The Monday Motivator | Start Small with Thanksgiving

* The Monday Motivator is a series meant to motivate, encourage, inspire and provide advice on real life stuff.*

Start small with thanksgiving.

I know what you're thinking.

So does she mean I should start with the stuffing or the mashed potatoes first?

But I'm not talking about the Thanksgiving dinner. I'm talking about the act of giving thanks.

I obviously wanted to write this week's Monday Motivator about being thankful. Last year, I wrote a post about how to be thankful and grateful and mean it. So this year, I wanted my advice to be a little different.

As I've probably mentioned numerous times before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Not just because I'm a food lover but because it is the one holiday where I feel most peaceful, cozy and carefree. Watching the parade, spending time with family and sharing a good meal; in my mind, it doesn't get any better than that. It makes sense that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas to me because it's that nice, final, deep relaxing breath before we rushrushrush to the Christmas finish line.

Thanksgiving is also the time of year to pause and reflect on all that you are grateful for. I love that this holiday is literally telling us to pump the brakes and take a minute to be thankful. But how can we carry the tradition of recognizing what we are thankful for during the holiday into our everyday lives?

My advice: Start small.

What I mean by that is if we mentally recognize small things throughout the day that we are grateful for, it will be easier to see the bigger picture that is our blessings as a whole.

The first step is getting out of your comfort zone. It is O-K to be thankful for even the smallest things. Maybe you caught all green lights on your way to work. Maybe a friend surprised you with a coffee. Maybe your favorite song came on the radio, a kind text message made you smile, or a fitness class made your day better. These little things aren't necessarily things we would think to proclaim we are grateful for. But start proclaiming them to yourself mentally. When a good thing happens, checkmark it in your brain as a moment of gratitude.

The more comfortable we become with the feelings of gratitude, the easier it will be to not only continue to be thankful all year round, but to better see how lucky we are. A big ole' pot of blessings. A whole pumpkin pie all to ourself. And the more we dig deep and recognize all of our blessings, the more open we will become to sharing that pie with others. Spread the love and share the blessings.

Find gratitude in the small things, and you will soon realize that the small things make up one big great thing.

Yup, that's right. It's your life I'm talking about.

Get out and share it,