gratitude is a strategy

the more you appreciate your business, the easier it is to grow it.

this time last year, i was tired. not physically — just… emotionally spent. the kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix.

i was always bracing for impact, waiting for the next fire to put out, expecting the other shoe to drop. even when good things happened, my first instinct was still, okay, but for how long? what’s going to go wrong next? it was survival mode, dressed up as being prepared.

eventually, i realized i didn’t want to live that way anymore.

so i bought a gratitude journal — not because i suddenly believed in “positive vibes only,” but because i needed to retrain my brain to look for something other than threats.

at first, it felt fake. like trying to write an essay for a class i didn’t sign up for. i’d sit there staring at the page, writing my family or good coffee and then wondering what else even counted.

but i kept at it.

and over time, something shifted. i followed the prompts. i stayed consistent. slowly, the list got longer. eventually, i was running out of room. one entry actually said, birds. again. because yes — i was that serious about finding something to appreciate.

and here’s what i remembered: you will literally find exactly what you look for.

maybe you already knew that, but if nobody’s ever said it to you this way — it really helps me to go back to this every time. it’s wisdom i wish i could take credit for.

mr. rogers said to “look for the helpers.” that line has always stayed with me. because in times of crisis or overwhelm, the helpers were always there. they didn’t suddenly appear — you just had to look for them.

business is the same way. if you’re always scanning for what’s wrong, you’ll find it. but if you start looking for what’s working — the people who show up, the systems that hold, the ideas that land — you’ll start finding that, too.

it’s easy to forget that when you’re building something. you get so focused on the next sale, the next client, the next problem to fix that you start missing the quiet proof that things are actually working. you tell yourself it’s ambition, but it’s really anxiety in disguise.

gratitude doesn’t erase the hard parts, but it steadies you through them. it reminds you that not every challenge is a crisis and not every season is meant to scale. when you lead from that mindset, everything shifts.

you make decisions from groundedness instead of panic.
you notice patterns sooner.
you stop overcorrecting for problems that don’t actually exist.
and you get to enjoy what you’ve built instead of just surviving it.

gratitude isn’t fluff. it’s not passive. it’s not “just” a mindset. it’s a recalibration.

because the more you appreciate what’s working, the easier it is to build on it. the faster you notice what feels aligned. the stronger your leadership becomes. the clearer your next move gets.

and most importantly — you start seeing proof that your business is actually working, not just barely holding together.

this season, i’m grateful for the clients who trust me, the work that still lights me up, the challenges that forced me to grow, and the decision i made to do this differently.

because appreciation doesn’t shrink your ambition — it sharpens it. and that kind of clarity? that’s how you grow.