[0:09] Hey, it's Rusty Gaillard here, and it is Thanksgiving Day, and we have some friends coming over shortly, but all the cooking's done, just waiting for the turkey to cook, and I have a little reflection that I wanted to share with you today.

[0:21] This is part of the Do Something Different series, so this is my new podcast I'm launching, and the whole idea about Do Something Different is that we tend to follow the same patterns and the same habits, and especially at work, that's the primary area that I talk about, but in other areas of life too. Certainly that's the case for me on Thanksgiving. And I've never done this before. I've never carved out time of my day to send a live message, but I'm doing that today because oftentimes we find ourselves in challenging situations and we double down to address them. I've had this in so many different places in my life. There's just one of my kind of biggest successes and also biggest failures at Apple was a situation like this, which is a project I was leading that had some technical challenges in the project. And I'm pretty good technically. And so I rolled up my sleeves. I figured out the technical challenges. I solved them. And long story short is the project ended up failing, even though the technical challenge was solved. The business problem was solved, but the project failed because I neglected to attend to the change management, to the relationships, to all the people who had to buy in to support the project.

[1:27] So I needed to do something different. My habit was to go to my strength, which is my technical ability. But so here's the reflection that I want to share with you today, which is it's Thanksgiving. And on Thanksgiving, a lot of people think about gratitude. I've sent some really mess, some messages to friends and family. I've received some beautiful messages from friends and family, thinking about what are the things I'm grateful, hearing about what are the things other people are grateful for.

[1:55] But we don't do that very often, do we? I mean, just honestly, how many, everybody says you should practice gratitude and so on. But how often do we really actually do that? How often do we sit down and not just kind of rationally go through a mental checklist that's rote of, well, I'm grateful for this and that and the other thing, but instead actually reflect and think about, wow, what are the real blessings in my life? And what am I grateful for? Now, one of my mentors, Mary Morrissey, talks about this. She talks about gratitude for things in life, but can we also have gratitude in our life? And in our life meaning also in the difficult times of our life when we're facing a challenge. So John Riley, who's the minister at the Unity Spiritual Center I attend, was talking about this last week, the difference between gratitude for things, and gratitude in the midst of things. Because let's be honest, we all have times that we're in the midst of something. Whether that's a challenge at work, whether that is a relationship difficulty we might have, it could be a health challenge, it could be a health challenge of a loved one, it could be in response to the global political strife that is happening and

[3:06] the wars that are happening around the world. A lot of people feel burdened by these things.

[3:12] And so, in the midst of that, can you have gratitude? Now, a lot of people might say, ah, that's stupid. Or it's like, am I just ignoring the problem? And I don't ever argue for ignoring the problem. For those of you who know me, who have listened to me for any amount of time, I actually think problems are real opportunities. And that's where the gratitude comes in. Can I be grateful for my own resourcefulness? Can I be grateful for the resources for the people around me? Can I be grateful for my ability and my willingness to pause, take a step back, and look at things from a different perspective that can be more empowering, perhaps, than the problem at hand. Because let's face it, we all tend to focus on the problems in front of us. High achievers, smart people, ambitious people, we're used to doing things right, getting things right, being successful. And one of the ways we do that is by focusing on problems and by overcoming those problems. We push through, we power through, we find a solution.

[4:15] But you've probably heard the expression, you get more of what you focus on in life. And when you're focused on the problems, on the challenges, you're going to get more of that. You're going to amplify it. Even if you're not bringing more of that into your life, you're certainly going to experience your life as more problem-oriented because you're focused on it. You're thinking about it.

[4:32] It's taking up a bigger percentage of your attention on a day-to-day basis. So this idea of being grateful in the midst of a challenge. You're not necessarily grateful for the challenge. You don't have to be grateful for the challenge. That doesn't even make sense in many cases. But to be grateful in the midst of it for your innate capabilities, the fact that you're even here, the fact that you're alive, you're breathing, you're healthy, you're well, the fact that you can think through things, take a different perspective, talk to people about it. All of those things are massive, massive.

[5:09] Blessings that you can be grateful for. So as we are here today, if you're listening to this on Thanksgiving, if you're listening to it after Thanksgiving, either way, think for a moment, just take a moment and reflect and just say, what am I grateful for in my life? Not just the material things, but what innate capabilities can you be grateful for, even for your own life? The fact that you're here, that you're capable, that you're fully functioning, that you have the perspective that what's happening in your life is not the whole meaning of your life. Your life is much bigger than that. And when you can take that kind of perspective, you can find some gratitude for the positive things in your life, the positive experiences you've had in your life, the positive experiences that are inherent to who you are, your attributes that you bring to life that are part of you. You can be grateful for all of that because from that standpoint, you are resourceful beyond measure. You're certainly bigger and more capable than any challenge that you're facing in any moment.

[6:15] And that is something to be grateful for. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have a great week.