Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers in the USA. I hope you have a great day with your family and friends and that your favorite football team wins.  But more important, I hope you take a minute to reflect on all the things for which you are thankful this year.  In these uncertain and polarized times it can be difficult to find things for which you are thankful, but if you try hard enough I’m sure you can come up some.

If you read this career advice blog with any regularity, you know that I believe an abundance mentality helps you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  David McMurtry who works for a non-profit that I support, the Go For It! Institute sent me this little poem by Karl Fuchs the other day.  I think it does a god job of capturing the essence of an abundance mentality.  Check it out…

As Thanksgiving Day rolls around,
It brings up some facts, quite profound.
We may think that we’re poor,
Feel like we are not enough, insecure,
But in truth, our riches astound.

We have friends and family we love;
We have so much more
Than they sell in a store,
We’re wealthy, when push comes to shove.

So add up your blessings, I say;
Make Thanksgiving last more than a day.
Enjoy what you’ve got;
Realize it’s a lot,
And you’ll make all your cares go away.

Well said.  This poem reminds me of the importance of coming from an abundance mentality.  I wrote a chapter in 42 Rules for Creating WE entitled “There is No Quid Pro Quo in WE.”  I’ve paraphrased some of it below…
This is a quid pro quo world: you do for me and I’ll do for you.  While there is nothing wrong in reciprocating a good deed or a favor, there is a fundamental problem with quid pro quo.  It is reactive not proactive.  Too many people wait for others to go first.  They adopt the attitude, “When and if you do for me, I’ll do for you.”  This scarcity mentality is not conducive to creating WE.  When you come from a scarcity mentality, you focus more on holding on to what you have, that on opening yourself up to what you can get.

On the other hand, giving with no expectation of return comes from a proactive abundance mentality.  When you give with no expectation of return, you are acknowledging the abundance of the universe.  You are demonstrating faith that the good you do will benefit others close to you and the world at large – and that good things will come back to you.  And that’s making Thanksgiving last more than a day is all about.

In order to demonstrate my commitment to an abundance mentality, here is a list of the what the people and things for which I am thankful this year.  Some are really important, some may seem trite, but all of them bring great joy to my life…

I am thankful for…

• Cathy, my wonderful wife.
• Cathy’s successful shoulder replacement surgery.
• The people who have supported Cathy and me as she recovers from her surgery.
• My family.
• My coaching clients, membership site members, and corporate clients for putting your trust in me.
• The people who help me run my business – Peggy Murrah, Patty Dost, Rebecca Thompson, JT O’Donnell. Bobbi Benson, Tarek Chacra.
• My coauthors, Lydia Ramsey, Chrissy Scivique, Ketty Ortega, Billie Sucher.
• My friends, too numerous to mention, but very important to my happiness.
• Teachers.
• People who labor in obscurity but do things that help others every day.
• My bicycle.
• The fact that I am lucky enough to have a warm and safe home.
• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – especially the Broadway show numbers.
• ESPN.
• Filmmakers, Novelists and Artists for making the world a more beautiful and interesting place.
• The flowers in Washington Park in Denver.
• Colorado sunsets.
• And, very important — You, for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Making Thanksgiving last more than a day comes down to your mentality – scarcity or abundance.  If you come from a scarcity mentality, you will live by quid pro quo, and perpetuate the I-centric status quo.  If you come from an abundance mentality, you will give with no expectation of return and begin to create a WE-centric world.  I choose abundance and choose to take an active part in creating in helping not only myself, but others as well.  I agree with Winston Churchill who once said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”  When you give with no expectation of return you will get a good life.  You’ll also get a better world; one in which we all look out for one another.

That’s the career advice I take from the idea of making Thanksgiving last more than a day.  What do you think?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  And as always, thanks for reading my daily musing on life and career success.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and friends.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.