The Gratitude Shift: Finding Strength in What Remains
- Nov 6, 2025
- 3 min read
By Kimberly Rosales
When people look at the surface of success, they often see the highlights and rewards: the company launches, the press mentions, the confident speeches, the ambitious goals. What they don’t always see is the weight of what it took to gather those, the nights spent awake wondering if you’re ideas will work, the heartbreaks that shattered your soul, and the moments when walking away seemed easier than continuing the climb. Gratitude is not a soft practice. It has been my survival tool, my reset button, my weapon against despair. Years ago, when my world shifted through divorce, financial pressures, and the need to rebuild from the ground up, it was easy to focus on what was missing, instead, I chose to focus on what remained. My four boys, my courage (while my kids sing I’m still standing). My vision, blurry at times but still alive. That shift in focus, from loss to presence, gave me the power to keep moving. Gratitude didn’t change what was happening, but it gave me strength to rise above these challenged by shifting how I saw and processed everything around me. As an entrepreneur in FINTECH, I quickly understood that leadership isn’t only about strategy, numbers, or even innovation. It’s about people. Gratitude has been the foundation of how I lead. When my team was laid off during a difficult financial chapter, I made a promise: we will be back together soon. I thanked them for their loyalty, their creativity, their belief in me, because frankly, they are the ones that truly did. Thanking them not only with words but with commitment. Even in the hardest times, gratitude keeps people bonded to a shared vision. I’ve also found gratitude shifts how others see me as a leader. In a world where women in finance are still fighting to prove themselves, leading with thankfulness instead of fear has given me a unique strength. Gratitude disarms competition, fosters collaboration, and builds bridges where walls might otherwise exist. My personal healing has also been deeply tied to thankfulness. Moving from Canada to Costa Rica after a difficult divorce, I could have felt displaced or defeated. Instead, I chose gratitude for the ocean breeze, for the slower rhythm of life, for the chance to start fresh with my children in a paradise that reminded me daily of life’s abundance. Healing came not from denying pain but from layering it with thank-yous , thank you for survival, thank you for new opportunities, thank you for resilience. Gratitude became my daily practice of renewal. Now, the most powerful part of gratitude in my life is passing it on. To my sons, I don’t just teach ambition, I teach appreciation by example. When they dream of becoming athletes, influencers, or entrepreneurs, I remind them to stop and notice what they already have: health, strength, love, possibility.
Their foundation for becoming anything they dream. Gratitude guides us back to the present moment, even when we’re chasing big futures. And it teaches the next generation that true wealth isn’t only measured in money, but in meaning. Gratitude is what makes women unstoppable. It transforms setbacks into steppingstones, teams into families, pain into wisdom, and dreams into movements. It shifts us from scarcity to abundance, from fear to courage, from surviving to thriving. Today, when I speak about building a vision for my Fintech, I know the real power isn’t just in the numbers. It’s in the gratitude that fuels every decision, every partnership, every second chance. Gratitude has turned me from a woman who almost gave up into a woman who refuses to stop. And that my dear is the secret to becoming unstoppable. Kimberly Rosales CEO - ChainMyne
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