Thanksgiving….it’s EVERYDAY BRO!: Adopting a thankful mindset.

I had to make sure I mentioned mindset in the title this time. I don’t need anyone getting the impression that humans need to eat Thanksgiving every day. In fact…please don’t! But that doesn’t mean we can’t be thankful everyday!

We have all heard people say that there’s always something to be thankful about. If you’re like me that usually results in an overly aggressive eye roll and maybe even a scoff. Let’s be real here. Sometimes things just kind of suck! It happens to everyone and it’s totally normal. The reality is, it takes deliberate effort to find things to be thankful for, even though they are often all around us. It’s all about your perspective!

Let me give you an example. I had a meeting lined up to discuss the use of a venue space for an upcoming speaking event. The person in charge of the venue emailed me the morning of our meeting needing to reschedule, due to her furnace dying an untimely death and trying to coordinate getting it repaired.

Now, just like every normally functioning human on the planet, she was not in a very thankful mindset facing that issue. My response was, number one, of course we can reschedule, and number two, hunt the good stuff. I mean it could have happened on a Saturday or when its 3 degrees outside!See, it’s not that the problem doesn’t exist. But it’s the acknowledgment that it could be worse.

This is a skill that the military runs on and doesn’t even know it. I’ve been in a lot of not so fun places, in some not so fun circumstances. At the end of the day it could always be worse right? If nothing else at least I was still alive to be experiencing the situation. It’s like they say in poker, a chip, a chair, and a prayer! Meaning that even though things don’t seem great, there’s still an opportunity to make them better.

It all starts with your mindset though! If you are able to look at what might seem like really crummy circumstances and instead of catastrophizing about how bad they are, and instead address that it’s not nearly as bad as it could be, plus there is action you can take to make it better, I assure you it will elevate your outlook! Not only that, but it will force you to acknowledge the good stuff, even if the good stuff is only that it could be worse!

Now, take that skill and expand on it and really start looking around at what you have to be thankful for. I’m a pretty simple dude to be honest. If there’s coffee and weight lifting within my first 3 hours of consciousness, I’m good to go! Knowing that about myself allows me to look at anything else positive, no matter how seemingly innocuous as a big win! A good song on pandora when I begin my work out, that shirt I’ve been looking for magically appears in the spot I’ve searched for days, one of my kids randomly saying I love you as I walk through the room, those are examples of the good stuff!

Because of this skill, I get to have that warm and fuzzy feeling you get on Thanksgiving everyday, several times! It’s pretty awesome and it’s everyday BRO!

So, the next time you find yourself up against an unexpected challenge or start feeling like you are just going through the motions of another day, pause and do a quick inventory. I’d be willing to bet you have a lot of good stuff to be thankful for if you take the time to look for it!