. But in those moments, the smallest practices—noticing one good thing before bed, texting a thank you to a colleague, pausing to appreciate a supportive conversation—became lifelines. They didn’t fix everything, but they kept me tethered to hope, to purpose, to the belief that this work matters.
And here’s what’s crucial: gratitude isn’t about denying the hard. It’s about choosing not to let the hard be the only story we tell ourselves. It’s about building resilience by acknowledging both the struggle and the grace that shows up alongside it.
Gratitude in Hard Seasons
This might be the most important practice of all: learning to hold gratitude alongside difficulty, not instead of it.
This isn’t about toxic positivity or forced cheerfulness. It’s about what I call “and” statements. “This is really hard AND I’m grateful for the people walking through it with me.” “This project is overwhelming AND I’m grateful I get to do work that matters.” “This season is depleting me AND I’m grateful for the moments of rest I’m finding.” The “and” allows us to be honest about struggle while staying connected to sustaining truths. It gives us permission to not be okay while also acknowledging what’s holding us together.
I’ve needed this practice often. During organizational transitions, when resources were scarce, when decisions felt impossible, those were not times to pretend everything was fine. But they were times to notice: I’m grateful for my team’s resilience. I’m grateful for the mission we serve. I’m grateful for the small signs of hope emerging even in hard ground.
This kind of gratitude doesn’t erase pain. It provides grounding. It reminds us that even in difficulty, we’re not alone, and good things haven’t disappeared, they’re just harder to see. Gratitude becomes the practice of choosing to keep looking.
Building on a Foundation
When I first wrote about gratitude in November 2023 with “The Healing Power of Gratitude” and “Expressing Gratitude” and “Reflection on Gratitude“, I was exploring gratitude primarily as a mindset shift, a way of seeing the world differently. I talked about gratitude as an antidote to negativity and a pathway to joy.
Two years later, my understanding has deepened. Gratitude is still all those things, but it’s also more practical and more urgent than I initially realized. It’s not just about feeling better, though that matters. It’s about sustainability. It’s about staying healthy and whole so we can do this work for the long haul. It’s about building practices that quite literally extend our lives and our impact.
If you’ve been on this journey with me since 2023, I’d love to hear: How has your gratitude practice evolved? What have you learned? What challenges have you faced? What’s sustained you?
And if you’re newer to Flourishing Fiercely, I encourage you to explore those earlier reflections. The foundation we built then still matters. Gratitude as a transformational mindset remains true. But now we’re adding layers: gratitude as health practice, as burnout prevention, as leadership tool, as community builder.
I’m still learning. Still practicing. Still discovering new dimensions of what it means to live gratefully, especially in seasons of challenge and change. That’s the nature of flourishing fiercely. We’re always growing, always deepening, always finding new ways to show up more fully for the lives and work we’re called to.
An Invitation to Sustainable Impact
Here’s what I want you to hear today: This isn’t about adding more to your already overflowing plate. This isn’t another should, another responsibility, another way to feel like you’re falling short. This is about sustainability. This is about staying in the work for the long haul. This is about being around, healthy, whole, and present, to do what you’re meant to do in the world. The research is clear: gratitude practices can literally extend your life. For those of us who care deeply about mission-driven work, who want to create change and serve communities and lead with purpose, that matters profoundly. We need to be here. Our people need us here. The work needs us here.
Gratitude is one way we stay.
Not through forced positivity or denial of real struggle. But through intentional practices that help us see clearly, hold both hard and good, stay connected to meaning, and build resilience for the long journey ahead.
In my next post, I’ll share five fresh, evidence-based gratitude practices that can deepen and sustain your gratitude journey, especially if traditional journaling has started to feel routine. These aren’t just feel-good exercises. They’re practices backed by research that can transform how you navigate leadership, burnout, and the beautiful, hard work of showing up with purpose.
Pause and consider:
- When was the last time you paused to acknowledge something good in the midst of hard? What would it look like to do that more regularly?
- What does it mean to you that gratitude could impact not just your mood but your longevity? How does that shift how you think about gratitude practices?
- Who in your life needs to hear your gratitude? What’s stopping you from telling them?
Take One Action
Before my next post, try practicing “and” statements when things get hard this week. Notice when you start telling yourself a story that’s only about the difficulty. Pause and add an “and” statement. Write down what you notice about how this shifts your perspective.
Share Your Journey
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What gratitude practices have sustained you through difficult seasons? What barriers have you faced? What’s working for you right now?
And if you found this helpful, share it with someone else who’s navigating the beautiful, hard work of leading and serving with purpose. Sometimes the most sustaining thing we can do is remind each other that we’re not alone in this journey.
Want to deepen your gratitude practice with guided reflection? Explore the Gratitude Devotional Journal for 90 days of intentional gratitude building.