Thoughts About Thanksgiving… In A Year Unlike Any Other
November 25th, 2020 // 3:49 pm @ Scott Manning
I hope this message finds you doing well and preparing for a most enjoyable Thanksgiving with your family.
I’ve written about Thanksgiving
Perhaps this year though it has deeper meaning – the positive (not the virus) that comes from ‘making it through’ and choosing to ‘live’ not ‘hide’ – to PROSER not succumb in a year with such unpredictability and challenge.
Yes, this is something to be thankful for and for the person who made the choice and took the action to do it – You.
This year, in a world where so much is so different, I’d rather focus on core principles of Thanksgiving that tie directly into your life and success in general. Some things won’t ever be changed because they are the foundation of everything we have and everything we are. I believe Thanksgiving as a whole is exactly one of those.
So, today, this year, 2020, here are some thoughts that I believe will keep ‘thanksgiving’ alive and coming back to you all year round no matter what…
Let’s reflect about this idea of giving, receiving, deserving, and as I like to say creating… thanks.
On Entitlement and the feeling that others owe you or you owe others…anything
This feeling will always be the Achilles heel of someone’s success, the next breakthrough, earning potential, and their ability to earn the respect, therefore opportunity of others who hold the keys to bigger things in their life.
The simplest way to describe this feeling is that of sympathy for oneself, feeling sorry for circumstances, challenges, failures, or any other type of thing.
This is a thought-prison that you must break free from. Aside from physical and mental challenges and life tragedies, you will always be shackled by your thoughts when you do not believe you get exactly what you deserve in life.
Putting your thanks-giving in the hands of others will leave you unfulfilled.
The greatest of things to be thankful for aren’t ‘things’ at all…Squandering opportunity, people, relationships, time is the worst way to show a lack of gratitude.
This means that you must make a pact with yourself to never squander anything you have in your life. You must make the most of everything.
People who are truly grateful for things, appreciate things, and give thanks for things, never let a moment go by without that being on their mind.
Possibilities are endless for those who do not repetitively limit their possibilities. Otherwise, you’ll find your possibilities will dry up faster than the pumpkin pies at your Thanksgiving Dinner get eaten.
Whether it’s success for business, or life, as in being happy – those who enjoy the most, to me, always appreciate the most, everything in their life. I work really hard at erring on the side of OVER-thanking everybody, OVER-appreciating everything, and OVER-noticing, capitalizing, and maximizing every opportunity.
I believe people pay attention to this in me and reciprocate the sentiments.
A Tough Lesson Most Never Learn or Learn The Hard Way
I’ve written about this before, I’m certain. Maybe never as bluntly as what I’m about to do.
Perhaps the single hardest to swallow “issue” with myself and life I had to face, thankfully many years ago, was that my world and the people in it were a complete reflection of me. As if no matter who or how the people were actually, their interaction with me was a mirror of how I was, begin, feeling, doing, treating, and dealing with them and everything else in my life.
Personally, I am very thankful for the book THE FOUR AGREEMENTS where this philosophy, said differently in the book, really sank in and it actually changed me life.
Here’s the simplest way I can explain it.
“Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Yes.
But also, “Treat yourself the way you want to treat others!”
And understand that people cannot treat you differently, or at least it will never feel differently, from the way you feel and treat yourself and the way you feel and treat them.
The person who works on being thankful and focuses on active gratitude and the giving-of-thanks is never short of people giving thanks back to and for them.
Ultimately, We deserve the Thanks we get and the Thanksgiving you have to celebrate.
I believe this. So, when things aren’t going my way, I look at me and what I’m doing, not the rest of the world. You know, the world, it’s pretty much unchanging…c’mon, seriously, people are people – lots changes – people do not…oh, don’t take it too literally, just accept it.
Yes, individuals change, and that’s why you have control over who you are.
Others, society in general, sure – bet your life on the change you’re hoping to see in anybody but you and you’re going to be a very disappointed person.
Being and becoming more valuable means you will be and become more deserving of more thanks and the rewards that come with it.
At the end of the day, my favorite Thanksgiving Principle is…Life is one BIG Cornucopia even in and perhaps especially throughout a “pandemic”
Think about it. The world is your playground, your scavenger hunt, your endless pool of resources and opportunity.
There is already and always so much to be thankful for – yet the point is to keep growing and going and making the most of what you have been given.
I hope this Thanksgiving you take a deep breath in, gets some fresh air, soak it up, enjoy your family…
And then –
Go forth and prosper
Get back to work
Because that is what it’s all about.
Don’t get caught just in the thanks-giving as feeling, though you do want to embrace and embody that too… move into living your life with thanks-giving as action and as something you do.
After all, your “thanks” is the results of a whole lot of people’s, including yours, effort and sacrifice.
Perhaps the greatest thanks to give is for the ability to create things to be thankful for. You ought to read that sentence another time. Then actually put all your focus on doing that.
Yes, give to those less fortunate. I do every single day, literally. But, let’s not forget, giving requires someone to have got – as result of going out and creating, consuming, capitalizing, and cultivating.
Thanks to you, I’ve got reason to write.
Thanks to you, I’ve got motivation to do more.
Thanks to you, I’ve got things to give to others.
They appreciate you and so do I.
Let’s remember it takes us all to make this work.
Let’s go out and do more for them and for ourselves.
Hey, indulge, enjoy, give thanks, and repeat the process…the whole process and everything it takes to have thanks-giving in the first place.
Category : Blog
