{"id":240,"date":"2010-11-24T17:44:46","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T22:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2010-11-24T17:44:46","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T22:44:46","slug":"the-thanksgiving-gift-that-pays-dividends-all-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/the-thanksgiving-gift-that-pays-dividends-all-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thanksgiving Gift That Pays Dividends All Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thanksgiving. There are so many things I love about this holiday we celebrate in America each November.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Beyond the family, friends, and food, it turns out that being thankful is also immensely healthy. In <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704243904575630541486290052.html\" target=\"_blank\">Melinda Beck&#8217;s Wall Street Journal article<\/a> this week, she outlines how those who are grateful reap a myriad of benefits, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More energy<\/li>\n<li>Greater optimism<\/li>\n<li>More social connections<\/li>\n<li>Increased happiness<\/li>\n<li>Less depression<\/li>\n<li>Less envious of others<\/li>\n<li>Earn more money<\/li>\n<li>Sleep more soundly<\/li>\n<li>Exercise more regularly, and<\/li>\n<li>Greater resistance to viral infections<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Think about people you work with regularly&#8230;. Who is the most cranky? Who gets annoyed most easily? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was it difficult to bring someone to mind? How about the flip-side&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who is generally most optimistic? Has greater energy and tends to be more positive? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chances are this latter group of people are more thankful.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the fundamental attribution error (which we discuss in our <a title=\"conflict management workshops\" href=\"http:\/\/www.i-leadonline.com\/ConflictManagement.asp\" target=\"_blank\">workshops<\/a> and <a title=\"conflict management for project managers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.i-leadonline.com\/econflictworkshop.asp\" target=\"_blank\">e-learning on managing conflict<\/a>), I suppose it&#8217;s easiest to see a spirit of complaining in others rather than\u00a0ourselves. In fact, the WSJ article admits that &#8220;gratitude is actually a demanding, complex emotion that requires &#8216;self-reflection, the ability to admit one is dependent upon the help of others, and the humility to realize one&#8217;s own limitations.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here&#8217;s my Thanksgiving challenge for you&#8230;. <\/strong>When someone at work asks, &#8220;Who is the most grateful person on our team?&#8221;, how about you being the first person they think of?<\/p>\n<p><strong>As you go through the coming weeks and begin a new year<\/strong>, I challenge us all (myself included) to consciously work on removing any &#8220;negativity bias&#8221; and intentionally exercising a spirit of gratitude that lasts far longer than the turkey we carve and its leftovers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thankfulness is a gift that pays dividends. <\/strong>Let&#8217;s be known as gracious, appreciating, thankful people at work, at home, and in our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanksgiving. There are so many things I love about this holiday we celebrate in America each November. Beyond the family, friends, and food, it turns out that being thankful is also immensely healthy. In Melinda Beck&#8217;s Wall Street Journal article this week, she outlines how those who are grateful reap a myriad of benefits, including:&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/2010\/11\/the-thanksgiving-gift-that-pays-dividends-all-year\/#more-240\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[108,84,85,119,124],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p488Wj-3S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.leadershipintherealworldblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}