Episode 1270: Thanksgiving

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,270 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Gina Johnson: I'm Gina Johnson from Synergy Mindset Coaching. I encourage you to find your own journey from surviving to thriving, and one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:28] Scott Maderer: Even if this is a really difficult holiday, and I will admit that Thanksgiving and Christmas are challenging holidays for me personally, but even if you're afraid alone, lonely, you can still say there's things that I can be grateful for, and you can search for those, take out a journal, a piece of paper.

[00:00:51] And write down some of those things. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If [00:01:00] you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop.

[00:01:16] Influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:26] In today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why Thanksgiving is an important holiday, even if you don't celebrate it. And I talk about how you can bring gratitude to all of your life, not just this one day. And I share why gratitude is so important when it comes to your money as we talk about stewarding your treasures.

[00:01:49] Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime? Turns out you can. All you have to do is use inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon, and a small commission will come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon.

[00:02:16] Let's talk a little bit about Thanksgiving, a little bit about Thanksgiving. No, yesterday, if you're listen to this, when it was released. Was released, it's Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day here in the us and Thanksgiving is a holiday that's celebrated in both United States and Canada, though in different months and in Canada they celebrated in October.

[00:02:37] The idea behind it, however, is the, Yeah, you'll hear arguments about whether this is a religious holiday or a secular holiday and the truth is, it's a little of both. We look at this day as being in the US at least traced back to the pilgrims in 1621. It falls [00:03:00] on the fourth Thursday in November, the us so the date changes every year, but it falls on that fourth Thursday.

[00:03:07] And Abraham Lincoln declared it a federal holiday back in 1863. So this holiday is meant to reflect the idea of interconnectedness among people and among cultures. It's a moment. It's meant to be a moment where we gather with others that we care about and love and express gratitude for all of the blessings that were.

[00:03:33] It's a reminder to appreciate what we have gratitude for and what's joyful in our life, whether that's family, friends, colleagues, lifestyle, good health, all of these various things. Not just materialistic things, but the bigger emotional things that we should have Gratitude for it. It's positive thinking turned into a holiday.

[00:03:58] It's a great [00:04:00] idea. Even if you don't celebrate this holiday to set aside some time, and I actually believe you should do it every day, but it set aside some time in a regular way to remind you to stop and be grateful for what is going on, especially whenever things are crazy when things are unstable, where there's fear and hatred and anger in the world.

[00:04:28] It's important to take a step back and look at it and remind ourself that there's good stuff in the world too, that no matter how bad things are right now for you personally or globally, doesn't matter. There's still things that we can stop and say, Hey, wait a minute. There's still some good, there's still a spark of good left.

[00:04:52] Even if you've hit rock bottom, there's always hope that you can climb up from there and go [00:05:00] on in a more positive way. Even if this is a really difficult holiday, and I will admit that Thanksgiving and Christmas are challenging holidays for me personally, but even if you're afraid alone, lonely, you can still.

[00:05:18] There's things that I can be grateful for, and you can search for those. Take out a journal, a piece of paper, and write down some of those things. Let me give you some examples. And this list may not all apply to you, but some of these things might, you could be thankful for your health, your family, your friends, your work colleagues, your teachers, your doctors.

[00:05:44] Be thankful for the things that you're able to do, whether that's meditation or reading the Bible or writing every day. Be thankful for the things that surround you, whether that's books and furniture, or whether that's [00:06:00] your four legged friends or your pets. Be thankful for the fact that you might have a roof over your head or a phone in your pocket.

[00:06:08] Just be thankful for the fact that you're still able to breathe the air that you're able to breathe. Be thankful for the ocean, the sun, whatever it is, you can always find things that you're grateful for. Now, here's the truth. This today is about money. We talk about treasures on Friday. And gratitude and thankfulness is actually directly linked to your success with money because your money mindset has a lot to do with whether or not you have a growth mindset, a focus on the fact that no matter how bad it is, I can still recover, I can still have more, I can still grow what I've got.

[00:06:53] Or if you have a scarcity mindset, an idea that it's a fixed pie, that if somebody else gets [00:07:00] theirs, it means I can't get mine. And there's always this feeling of being put upon and victimhood. Practicing gratitude helps you recognize the fact that no matter how bad it is, you've still got tangible and intangible things that you can be thankful.

[00:07:20] That you can have contentment with what you have, even if it's not perfect, even if your house isn't perfect, even if your car isn't perfect, even if something's going wrong today, you can still have gratitude. And because of that, with that contentment, with that feeling of contentment, it ends up being funny.

[00:07:40] But people that are scaled as more content also, Spend less but don't feel bad about it. They don't feel challenged about it because being grateful helps us go and say, we don't need more to be happy. We're okay with what we've [00:08:00] got. We've got positive feelings about where we are. And so even though we're continuing to strive to grow and to do.

[00:08:09] It doesn't feel like without that, I can't be happy without that, I can't be grateful without that. Because the thing of it is if you've constantly got that feeling of I need a new car to feel gratitude, then when you get the new car, it's two weeks later and the news worn off, and now you're right back where you started before.

[00:08:31] Linking money and gratitude also helps you save more. You begin to recognize the idea of not being able to just get whatever you want it. The idea of delayed gratification becomes easier, and because of that, you're able to save money. It also allows you to begin to give more with your money because you recognize that you've got blessings and therefore [00:09:00] helping others becomes easier to do.

[00:09:03] It lets you use your. In some of the wisest ways possible, and gratitude also makes you a person that other people want to be around, which leads to more opportunities and more growth. So just recognize that stopping and saying thank you to people that you are grateful for. Thank you for the things that are in your life that are the blessings that you have been given by God.

[00:09:32] Saying, thankful to yourself for the fact that you've gotten up this morning and continued to do what you needed to do, whatever it is, recognizing and finding those moments of gratitude are able to help you win, not just with your life, but with your money. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:58] Thanks so much for listening to the [00:10:00] Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the Stewardship of Treasures, you can sign up for our treasures tips by going to.

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