Excerpt: 'Thank You Power'

Oct. 4, 2007 — -- After two years of research, Deborah Norville has written the book "Thank You Power" in which she argues the importance of gratitude. Norville writes that two words -- "thank you" -- can make you happier and more resilient, and that giving thanks brings life blessings. Read an excerpt below.

THIS BOOK WAS BORN OF COMMON SENSE. NOT THAT I claim to have more of it than anyone else. But it just seemed common sense to me—a hunch, really—that if you want to be happy, focus on what you've got—not what you've not. The benefits of doing just that read like the claims of some too-good-to-be-true infomercial:

These outcomes, reported in the country's top psychology journals, are the findings of some of the nation's foremost re¬searchers in a newly emerged field called positive psychology. For nearly two years, I have been digesting this scientific literature, trying to discover if my hunch had any basis in fact. Did it ever!

Man has been searching for happiness since the beginning. It's one of our inalienable rights, isn't it? Right there in the Declaration of Independence, just after life and liberty. Goodness knows we've been pursuing it long enough: from Eve's first taste of the apple to the conquistadores' quest for golden treasure and the modern-day prowl for a mate, the end game of most of man's endeavors has been fulfillment.

On Wall Street, people in pinstripes rush madly for money and power. Park Avenue plastic surgeons' offices (and plenty of them elsewhere in America) are jammed with ladies, all hoping the latest potion or procedure will make them younger looking and, therefore, happy. A teen races to score the most points and win the MVP trophy. But trophies tarnish; someone else will always have a bigger bank account; and as the poets pointed out long ago, beauty fades. Here we are, two hundred-plus years after beginning the American pursuit of happiness, still chasing it, wondering what the secret is to finding it.

What if—just as in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy learned that the ability to get home to Kansas had been hers all along—the secret to lasting happiness was within each of us? What if a lasting sense of completion, an enduring feeling of contentment, was possible—simply by changing the lens through which we viewed daily life? Nothing dramatic, nothing painful—no calories expended: just a conscious alteration of the way we look at our own little corner of the world.

Here's the good news: you've got the power right now. Regard¬less of your age, religion, financial circumstances, or any other classification society might dream up, you have within you the tools to allow you to live the life of satisfaction, security, and optimism you long for. That power begins with two words: thank you.