Gratitude. If you’ve ever done any reading on happiness, it was probably one of the first topics you encountered. Yes, the gratitude-happiness link is clear, but being grateful is easier said than done.

If you ask the internet for things to be grateful for, you’ll end up with lists like this top hit filled with cute trivialities like “cake” and “blowing bubbles.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s not much right with it either. Such lists are simply too superficial to have a lasting positive impact.

The “Big Five” list that follows does away with all the superficial trivialities. Instead, each item contains a profound truth, powerful enough to emerge as gratitude at the right times. Each section also features some concrete examples and inspiring films to drive these truths home.

Ready? Here we go.

1. Winning at the Lottery of Birth

If you’re reading this, it’s highly likely that you were a big winner at the lottery of birth. In other words, you were born into a family and a society that gave you a fair shot at building a decent life.

Even today, a surprisingly small fraction of the global population enjoys this privilege. For example, if you’re an average developed world citizen living on $20000/year, there are about 17 people below you on the global income scale for every one person above you. (To find your position on the income mountain, please follow the instructions at the bottom of this article.)

Here’s another way to put it: Your chances of being born into abject poverty (less than $1.9/day) were much higher than your chances of being born into an average Western family. Please take a moment to process the prospect of living on $1.9/day (i.e., one Starbucks coffee).

Putting it into practice

So, how can we cultivate a habit of gratitude for winning the lottery of birth? Simple: Become mindful of all the privileges we enjoy thanks to being born toward the right of the figure above.

The best place to start is to make a habit of giving thanks before enjoying the good things in your life. A quick meal prayer is a good example, even if you’re not religious. Simply start the meal with “I’m grateful for this nutritious meal, and my heart goes out to all those less fortunate.”

You can replace “this nutritious meal” in the sentence above with anything else that may be relevant. For example, “my comfortable home” works well whenever you enter your house.

Some inspiration

Graphs like the ones above may give an intellectual understanding, but their effect will be limited before we experience the facts on a deep emotional level. Luckily, there are many stirring stories to help those of us who won the lottery of birth appreciate our incredibly good fortune. I’d like to recommend a film called Tsotsi from my country of birth, South Africa.

2. A Lot More Time

Time is our one truly non-renewable resource. Essentially everything else we value can be regained after being lost or carelessly wasted. But we can never get back the hour that just passed.

That’s why the steady gain in global life expectancy is so wonderful: It gives us more of this most precious of resources. And our progress over the last century has been nothing short of miraculous. Thanks to the relentless march of technology, we’ve all but conquered the elements, famines, and infectious diseases that took billions of lives across history.

Here’s some more perspective: about 90% of the people who ever lived were born before 1900 (source). These 100 billion people had less than 30 years (on average) to spend on this planet. Incredibly, those reading this article can reasonably expect to triple this historical life expectancy.

Putting it into practice

There are plenty of good moments to practice gratitude for your precious gift of extra time:

• Your birthday
• Whenever you benefit from modern medical science
• Your child’s birthday (historically, half of all children died)
• When buying an abundance of nutritious food at the supermarket
• When bad weather rages harmlessly outside your comfortable home

Some inspiration

There are many good stories about life during the 99.9% of human history before science and fossil fuels ignited the technological revolution. My pick is The Physician — an eye-opening look at living conditions and medical “science” in the Middle Ages.

3. Never Having to Take a Life

For the vast majority of human history, it was “kill or be killed.” Mortal threats were everywhere in the form of other humans, animals, and nature. Today, we’ve successfully tamed animals and nature (at least over here in the rich world), but human threats remain.

Luckily, these are also declining steadily. Data from 2017 shows that about 80 people die from lifestyle diseases for every one person who dies from violence (homicides, conflict, and terrorism).

It’s been a whole lifetime since the last major war that killed about 50 million people. Since then, serious conflicts have been much less deadly and war casualties have all but disappeared in the West.

Thanks to all this progress, developed world citizens today are highly unlikely to ever experience the pain and trauma of war or other deadly violence — a historically unprecedented privilege.

Putting it into practice

Even though violence is only a minor cause of death nowadays, it always makes big headlines. So, instead of letting the news fill you with anxiety, why not turn it into a trigger to express gratitude for your peaceful life? Prosperity is the best antidote to violence, and you can create prosperity much more effectively from a place of gratitude than a place of anxiety.

Gratitude for peace also works beautifully when you’re enjoying a peaceful vista or taking a stroll in an environment where you feel completely safe.

Here’s a handy phrase to try: “I’m grateful for my place in this peaceful corner of the world in the most peaceful time in history.”

Some inspiration

As mentioned earlier, World War II literally ended a lifetime ago. That’s great, but it is also dangerous because the current generation lacks a deep emotional understanding of just how terrible war is.

Hollywood can help us remember via titles like 1917, Hacksaw Ridge, and Unbroken. But the D-Day scene from Saving Private Ryan gets my vote as the most powerful depiction of the horrors of war.

4. The Freedom to Earn True Freedom

Humanity has been fighting and dying for freedom throughout the ages, and for good reason. Before fossil fuels gave us abundant cheap energy, outright oppression was the only way for a small group of elites to enjoy decent living standards. And so they oppressed with great enthusiasm.

