Q&A: Writer Janice Kaplan talks about living, working with gratitude

Janice Kaplan is a writer, television producer and former editor-in-chief of 'Parade,' the Sunday newspaper-insert magazine with a circulation of more than 22 million. Kaplan also is the author of 13 novels, including her most recent, 'The Gratitude Diaries' — a memoir of her year spent living gratefully and the new outlook on life it gave her. Kaplan is the opening keynote speaker for the April 26 IWLC conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Cedar Rapids.

You started out as a sports reporter, right?

As with so many careers, I never quite made a plan. I just always made myself be open to opportunities. I was a sports reporter, a producer at ('Good Morning America') and was also writing, including a column at 'Vogue.'

I eventually realized that having many different interests is really important. You need to follow what excites you. People always talk about how they got lucky, but part of luck is realizing when an opportunity is in front of you.

Tell us a little bit about your most recent book, 'The Gratitude Diaries.'

What's been great for me is that people are excited about it. They get that changing your attitude can change your life.

People worry that gratitude makes you soft or sappy. But really, if you focus on gratitude at work it can make you more successful. Gratitude and ambition, they go hand and hand.

Where did the idea come from to write about gratitude?

I always had a lot of fun writing fiction. But I was always a journalist. I got a grant to do a survey n gratitude, and as the results came in they were striking to me.

I was fascinated by the effect gratitude can have on our lives. I started thinking about my own life — I've always been very happy with it — but I wanted to challenge myself. I quickly realized it could inspire people in a way that's more than just a literary device.

How can this idea be applied to the workplace? Specifically, how can women apply this in their careers?

There are two important things about gratitude at work. The first is we want to be appreciated for the work we do. The second is that we want to appreciate our jobs.

We can complain a lot about work. It's helpful to remember how we first felt when we got the job before we got bogged down.

When you take that outside view, we can get a new perspective on our work and careers. Most of us want our work to be meaningful and satisfying. So it's important for companies to start recognizing what employees are doing.

I did a talk a few weeks ago at Google in London. They're started something called gThanks, where employees can send emails to say thanks. It's surprising how something so small can make a huge difference.

I've talked with people who are in offices with terrible cultures. So they start by making small changes themselves. ...

We should appreciate our co-workers rather than compete with them.

And if that gratitude isn't coming from the top, start it yourself — it can come from any level.

In your book, you talk about the importance of a gratitude diary — actually writing down something every day that you are grateful for. Why is this something people should try?

Gratitude isn't a passive thing. It needs to be an action.

Some psychologists believe that we're wired to be negative. So we need to work to turn that around. One way to do that is by writing down one good thing that happened each day.

It can change your attitude for the whole day. You start looking for what that thing will be. It could be looking at the window and seeing that the sun is out and being grateful for that ...

It doesn't make your problems go away, but you can spin how you see it. So often we wait for the event that makes us happy, but you can take control of your own life.