Daily Gratitude: This is a good thought since next week is Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, though, the idea of giving thanks is often lost in the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready, Inviting all the right people, reminding everyone not to talk about politics, creating the right menu so that Aunt Sally doesn’t get any gluten, Cousin Barbara has enough vegan choices, and most importantly making sure that granddad stays out of the booze stash until Thursday.

When do you take time to make a list of all that you are thankful for in the past year – the big and the little? Why don’t you start now when you have plenty of days to work on it.

Even if you have a daily gratitude practice, you should so this. Why? Because you can go over the entire year and recall great things that happened in your life or the lives of people you love.

As you do this, you’ll be reliving them especially if you visualize what happened. This will raise your vibrations and bring more good to you.

Maybe you can start a new tradition and have a time at the gathering for each person to share their most meaningful 3 or 5 or more depending on the size of the party.

Remember the meaning of the special day we call Thanksgiving.

Daily Gratitude: I love this one more than most. Why? Because it actually tells me how to have a great day every day.

I think I wrote about how we’re so performance based now that it just adds additional stress to everyone’s life. How many of you have been in a grocery line and worried about what the checkout person was going to think about your items. After all, those are your choices. How personal is that? Why do we worry about what other people think? Because we don’t want to be judged. Where do they employ judges other than the courtroom? For sports to determine how well you “perform”

But if we can look at our day from a perspective of what seed(s) did I plant today, then we might be able to veer off from what did i accomplish today (with the subtext of “that others can see”) then hopefully our perspective on ‘what do I “need”!or “should” do today?’ Will change

Did you smile at someone and plant the seed of welcoming or joy in them? Did you come up with the best idea for a Christmas present for someone? You may not have it yet but now you know what you’re going to get that person. Did you come up with an idea on how to be more efficient at work? Did you maybe start a journal or other writing project?

Julia Cameron talks about morning pages where you just write what’s in you head without worrying about anything. When you’re done you tear them up. That’s the seed of clearing the field (your mind) but if you tear the pages up, no one will ever see what you did – your performance.

So let’s stop measuring our day by how many widgets we produce (and not the kind on our phone) and think about the seeds we’ve planted for that day.

Daily Gratitude: I know this is true. Almost all of the “jobs” I’ve had in my life were doing things that I loved. There really is only one that I disliked greatly and only stayed in it because I “needed” a job. That, of course, translates into needing the money to live. It should come as no surprise then that I was advised to quit or I would be asked to leave. Ha ha. They were being very nice.

But it’s not only jobs that must fall into the category of needing to be loved. It’s all that you do. I’m sure you can look back and see half-a**ed performances but also see wonderful ones too.

Take decluttering for example. I’ve tried this many times. But the one time I did a bang up job was right after I retired and that was because I was really pumped about doing it. I even visualized how great it would look (relatively speaking that is. Lol). And I didn’t have to force myself to do it either. I wanted to.

Find different ways to get excited about what you’re doing. Not only will you do a better job but everything around you will be better. There’s only so much time we have so use it to do great things. And anything is great if you enjoy and love it enough. Remember “nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so” (Shakespeare again but it can’t be repeated enough times). So change your thinking so you end up loving all you do