Today, it’s a different story. The average American consumes as much useful energy as can be produced by 147 slaves working 24/7. That’s why we get to enjoy a level of affluence exceeding that of ancient kings in many ways.

Still, far too many people remain slaves of consumerism, working jobs they hate to keep up with the Joneses. But this is only a psychological trap and not the result of direct oppression. Any rich-world citizen who denounces consumerism can attain true freedom relatively early in life. I’ve done it, and it’s one of the things I’m most grateful for.

Putting it into practice

True freedom is when you get to use your time and energy for whatever inspires you most. Until recently, this was a complete impossibility, but we’re lucky enough to live in a time when efficient technology and markets open this ultimate privilege to all those who won at the lottery of birth.

The best time to express gratitude for the freedom to earn true freedom is when you’re buying or using labor-saving products and services. Many purchases fall in this category. As do your home appliances (unpacking the dishwasher is much more fun from a place of gratitude).

If you like numbers, take a few minutes to calculate how many hours you need to work to earn the money required to buy basic food and shelter. In my case, it’s a mere 30 minutes a day. And since I’m no slave to consumerism, most of the rest of the day is mine to invest/enjoy with complete freedom. The more I think about it, the more grateful I become!

Some inspiration

We should never take our modern freedoms for granted. This not only includes freedom from slavery, but many others like the right to vote and freedom of expression, religion, and sexual orientation. My pick for remembering these precious freedoms is 12 Years a Slave.

5. Living the Most Interesting Time in History

There are still countless things wrong with the world, but no one can deny that we’ve come a hell of a long way. Today, we stand on the cusp of what may well go down as the most interesting time in human history. And it’s a true privilege to be part of it.

To be more specific, here are a few of the historically unique achievements we should tick off this century:

• Eradicate poverty and ensure material prosperity for all
• Achieve this abundance in a sustainable manner
• Eliminate all soul-killing or dangerous jobs via automation
• Learn to be genuinely happy with our material abundance
• Make all the best knowledge freely available to all
• Safely peak the global population while living well past 100
• Restore the natural world and learn to enjoy it sustainably
• Maximize the human experience with virtual and augmented reality

Of course, we can also screw things up entirely. But I’m confident that we’ll pull it off in the end. We already have almost all the technology we need to sustainably give everyone a fair shot at life. Our only real challenge is scaling and deploying this technology (and its bounty) in a fair and efficient manner. The natural human drive toward progress will take care of the rest.

Putting it into practice

I’ve been studying our great 21st-century sustainability challenge for more than a decade. Yes, it gives me the occasional sleepless night, but overall, I’m super excited to be part of it.

If you also experience the occasional bout of anxiety about our collective future, try expressing gratitude for being part of this special time in history. For example, if you stress about climate change, try saying something like “I’m grateful to witness the historically unique global transition to a sustainable society and the opportunity to play my part.”

Some inspiration

The 21st century will see humanity’s transformation from individualistic, short-sighted greed to collective, high-tech prosperity. To get in the mood, let’s look back at another culturally transformative period in history, the Renaissance, with the fun flick, Shakespeare in Love.

Closing Thoughts

We all know that habitual gratitude is essential for lasting happiness. But gratitude is not exactly the easiest habit to cultivate, mainly because we’re so good at taking things for granted.

This article listed the Big Five things all rich-world citizens can be super grateful for. With the help of some concrete examples and a few inspirational films, the Big Five can help cultivate a deep, emotional understanding of how blessed we truly are.

Such a well-informed attitude of gratitude not only increases happiness; it also creates the right mindset for extending these privileges to the billions of people who are not as fortunate. And yes, making such valuable contributions to the lives of others only brings further happiness.

So, let’s all be more grateful and make a big success of the 21st century!

Appendix: Finding Your Place on the Mountain

The instructions below will help you find out which part of the global income mountain you grew up on. Of course, you can also find your current position on the mountain by considering your own income today.

Start by asking your parents to estimate your monthly (after-tax) household income around the time you were 10 years old. Then divide that number by the number of people in your household and by 30 (number of days in the average month) to get your daily living budget.

If you live in the US, adjust that number to 2011 Dollars from the year you were 10. For example, if you lived on $25/day in 1990, this inflation calculator adjusts the number to $43/day in 2011 Dollars. Then, jump straight to the final paragraph.

Those outside the US also need to adjust for currency and purchasing power. A purchasing power adjustment becomes particularly important for those who grew up in developing countries with low living costs (like me). You can use data from this source to do the conversion.

For example, when I was 10 in 1994, our family of four had an after-tax income of about 6300 South African Rand per month. This means I lived on about 6300/4/30 = R53/day.

The PPP data conversion source gives a factor of 1.89 for 1994, meaning that R1.89 had about the same purchasing power as $1.00. Thus, my R53/day becomes $28/day. When adjusting for inflation, this grows to $43/day.

Now, I can go to the interactive graph, adjust the slider at the bottom to the correct year (1994 in this example), and hover over the correct number on the x-axis ($43/day in this example) to see my percentile. As shown below, I was lucky enough to grow up in the 94th percentile.