Cultivating Thankfulness

Proposal timelines don't always bow to the U.S. holiday calendar and this year appears to be no exception. Friends and clients I spoke to today were rushing to finalize proposal packages, hopping on international flights, and cranking out deliverable so they could get home early to do some pre-holiday deep cleaning. Working toward a proposal deadline hitting right after the holiday weekend, I find myself in a similar situation. Phew.

So if no one has invited you yet today: breathe. Step away from your computer for the next five minutes!

It's a corny Thanksgiving tradition to ask everyone around you what they're thankful for, and yet: we too often find ourselves running low on gratitude and high on deadlines and stress. So what are you grateful for today?

I'm grateful for our Bid Boss community, for our clients and our rich professional network that provides us with coffee breaks, space to workshop new ideas, and creative new ideas to tackle problems in international development. I'm thankful for visits and connections with the communities we serve. And I'm thankful for new beginnings this year as a co-founder of Bid Boss Consulting. What an amazing few months it has already been!

Does your team have a built-in way to practice gratitude? Use the holiday as some inspiration to add a practice if you don't already - even just two minutes at the beginning of your team meetings. Grounding ourselves in gratitude helps put things in perspective - even the mundane day-to-day stress of life on a business development team.