Ellen Patnaude

Ellen E. Patnaude has been coaching, training, and developing people to achieve higher levels of success in a professional capacity since 1997.

Not Your Typical Gratitude Post

November is a month when many individuals and organizations turn their focus to gratitude. In recent years, we’ve seen this trend explode with the growth of social media. While gratitude month, as we’ve dubbed it, is a great opportunity sit and reflect on what we are grateful for in our daily lives, it started us thinking.

What are you so NOT grateful for?

That’s right. We want you to think about what you’re NOT grateful for. What just makes your ears go flat against your head in anger or displeasure, like our little Lily in the picture above? Maybe it’s the way a colleague never seems to listen to you. Maybe it’s your fear of speaking or presenting during a meeting. Maybe it’s feedback you’ve received that’s less than flattering about how you conduct yourself with your team.

Whatever you identify, there’s a solution. There are concrete steps you can take to improve your situation, conquer a fear, or get better results from those around you. Once you’ve identified one thing to focus on, do some reflection. Not this surface stuff, but really dig deep. Improving your situation, by definition, requires you do something different to achieve a different result. What are you willing to do differently than you’re doing now?

Finally, naming it means claiming it. It’s a threshold moment—once you’ve walked through it, you can’t go back to pretending you don’t know. So make a plan. Do you need a coach? Do you need an advisor? Do you need training? Or do you just need to intentionally make different choices? Whatever it is, make your plan, and then get started. What are you waiting for?

Practicing gratitude has a way of focusing all our attention on the positive stuff in our lives, which is great. However, shouldn’t we take the time to identify things we’d like to work on or change, and make a plan for doing so?

We would like to issue a challenge to you, dear readers. Name one thing you’re so NOT grateful for that it bothers you, and then dig deep, and name one thing you’re willing to do about it. We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Happy NOT Grateful-ing!