Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.

The good is great, but it’s not about the food. It’s about the connection and the remembrance to stop, pause, and appreciate the people in our lives. The things we have.

In a world that’s on its ear where it seems that almost everything is a little bit crazy, it’s time to remember all the great things going on, the great people that are there, that we have a job, that we get to contribute, that we have teammates we get to connect with, that we have a boss who cares for us and wants us to have better things, and that we get to play on this earth together.

Please take a moment to appreciate the people you work with. Give them a high five. If appropriate, a hug. Decide to let them know they matter to you.

Let this season be the time of remembrance for the things you want to feel all year long which is a connection to the very people that you work with because it’s all about the people.

So Happy Thanksgiving. Make it an extraordinary one by living in a state of gratitude and appreciation.

I read a quote recently: “People think it is about finding a job they love. It’s not. It’s about loving the job you have.” You know what? You probably have a great job.

I guarantee you, while not perfect, you have some teammates who are pretty good human beings. And there’s probably one or two things about your supervisor that are probably pretty cool. And your CEO may not be perfect but probably has many good qualities. And your clients, oh my goodness, you get to make a difference in their lives!

It’s just not that bad.

The problem with switching jobs is everywhere you go there you are.

If you don’t like this job, statistically, it’s been proven that you won’t like the next one…the one after that…and the one after that.

It is a skill set to decide to love your job, and it requires two things.

Number one, you get good at it, which means education never ends. Be a voracious leader and a learner to make sure that you understand things in the best possible way.

Number two, make a decision to be fantastic at what you do and to bring joy to what you do every day. It is a decision.

The Dalai Lama said it best: “Happiness is a decision.” When you look at that decision, you’ll live a life that is happy.

So, stop looking for a new job to make you happy and start loving the job you have.

The great philosopher Homer Simpson says: “Just because I don’t care, doesn’t mean I’m not listening.”

Okay, there you have it. You can always quote some good stuff from Homer.  He’s pretty brilliant.

But are you showing that you’re listening to show that you care?

Look, listening is a hard thing to do.

Most of us are waiting our turn to talk instead of actually listening to hear what is being said.

Listening is not just with our ears, but with our hearts because we need to understand why are they saying that? What are their motivations? Gosh, it seems like this person is hurting. What is the concern here? How do we move through this particular piece?

As we’re thinking about listening, think about how you’re being a listener in your life.

How are you listening to your supervisor? Your spouse? Your children? Your colleagues? Your clientele? How are you hearing what’s really underneath the words?

Listening is hard. And listen, nobody’s perfect. I’m sure not. It is something that when we choose to get better at it, we do get better at it.

So don’t take advice from Homer Simpson. Instead, decide to make sure that you are listening and that you care.

Ten birds are perched on a wire. Three decide to fly away. How many birds are left? Ten. Because the three didn’t fly away, they just decided to fly away.

Yes, thinking about doing something is very different than getting into action.

Many people in this world are suffering from this word called overwhelm. Overwhelm is something we do to ourselves when we don’t take action.

The cure to overwhelm? Take action. Take some small action.

Ask yourself this question: “What is the smallest thing I can do right now that I couldn’t fail that would move me toward my outcome?” And then get into action.

It’s easy to sit and stew and think about what isn’t being done in the big list of to-do’s that becomes more overwhelming by the moment.

Here’s the thing, many people think: “Oh, I’ll just have to switch jobs because this job is just too much. And so I’ll have to find an easier job.” Then, they go out of the frying pan and into the fire. Into a different job only to discover now they have less experience how to do that job and less team-building with the people they’re working with… and their job just got harder again.

If you look at the statistics, the same people who are leaving jobs are leaving them again. Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Instead, take action on the things you can take action on because wherever you go, there’s going to be too much to do. But, you can always take action on the most important things.

So, set your priorities and constantly look at those priorities. Take one at a time. Don’t look ahead to the next one. And take the first one to completion every single time before you move on to the next.

Always Add to the Situation to Make Things Better

If you’ve never read Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, it’s worth a read.

I had the great honor of being in the green room and going out for dinner before a speech with Robert Fulghum, right when his book was a bestseller for many years in a row. And what he wrote in the book was all about the principles of the things that we learned back in kindergarten!

Things like being nice to each other. Choose your words carefully. Always add to the situation to make things better.

Simple things that we knew back then, but simple things that are easy to forget.