Thanksgiving Every Day

When I was growing up, the only time we had turkey was on Thanksgiving Day and occasionally on Christmas. It was great tasting and didn’t have all the adverse side effects of red meat. I loved turkey and couldn’t understand why we didn’t eat it all year long. Fast forward 50 years, and turkey is available everywhere all the time.

It got me thinking about how often we focus on gratitude during just one day of the year—like the benefits of turkey, being grateful will serve us well all year long. According to a recent article posted by the Harvard Medical School, “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

At DRYVE Leadership Group, we specialize in helping leaders get focused, take action, and improve results. Now that you are focused on thankfulness, let me recommend three daily rituals to adopt:

1. Develop an “Attitude of Gratitude” daily ritual. Every morning, carve out a few minutes to write down five things you are grateful for. It can be as simple as a good cup of coffee or as grandiose as the heavens above. You choose, but be intentional. Write it down. For extra credit, take this to the next level by documenting five additional items of gratitude at the end of your day. My wife and I enjoy ending the day by sharing ours with one another.

2. Develop a “Relational Reach Out” daily ritual. Text, email, or call someone who is not expecting to hear from you. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or need to be overly complicated. The power of you acknowledging them will help you both embrace gratefulness as you experience the most gratifying of all human experiences—a meaningful relationship.

3. Develop a “Self-affirmation” daily ritual. Intentionally acknowledge one thing each day you admire or appreciate about yourself. Self-worth is the foundation of every healthy relationship. You won’t be able to give love to others if you don’t love yourself. Besides, you are pretty amazing!

Consistently practice one or all of these habits and watch your leadership effectiveness improve. Get intentional about making every day Thanksgiving.

Let me end this post by saying how grateful I am to have you in my life. Thanks for reading! For more DRYVE Insights, click here. I would encourage you to bless someone else by passing this along. It is a great way to reach out and let someone know you were thinking about them.

Contact a Culture Coach at DRYVE Leadership Group today to align your action plan and drive your results!