There’s a great song by VNV Nation that I’ve been listening to each morning in the last few weeks — Gratitude.

It helps me start my day well, expressing for me not just the will to move forward with courage but what I find most powerful: an attitude of gratitude rather than regret for the hardships (and the challenges to come).

Here’s why I think this is so powerful.

The shift in attitude is instantly empowering.

As you move through your days, trying to navigate the chaos of the future, filled with doubts and questioning (especially if we are tackling something that truly will make a difference), using this power of gratitude to consciously shift from frustration or fear to gratitude can be instantly empowering.

Questioning is part of making us better.

What does this feel like as a doctor who wants to help provide the best care possible for all? The doubt is real. How will you know that this is the best care? Can you know? But the questioning matters. And if the questions helps uncover what we might be missing and improves the care we can provide, that helps us move us closer to the goal (often closer than we thought was possible).

It helps you to center and ground yourself in where you are (not where you wish you were).

What does this feel like as someone who cares about others flourishing and helping them live the best life possible? There are so many challenges, so many things that stop us from living our ideal life. But the questioning matters — it helps by grounding us where we are now. From here, what would the best life possible look like? This re-grounded view is something that we see people with a new terminal diagnosis access, the parents of children with tremendous complexity access: The power to live not in an imagined world, but to live in the best possible way in their actual world.

There is another line in the song that also matters:

“Inspired in me, an impetus to fight”

Ground your acceptance of difficulty in the understanding that you are worthy — and capable of fighting for change.

We know that one of the potential harms of positive psychology is that the unquestioning embracing of suffering (“making the best of what is”) can lead to an acceptance of the status quo. This can lead people to stay in bad situations with abusive personal or professional relationships. Ground your acceptance of difficulty in the understanding that you are worthy, and use that to fight for something better — for yourself, for those around you and for those who will come after you.

For all you do, and will do for others, I write this with gratitude.