Ep. 63 Gratitude and Giving Thanks

With this week's Rocket Ship Founder Podcast Episode falling on the US Thanksgiving holiday, it's only natural that I dedicate it to gratitude and giving thanks. According to Harvard Health, "positive psychology research has shown gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships." This is all well and good, but as any Founder knows it can sometimes be challenging to find gratitude when you are beset by challenge after challenge. There's really no shortage of ways leading a business can challenge you. It is hard. We feel bad when things are challenging. We fall back on our trusted coping mechanisms. And if/when they stop working, we can't get relief and go into some version of fight, flight or freeze. The judo flip on this is to see your challenges as a service to you, in a tough love kind of a way. The opportunity is to face and work with the hardships and accompanying emotions. It's not easy work, especially when your preferred coping mechanisms aren't working. Most importantly, this work invites you to find a more solid center within yourself, less attached to outcomes, ego and pride. To be able to feel whatever you feel and move forward anyway. Gratitude is definitely a ticket to that. So here are some things that you might be thankful for in your journey: Your health and abilities that have gotten you this far The opportunity to create something of your own in the world Team and investors who have put faith in you Family and friends who support you Everything that your challenges teach you As for me, it's been an amazing year full of challenge and heartache watching our kiddo enduring serious health issues, amazing opportunities that fell out of the sky (Leading a founder retreat in Portugal!), uplifting moments (seeing clients succeed). But the thing that has kept me ground through it all is my gratitude for the Founders I've been honored to touch in some way, whether I've worked with you this year or you've just listened to a podcast episode. On this Thanksgiving, I'm giving thanks for you sharing your journey with me. With that all said, tune into this week’s Rocket Ship Founder Podcast, where I delved a bit further into the power of gratitude and giving thanks on your Founder journey. To your success!