Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite parts of the year. Aside from the fact that the Thanksgiving meal is, by far, my favorite meal – it’s also a great opportunity to reflect on the year and it shifts my focus from the busyness of life to a thankful heart.
If you’re like me, as a business owner, wearing the many hats of our business can often times put thankfulness on the back burner. We’re so busy running our businesses that we often find little time to pause, reflect, and think on all the great things that have happened in our lives and in our business.
Here are 5 benefits that thankfulness provides:
- Makes you happy and easier to be around! – When you choose to be grateful, you find yourself seeing the silver lining in your circumstances and therefore you won’t find yourself getting bogged down with negativity. When you’re happier, I guarantee that you’ll be more fun to be around, too!
- Improves your relationships – Everyone has an innate need to be loved and appreciated. When you’re thankful for those around you, you’ll be able to build and establish trust in your relationships. For example, if you’re thankful for the employees that show up to work on time and with a smile on their face, you’ll appreciate them more and then they’ll feel valued.
- Is contagious – When people see us being thankful, people will not only want to be around you, but will be more likely to want to emulate you in being thankful. During this time of year, your social media feeds are probably full of people being thankful. Every November one of my friend’s does a “30 Days of Thankfulness” on her Facebook page. She posts one thing she’s thankful for each day throughout November. Every one of her posts makes me pause and think of who (or what) I could be thankful for in my life too.
- Reduces stress – When you choose to focus on the things or people you have in your life, you stop focusing on things we don’t have – therefore the stress diminishes. Be grateful for the “wins” and not the negatives.
- Makes you more generous – When you are grateful for what you have, you’ll see all the things in your life as a blessing and find yourself being more willing to give.
So what about you? What are you thankful for? Let me challenge you as we embark on the upcoming holiday season to take some time each day and write down the things you are thankful for this year. It can be things you’re thankful for in your business or even things you’re thankful for in your personal life. Write it down! Be as vague or as specific as you. I think you’ll find that a lot of really great things (and people, too) have been blessings in your life this year.
If you’re looking for a way to keep track of what you’re thankful for, sign up to receive my free Thankfulness Tracker PDF here.
