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Although a lot of people are reminded to be thankful on Thanksgiving, gratitude shouldn't be reserved for special occasions. Showing just a little appreciation for what you have could greatly improve your life year-round. Here are nine powerful ways gratitude can change your life:

There have been several books written about the subject of happiness including several from Tal Ben-Shahar ("Happier", "Even Happier" and "Being Happy") and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh who wrote Delivering Happiness. All great books if you're looking for a deep dive into the subject of happiness. But I came across a quote from the Dalai Lama XIV that really nailed it for me:

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

If you're not happy with your life, either personally or professionally, take a quick look in the mirror. The problem may not be lack of opportunity, or education, or capital, or connections--the culprit could be you.

The difficulty could lie in what you believe--and what you do.

What do successful people believe and do differently?

When making a decision, does happiness win out over all? It’s important —even for decisions with implications that go far beyond simply achieving contentment, says Wharton operations and information management professor Alex Rees-Jones. But, as the saying goes, happiness isn’t everything. Often people knowingly forego the choice that will give them the most pleasure for one that satisfies other ideals or factors that are important to them.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could hack into our own brains and rewire them to be happier?

Science has shown we actually can thanks to a phenomenon called experience-dependent neuroplasticity. "It’s a fancy term to say the brain learns from our experiences," says Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness. "As we understand better and better how this brain works, it gives us more power to change our mind for the better."

Hanson assures he isn't just talking new-age mumbo jumbo. "This is not just 'smell the roses,'" he says. "I am talking about positive neuroplasticity. I am talking about learning. … The brain is changing based on what flows through it."

Amazon sells 1,161 kinds of toilet brushes. I know this because I recently spent an evening trying to choose one of them for the bathroom in my new apartment. Nearly an hour later, after having read countless contradictory reviews and pondering far too many choices, I felt grumpy and tired and simply gave up. The next day, I happily bought the only toilet brush the local dollar store offered.

I like being happy. I like it so much that I’ve made more than a few difficult career decisions in order to avoid things that make me unhappy — things like working with people who treat me badly, long days trotting after carrots that always seem to hang just out of reach, and countless hours on planes, trains, and buses. Each “I would prefer not to” came at a professional and financial cost. But, hey, I figured, I’ve only got one life.

So you can imagine the dismay I felt upon reading The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success (Harper One, 2016), by Emma Seppälä. In it, Seppälä, the science director of Stanford School of Medicine’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, argues that the pursuit of happiness is actually a key to achieving professional success — not an obstacle to it.

Many things that we value in life are the result of accumulating stuff; experience, wealth, and education all come from adding more to what we have. By contrast, the act of being happy is often more about subtracting things that weigh us down, tie us to the past, or keep us engaged in unhealthy situations and relationships. But letting go is hard. We attach ourselves easily to behaviors and patterns that are comfortable because they are known, even if they limit us and our capacity to succeed and to be happy.

By the way, if you think happiness is an elusive and fuzzy concept, I'll prove to you that it's not by posing this question: If you came back in another life, would you want to be yourself all over again? Yeah, how's that for a benchmark of happiness?

So try this. There are 20 weeks left in 2015. Start focusing on subtracting behaviors that stand in the way of your success and happiness. Here's a list of 20 things that happy and successful people don't do. Pick one for each week and make a commitment to let it go, and then practice the letting go religiously for the week. I promise you'll be not only happier but incredibly more energized and ready to build the future as well.

Think happiness is unattainable? It might not be as out of reach as you think. Read on for three ways you can come closer to happiness every day.

We talk about happiness as if it were a thing to be discovered and acquired.

But happiness can never be found externally. It is not a possession to be acquired or a set of conditions, but a state of mind.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything, but they have learned to make the best of whatever they have.

The happiest leaders aren't necessarily focused on success or failure but live by a different perspective--and that outlook makes all the difference.

Here's how they live.

This message will be a tough one for perfectionists and overachievers to hear, but they’re who need it most.

“Satisficing,” is a term coined by researchers in 2002 who studied the effects of choice on people who felt they needed to maximize every available option, rather than settle for happiness. People prone to maximizing their options felt more regret, uncertainty, and a sense of failure with their final product than those taking the best possible option and settling on it confidently.

“To satisfice is to pursue not the best option, but a good enough option,” the researchers wrote.

If you're on the hunt for a new position that will let you shine, practice demonstrating these top seven traits that CEOs look for in star employees.

Your resume can get you the interview. But these traits can get you hired:

1. Happiness

No one wants to work with an unhappy person. Negativity, unnecessary drama, and melancholy attitudes can bring the entire company down, so although your own personal happiness may not seem important when applying for a job, it most certainly is. Happiness also reflects your ability to tackle challenges without becoming discouraged. If you show the hiring CEO that you're a positive, mentally healthy person, your chances of becoming the company's next star employee will vastly improve.