What We're Really Grateful For (When We Stop Long Enough to Notice)
Thanksgiving is coming, and if you're like most entrepreneurs, you're already thinking about what you need to get done to wrap up Q4 and how you'll catch up after the holidays.
But what if this year, instead of rushing through gratitude on our way to the next thing, we actually practiced it?
Not the performative kind - the "I'm grateful for my amazing team and growing business" post you schedule between client calls. The real kind. The kind that requires you to slow down long enough to actually feel it.
A little woo-woo I know, but hear me out.
The Gratitude We Skip
We talk about gratitude a lot in business. We say we're thankful for our clients, our teams, our growth. And we mean it. But here's what I've noticed: we're often grateful at people instead of grateful with ourselves.
We express it outward, in thank-you emails, in team meetings, in holiday bonuses, but we rarely pause to let ourselves actually experience it. We don't sit with the weight of what we've built or the people who've helped us build it. We just keep moving.
Because if we stop, we might also have to feel the exhaustion. The doubt. The weight of everything. And that feels risky when we've built our worth on staying strong.
But gratitude without presence is just another task on the list.
What Happens When We Actually Pause
A few years ago, I went into Thanksgiving with my usual mindset: take a day to be present for my family, then get back to work. I had convinced myself that fully unplugging my brain from work would put me behind, that my business couldn't run smoothly without me constantly checking in.
But that year, I tried something different. I gave myself permission to fully unplug. I turned off Slack and Gmail notifications. No laptop. No "quick check-ins." Just my family, the mountains, and space to breathe. And nothing fell apart.
My team handled everything when we came back from the holiday. The systems we'd built worked. The clients were just fine (most of them took time off with their families as well). And I came back with more clarity and energy than I'd had in months.
That pause didn't just give me rest. It gave me perspective. I realized I wasn't just grateful for my business. I was grateful in my life. And those are two very different things.
The Difference Between Grateful For and Grateful In
When you're grateful for something, it's transactional. You appreciate what it gives you: the income, the freedom, the validation. But when you're grateful in something, you're present with it. You feel it. You let it matter.
You're not just thankful your business exists. You're grateful for the moment your team made you laugh during a stressful week. For the client who trusted you when you were still figuring things out. For the morning you woke up without dread in your chest because you finally delegated the things that were draining you.
Those moments don't show up on a revenue report. But they're what make the work worth doing.
How to Practice Real Gratitude (Not Just Post About It)
This Thanksgiving, try this:
1. Write down what worked this year, not just what you accomplished.
Don't list your wins. List the moments you felt alive. The decisions that gave you your life back. The people who showed up when you needed them.
2. Thank someone specifically and tell them why.
Not a generic "thanks for all you do." Tell your VA, your business partner, your team member exactly how they made your life better. Be specific. Let them know they mattered.
3. Let yourself feel proud.
Not for how much you did, but for how far you've come. For the version of you who started this journey and the version of you who's still here, still trying, still growing.
4. Actually unplug.
Not "I'll just check email once a day" unplug. Real unplug. Trust your systems. Trust your team. Let the world hold itself for a few days while you remember what it feels like to just be human.
What Gratitude Teaches Us About Worth
I’ve talked a lot recently about how easy it is to tie our worth to productivity and to believe we're only valuable when we're doing, achieving, producing. But gratitude disrupts that story.
When you pause long enough to reflect on what actually matters, you realize your worth was never about the output. It was about the person you became while building something meaningful. The relationships you nurtured. The values you held onto even when it was hard. The courage it took to rest when everything in you said to keep going.
You don't have to earn gratitude through achievement. You just have to notice what's already here.
The Invitation
So here's what I'm asking you to do this Thanksgiving: Don't just go through the motions this holiday. Don't treat it like an interruption to your productivity. Don't spend it thinking about what you need to do next week. Instead, let it be a practice run for the rest of your life.
Let it be the week you prove to yourself that your business can hold without you white-knuckling it. That rest doesn't equal failure. That presence is more valuable than productivity. That you are great not because of what you built, but because of who you are.
And when you come back, you'll lead differently. Not from exhaustion, but from fullness. Not from fear, but from trust.
That's what real gratitude does. It reminds us we're already enough.
A Final Thought
This series has been about breaking free from the belief that our worth depends on our output. About learning to rest without guilt. About building businesses that support our lives instead of consuming them.
And as we head into Thanksgiving, a season that asks us to pause and reflect, I hope you'll give yourself permission to do just that.
You've worked hard. You've built something real. You've earned the right to stop proving yourself, even if just for a few days.
So this year, don't just be grateful for your business. Be grateful in your life.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ready to Build a Business That Gives You Room to Breathe?
If you're heading into the holidays still buried in tasks that someone else could handle, let's change that. A virtual assistant can help you step away with confidence, knowing everything's covered. Because you deserve to be fully present, not just at Thanksgiving, but every day.
Catch up on the full series:
