Being grateful is as easy as saying thank you. As a friend of mine says, when you feel grateful, it is easy to be grateful. The most important and perhaps most difficult challenge is to be grateful regardless of if you feel gratitude and appreciation. Personally, to help remind myself of the things I am most thankful for, every morning I start my day with a reading from gratefulness.org. This helps start my day off on the right foot and put things in perspective. Gratitude increases our capacity for happiness.

This Thanksgiving season I am particularly grateful for 3 areas of my life – our clients, my colleagues, and my family and friends.

Clients

I am very thankful for our clients and partners because they give me the opportunity to continually learn from them and with them. I get great joy out of working with different schools, on different programs, and in different markets, trying to problem solve for a more optimal solution. The clients we support are the vehicle for us to make a difference in this world. One of MindMax’s predominant goals is to impact 10 million students by 2026. This can only be achieved through the great work we do with our dedicated partner universities.

Additionally, I am able to bring this particular gratitude back to one of our MindMax core values – build meaningful relationships. I am truly grateful for each one of the relationships I have with our clients.

Colleagues

I am also incredibly thankful for the colleagues I work with at MindMax. They are an extremely enthusiastic bunch who are always all in – they are fully committed to working hard and having fun at work. When I need support in my difficult times, their light heartedness and genuine care lifts me up. “Together we can” is one of my favorite phrases – I think anything is possible as long as we can work together to achieve our communal goals, and not worry about who gets the credit.

What I am currently trying to do on a regular basis at MindMax is catching someone doing something well, and making sure they feel appreciated. I am very thankful for the collegial fabric of support and fun we have at work.

Family and Friends

The third and last area I am grateful for is my family and friends. With all my travel and long work hours, I often blindly assume support from my loved ones. Fortunately, they are all on board. Because I recognize this unwavering support system, I have learned that being present in the moments I get with them is key. One of the things I try to remind myself of often is to be where my feet are – this means turning off my phone and really being present with the moment.

My family and friends know the worst and the truth about me and choose to love me even with all of that knowledge. Knowing that I have this kind of support – knowing that I am part of something larger than myself – is undoubtedly what gives me the endurance and strength to make it through any difficult challenges I may face.

Random gratitude

This month, I am especially cognizant of the fact that all of life is here to learn from, and “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”.