Give A Thankful Life

I feel I live with a pretty positive outlook, most of the time.  Sure, we all get stuck in those ruts, in some Seasons, and we cannot be positive all of the time.  We rush through life, in business, planning, setting goals. exhausting ourselves.  Personally, it is no different most of the time.  As we are taking the children or grandchildren all over and trying to fit everyone’s schedules in place.  Having just come through the Season of Thanksgiving, did it get you thinking, at all, about what and who you are thankful for every day of the Year? How can we live a thankful life?

With no time leftover,  how can we live, personally & professionally, with a grateful and thankful heart?  For all of our exhaustion, we often do not take the time to feel thankful for what we do have.   Perhaps the Season had you thinking, as it did me, about how to live a thankful life.

Too often the Seasons come and then go passing by so quickly, especially when we are trying to run a business.  We excuse ourselves for not taking the time (off or letting others within the organization have time off).  We rush through Seasons, planning, reading, studying, budgeting, setting goals, and then analyzing all of this to see if we met our goals.  It can be downright exhausting and overwhelming!  So how can we focus on living thankfully, both personally & professionally?

I decided to try to come up with steps to keep me focused on the right things, as well as, keep my heart grateful and thankful.  Perhaps they may help you also.

Steps to living a grateful and thankful life:

1.  Start each day thanking someone – for me that is simple, I awake and thank God for another day, then I thank the Lord for my husband for all of his help (I have MS & he is so sweet to help in so many ways, he even delivers my coffee to me in bed so I can start the day). After him, I am so grateful to the Lord for our children (we were told we couldn’t have any & God gave us 3 on this side of eternity), my son’s wife and our granddaughter, our parents, and friends, and so much more, but you get the idea here.
2. Attitude can dictate thankfulness  – If we do not ‘set our minds’ on being thankful & grateful, no matter the circumstance, we cannot begin to even have positivity in our business. Remember nobody wants to be around a negative person all of the time.
3. Get rid of the negatives – if this is an issue for you, sit down and begin to write out on paper or simply list all that comes to mind that has been causing your negativity (low revenue, relationship issues, employee issues, etc…).  Once you have written it all out, then you take the paper and either bury it or burn* it; but get rid of it!!!  [*Of course appropriate caution should take action here for safety] The idea is to RELEASE IT!  Just try.
4. Do something nice for someone else – Doing something nice/good for someone else can truly uplift your spirits, no matter the circumstance you are facing. Even better is doing it anonymously and expecting nothing in return!  So often, I have stepped out to help someone else, only to be blessed much more in return.  Do not do it FOR anything or even FOR a blessing, but do it out of the kindness of your heart and because you truly feel ‘led’ to do it. You may be surprised at what happens.

5. Make a choice – Being thankful is a choice.  We do not just wake up one morning thankful suddenly, we have to really set our minds on it and make a choice to be happy, grateful, and thankful. I am not saying it is always easy, and often we have to fight against the negatives and circumstances in our life. Yet, when we do, it changes so much.  Remember you always have a CHOICE in your responses and feelings.

“No matter the circumstances or trial you are facing, whether personally or professionally (or both), you have to choose to be thankful, grateful & even joyful.” T.S.Durden

As I said, it is not always easy, nor does it mean that you are supposed to put a face on and ‘fake it’ (most people can tell anyway). It also doesn’t mean that we cannot genuinely have a bad day – they happen. Yet, some of these steps can help with this, I hope.

6. Counting our Blessings – whether you call them blessings or something else, we can certainly find people (and things) we can be thankful for.  Although I do not recommend comparing ourselves to others, you can still have the knowledge (whether you really know them or not) that there are others in more difficult circumstances.  Some may feel alone & like nobody else in the world is experiencing what we are facing.  Yet the truth is that many people are going through it, have gone weathered this and even worse than what we are experiencing.  So please take a moment this year to sit back and think of all that you DO Have, and I am confident that your mindset will begin to change.

It is amazing how easy it is to change our attitudes and hearts when we take these few steps. In our current times of uncertainty that are facing all around the world, it is nice to be grounded in a thankful heart.  The overflow of this will come out in your business as well.

Others will see your genuine joy and thankfulness and want to do business with you. It will build trust even because when someone is grateful in a very sincere way, you feel a sense of trust with them.

As we have just come through Thanksgiving, why not take a moment and do a ‘self-check’ to see if we are truly living a thankful personal and business life.  If not, now is the time to put it into action.  Others will indeed see it and the overflow of your heart.  Remember it will increase your business as well because others will want to work with you, as they see your genuine heart.  Who wants to work with a negative person, really?  So, be sure to add that smile and take steps through to be grateful and thankful today.

I would love to know what are some of the things/people you are thankful for today?