1500 - 2000 / Daily Routines / Daniel Defoe / Spiritual and Emotional

Is Gratitude the Key to Success?

By Effluo | Published November 15, 2021 | No Comments

Let us travel back to the 1600s. Imagine yourself shipwrecked on an island, alone with no hope of rescue. Your ship along with your shipmates are gone, your world has been turned upside down and you are on an island all by yourself. You need to start a new life from scratch. What would be the key to your survival? Could it be something as simple as Gratitude?

Shipwreck

This is the story of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. This was a fictional narrative that was based on a true story. It is a story about Robinson Crusoe, who was shipwrecked on a desolate island. It is also a story about survival and what it takes to overcome life’s struggles.

Let us begin at the beginning. Robinson, who lived in England, decided to go on a sea voyage. After a series of different adventures, he ended up on a sea voyage where a storm destroyed his ship along with everyone on board. He was the only survivor. Robinson washed ashore on a desolate island, which he named “The Island of Despair”.

“SEPTEMBER 30, 1659.—I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called “The Island of Despair”; all the rest of the ship’s company being drowned, and myself almost dead.”

Daniel Defoe

The Island of Despair

I only said to myself often, that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable.

Daniel Defoe

He was devastated. He learned the basics of how to look for food and how to build a shelter. Ten months after being on the island he realized that there was no hope of ever being discovered. All possibility of deliverance out of the situation was completely out of sight. Feelings of desolation and desperation took hold of him.

“I HAD NOW BEEN in this unhappy island above ten months. All possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I firmly believe that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place.”

Daniel Defoe

Loss of the Island

Thus, we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.

Daniel Defoe

After some time being on the island, Robinson decided to build a raft and attempt to leave the island. He successfully built it and ventured out into the ocean. In the ocean he was not getting far, currents worked against him, he was running out of water and provisions. At which time he realized that his time on the island was very comfortable, he had all of the provisions necessary for his survival.

“Now I looked back upon my desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. I stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes—“O happy desert!” said I, “I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature! Whither am going?” Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and that I had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there again!”

Daniel Defoe

Discovering Gratitude

All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

Daniel Defoe

After being out in the ocean for several days, currents took him back to his island. At this point, Robinson’s mindset was changed. He began to look at the island from the perspective of plenty instead of the perspective of lack.

“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them.”

Daniel Defoe

The main lesson that he learned and that changed his life for the better was gratitude. Unhappiness comes not from the circumstances but the reaction to the circumstances. Mainly from the lack of thankfulness for what we have. Once he began to be grateful for everything that he had, like food, fresh water, shelter, and even pet goats and parrots, his life became very comfortable.

Facing Fear

Robinson’s continued stay on the island was not uneventful. Yes, he embraced and thrived in his situation, but the adventure was not over. His stay on the island was interrupted by visits from cannibalistic tribes and a ship of mutineers. At first, Robinson hid from the dangers, and after some time he decided to face it. He realized that the fear of danger is typically greater than the danger itself.

“Thus, fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious about: and what was worse than all this,”

Robinson Crusoe

From Fear to Opportunity

After facing his fears and standing up to the cannibalistic tribes Robinson saved a boy, his father, and a Spanish sailor. Because he stopped hiding, decided to do something about his fears he gained trusty companions.

Then another challenge landed on his island. A ship of mutineers stopped at the island. He again decided to stand up to them and assisted the captain in taking back control of his ship.

Robinson learned that by embracing his fears he found what he was looking for, mainly a passage off of the island. He began looking at danger not from the position of fear, but from the position of opportunity.

“How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into.”

Daniel Defoe

Success

After twenty-eight years on the island, Robinson left a new man. He learned that:

• Focusing on the lack of things in any situation leads to despair.
• Focusing on the abundance of blessings around him makes for a very happy existence.
• Fear of danger is worse than the danger itself.
• Often the danger itself may be the means to finding success in any pursuit.

“And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days.”

Daniel Defoe

Change is an inevitable part of our life. Sometimes the winds of change turn into hurricanes of change, uprooting everything we hold dear and turning our lives upside down. Taking lessons from Robinson Crusoe we can stay grounded by being grateful for what we do have, and look at dangers not through a lens of fear, but through a lens of opportunity.

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