THANKSLIVING DAY - a New International Holiday Everyone Needs!
Hank Boyer
Executive Coaching | Strategic Planning | Leadership | EQ | Engagement & Retention | B2B & B2C Sales | Assessments | DISC | Hiring/Onboarding | Career Coach | Talent Development | Management Training | Behavioral Science
Most people associate the North American holiday of Thanksgiving with pictures like those above… peace, family, joy, thanks, food, and fellowship.? Such traditional celebrations are rooted in the events surrounding the first European settlement of Pilgrims fleeing the Church of England to establish a colony in New England, where they could worship God with religious freedom.
Thanksgiving: A Brief History
Setting sail from England in September 1620, after 66 days at sea the Pilgrims arrived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts on November 11, 1620.? After a few weeks they sailed upriver to Plimouth (modern day Plymouth), an area inhabited by the Wampanoag tribe of Native American Indians.?
Barely surviving the winter, disease, and near starvation, they produced a good crop aided by the Wampanoag.? Thanking God for their deliverance, in the fall of 1621 the first Thanksgiving meal took place with the Wampanoag. ?
According to Arianna Fox?of?1440?the “original meal included venison, shellfish, and corn porridge, far removed from today's Thanksgiving tables.”? Likely not what precisely you enjoyed at your last Thanksgiving meal.
Fox shares how Thanksgiving became a national holiday in America, as a means of healing a fractured nation following the bloody Civil War: “Author and activist Sarah Josepha Hale …started a campaign to make Thanksgiving an official national holiday seeing it as a way to unite Americans. Her efforts finally caught the attention of President Abraham Lincoln and in 1863 during the turmoil of the Civil War Lincoln declared the final Thursday of November a National Day of Thanksgiving a move aimed at fostering unity across a fractured nation.”
It Has Been a Tough Year
This past year has likely brought its share of hardships and challenges.? Illnesses that afflicted you and your loved ones, family issues that still cause sadness, employment issues that have you concerned for your future, and what about the global unrest, wars, and next COVID-like pandemic??
Yet these are set aside, even for one brief day, to be thankful for what we do have. Even the most challenged among us can number all the ways we have been blessed… we are still here to read this, we have our senses, we have powerful brains, we have today, we have talents, we have skills and capabilities, we have tomorrow, we have opportunity.? Come to think of it, if we are honest with ourselves, we could make a long, long list of all the things we are grateful for.
How Gratitude Affects Human Beings
I posed a query to Generative AI using Google to learn the beneficial effects of gratitude.? Here’s what I found, “Practicing gratitude can lead to several beneficial effects including?increased happiness, improved mood, better sleep quality, reduced stress, stronger relationships, enhanced resilience, better physical health, and a greater sense of life satisfaction;?essentially, focusing on what you're thankful for can positively impact both your mental and physical well-being.”
Among the many benefits cited were:
Experts agree. Check out these links: Harvard Health, Positive Psychology, HelpGuide.org, and Wellable, to name just a few.
A Choice and a Proposed New Holiday
Gratitude and Ingratitude are intentional choices each of us can make as we respond to life as it happens.
Gratitude will make us better.
Ingratitude will make us bitter.
Gratitude and Ingratitude are intentional choices each of us can make as we respond to life as it happens. Gratitude will make us better. Ingratitude will make us bitter.
What if tomorrow you purposed to make the day Thanksliving Day?? And the next day Thanksliving Day? And the one after that?
All we need to do is to list out the blessings that we have, what we’re thankful for. And then choose to make the day Thanksliving Day.
About me: Since founding Boyer Management Group 26 years ago, I’ve been blessed to work with some of the world’s top employers by helping them get the most out of their talented people. Thanks to our clients, the company I founded in 1998, Boyer Management Group, was recognized by CEO Monthly Magazine in 2023 and again in 2024, awarding us their “Most Influential CEO Award” in the executive coaching field. C-Suite Insider just named me CEO of the Year in Executive Coaching. Our coaching programs produce remarkable results in compressed periods of time. Our extensive leadership development course catalog provides effective skills-building for everyone in the organization, from the new and developing leader to the seasoned C-level executive.? BMG boasts one of the most extensive sales and sales management curriculums anywhere, with behavioral assessments to help develop talent.?To find out more, please visit us at www.boyermanagement.com, email us at [email protected], or call us at 215-942-0982.