Negativity bias. It is a part of human wiring that causes us to focus on the bad things in life more than the good things.

And while it may seem like a negative trait, it’s actually a beneficial one. It is there to help us survive. Consider our prehistoric ancestors, who faced the threat of death at almost every turn. Without a psychological circuit sending warning signals about potential dangers, the chances of living to any ripe old age would have diminished rapidly.

We still have this fundamental piece of wiring to this day, and it still serves the same primary function. Without it, you would be more apt to foolishly stick your hands in the bushes at night to find out what was rustling about, only to find yourself elbow-deep in the mouth of some beast, and you would also probably die way too young.

The downside of this circuitry is that it can contribute to a cynical view of life. Everything begins to become dangerous. Every person we encounter might be a threat. The world can turn into a bleak place where all we want to do is stay home on the couch in the fetal position with a bottle of bourbon in hand. And that’s not all. This constant lookout for negative possibilities tends to erase a lot of the good things from our brains. Think about it: if I asked you to think of something bad that happened today, how quickly could you recall it? However, if I asked for something good that happened, how long would that take? If you are like most people, the bad would take a second, whereas the good would take a little thought.

The impact of all of this is that we begin living in survival mode (obviously, since that is the prime objective of negativity bias), but is that all we want in life, to survive? Don’t we want to do more? Don’t we want to thrive?

Well, this is the theme of Steve Foran’s book, Surviving to Thriving: The 10 Laws of Grateful Leadership. Foran wants to create more happiness in the world by getting people to move from just surviving to more thriving. And the chief tool he wants to employ is gratitude with the aim of overcoming the overwhelming power of negativity bias and the despair we see so much of today.

In the early pages, Foran powerfully sets the tone for the entire book: “When you see your life as a gift, your whole life, the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the crap that goes with it, there is only one appropriate response: gratitude. Nothing ignites gratitude … more powerfully than seeing one’s whole life as a gift.” From there, he tells the story of a very difficult period in his life where he questioned his career and the job he was doing. We get a full-blown account of the struggle and how gratitude became his salvation.  Foran sums up the enlightened thinking like this: “Gratitude does not allow us to ignore the crap in our lives, nor does it make the crap go away. But gratitude enables us to reframe how we make sense of the situation, which in turn better equips us to deal with whatever circumstances we face.”

Foran moves the book forward with a recurring theme about how a daily practice of gratitude changed his worldview and how it can change ours. “With a grateful perspective, you are able to see the good in any situation, a view that is otherwise invisible from a negative perspective.”

He also artfully wraps his personal story around 10 Laws of Grateful Leadership and several ideas for making gratitude a habit in your day-to-day life. And if you are worried that this might be some sort of unicorns-and-rainbows self-help book, fear not. This book is a very practical guide for living with more abundance, success, happiness, and hope, and how to share it in the real world: “I believe gratitude has the potential to solve some of the world’s largest problems. Happier people means fewer wars. Happier people means less poverty. Happier people means less violence. Happier people means more freedom. Happier people means more generosity. Ultimately, happier people means a better world for you and those you care for.”

If you are looking for a read with a good story, a big takeaway, and plenty of research to back up what is being offered, read this one.

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