Read through to the gift below to share this Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Are you irritable and bug eyed with the notion there will probably be no vegan dishes at the Thanksgiving dinner table for you? Pissy after driving through the rain and snow for hours to get to Auntie Emme’s house? Worried that cousin Dottie is there this year – loud, obnoxious, in everyone’s business, telling everyone how to live their life? Of course, Joe’s sister will whine about her latest love affair gone wrong and drink too much. Are you registering an “8” on the Crank-O-Meter scale because the Christmas lights are already up on your neighbor’s house – brilliantly? And you haven’t even started your Amazon Christmas list…

Get over it. Most likely if you are reading this, you have a place to go with plenty of food on the table. Vegan be damned! Let’s eat! That’s a good reason to be grateful right there.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and beyond. Choose to be grateful. A few good reasons why it’s better to be grateful than cranky:

  ·  7 Overall positive emotions can add up to 7 years to your life

  ·  Grateful people have 10% fewer stress related illnesses, be more physically fit and have blood pressure that is lower by 12%

  ·  Our youth will have 13% fewer fights and 20% more likely to get “A” grades

May you have a beautiful, loving and wholehearted Thanksgiving! Please enjoy this gift: “The Thanksgiving Reader.” (Thank you Seth Godin.)

This Thanksgiving week and beyond, take a few minutes to breathe, connect eyeball to eyeball, heart to heart and realize the true magic of gratefulness.

Thank you for being in my life.

Darla

“The Thanksgiving Reader” – Make copies, pass on to others and share the big magic of gratitude.

Play is becoming serious business. A few years ago the New York Times had a cover story about play in their Sunday magazine titled “Taking Play Seriously?”. The pictures only show children. Where were the adults?

Somewhere along the way we have lost something in our culture.

Play.

It’s time to consciously and deliberately bring play back into our lives and our culture.
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Life Is Messy!

Yep! Life can be a real bummer sometimes. Sometimes, we make mistakes, we screw up and then things really get messy. We are doing the best we can, we think “I got this” and then we drop the ball. I know it is hard to believe but this has happened to me. I have made mistakes. There. I said it.

What about you? Have you ever messed up? Surely you have a cousin that has, right? Okay. You know what I’m talking about? Now we are on the same page.

The problem with messing up is that many of us (more…)

The rules in corporate America have changed – sometimes there don’t even seem to be rules.  The structure, the security, the traditional paths to success don’t exist anymore, and people are looking to leaders for answers.

How can leaders set an example when employees are looking for direction and guidance?  How can they guide their companies to success in today’s uncertain world?

Coaching can help leaders do this.  It can propel leaders to set powerful, positive examples for their employees.  It can support them in making their organizations as productive as they can be.

In order to achieve your full leadership potential, here is what you should look for in your coaching relationship.  Your coach should:

• Create a mutual understanding of the coaching process and its parameters
• Create a safe, supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect and trust
• Ask questions that create insight and inspire action
• Create opportunities for ongoing learning
• Explore alternative ideas and solutions
• Develop an effective plan that is attainable, measurable and specific with a timeline
• Establish mutual accountability

When I think about all the change that’s happened in the past few years, I am staggered by just how challenging this period has been in our lives.  I encourage leaders to engage in a coaching relationship to more effectively help us as we slug our way through the chaos.  The world depends on it.

Darla Powell Phillips is a life and leadership coach who guides business executives, managers and professionals through powerful personal and professional transformations.  She is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a credentialed Associate Certified Coach (ACC).