This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. But, we run those words together too often without thinking upon their meaning. Some questions I suggest you ponder this weekend include for what and whom are you thankful, what is about those people, places, things and ideas that cause you to be thankful, and have you articulated and expressed such specifics to them?
For what are you thankful? To whom are you thankful? What causes you to be so? These are important questions. Expressing the answers to those people, or to a higher power… is important. One exercise I like that helps to get more clear on thanks is to explore your own Ikigai. Ask yourself what do you love and what are you good at doing? This is the first half of your Ikigai and gets you listing “the good”.
A second activity is to take this list of 101 virtues and think of the people, places, things and ideas for which you are thankful… and attribute the why to aspects of their character. How do they make you feel? What states of being do they illicit?
If you want a copy of either, please let me know.
Spending time in thanks requires us to ponder that for which we are truly thankful. Sincerity of thanks is more important than shoulding ourselves on thanks. Find one thing for which to be truly thankful and sink your soul into that. Then build upon it.
In the classroom and on campus, for what are you thankful? In business, for what are you feeling thankfulness? As a leader, what brings out such feeling? As a student? As a parent? For what are you sincerely grateful? For what do you genuinely give thanks? Have you given it?
Tell the people who need to hear.
That is thanks GIVING.
BLG
Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy™
PS
For more on thanks… and courage, check out the broadCAST for October 2018.
PPS
Here is a beautiful video on being thankful for movies, from a student of mine.