From Grace to Gratitude by Felicia Shakespeare

Felicia Shakespeare is an award-winning Global Speaker, a 5x Bestselling Author, Educator, and Personal Brand Strategist. She is the Founder of A Purpose Driven Woman LLC which has successfully produced a podcast, conference series, and a compilation book project. 

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Last time I spoke of the importance of giving ourselves a little more “grace.” Many of us are hardest on ourselves and way more critical about where we are in life than anyone else. We must be intentional about personalized “self-care” in its totality. One of the greatest weapons we have is our voice. Do you believe words have power and that the words that we use daily actually either affirm or cause a deficit in us? Many times we ARE NOT using our own voice to affirm and speak life into ourselves as much as we should. Let’s begin to change that narrative and now start to wrap ourselves in gratitude. 

We have entered into my family’s (really Mom’s) favorite holiday season of the year, Thanksgiving. You would think with her birthday being exactly one week to the day before Christmas every single year, that Christmas would take precedence over Thanksgiving, NOT. My mother absolutely hands down would choose Thanksgiving EVERY single time. Why? Family.  Stopping to have quality family time and food, and slowing down is what Thanksgiving has always been mirrored as in Shakespeare’s family home. We will be a smaller family after losing my younger brother last year. It will still be a time we will use to reflect and just be grateful. Being thankful is one thing, but living in gratitude is altogether different.

Who else has noticed how the US has tried to skip this sacred holiday, (going from ghosts and goblins right to Santa Claus, go figure?). Is capturing a sale in retail so important that we lose sight of what makes room for more? Thankful is good, it focuses on what you appreciate in any given situation. Gratitude however takes things up a notch! Gratitude is being thankful enough to show it to others. Gratitude is an ‘expressed’ appreciation. Gratitude is an act of kindness. It’s giving your colleague a thank you note for doing something that may seem small or recognizing your staff or employees in a tangible way publicly or one to one. 

What I love the most about November and the Thanksgiving holiday season that is upon us, is that it always gives me that moment to really consider the year behind me and the one that is ahead of me. I believe now more than ever that the way we treat everyone; family, friends, colleagues, or employees, (whomever), the goal is to make an impact. These success factors are what just money ‘alone’ can’t buy. It's an intentional way to express how much you really do care. 

I actually believe in the saying 'being grateful makes room for more.’ I don’t know how you feel but I’m planning to be very intentional about counting my blessings and being a blessing as the year 2022 closes. 

Let’s start or continue to show gratitude for what we do have and let’s SHOW the gratitude to others that we’ve been blessed to have in our lives. Until next time….

Learn more about Felicia on her social platforms: @feliciashakespeare (Instagram/LinkedIn)

@iamfelicias (Twitter)