There's a simple, but powerful psychological principle: what you focus on grows.

To demonstrate this principle in many of my classes, I share the example of a photo with two little boys.
On the top is a picture of a little boy holding one slice of cake and beaming with joy.

Just underneath that photo is another picture of a boy holding an entire cake with 13 slices, but just one slice is missing. So that boy is sad.

When you examine this scenario, you recognize that the boy who is sad actually has much more cake than the boy who is happy. How?

Simply put, the boy who is happy has less, but he is *focused* on what he *has*, so he is full of joy.
The boy on the bottom is focused on what is *missing*, so he is sad.

What we focus on grows.
When we focus on our blessings, they enlarge and we feel rich and content. And happy.
When we focus on what's missing in our lives, problems, negativity, we feel poor--no matter how much we actually have.