A Practice of Gratitude

“Supersize that, please.”

We live in a world that is constantly asking for more. More of our time, our money, and certainly more of our emotions. I see this on a daily basis in recruiting, as we navigate negotiations between a company and a potential new team member.

It is hard, tedious work to be grateful for what we have. And to be sure, there is a healthy form of discontent that pushes us to put in an extra hour finding candidates, run that extra mile, and research that special Christmas gift.

But I wonder if we have lost a bit of our humanity in failing to recognize our limits? That we simply cannot “lean in” enough to do it all, and that in our striving, we have lost some of our gratitude.

To me, being grateful starts with recognizing what I have. Sometimes it’s actually writing a list, and other times it’s just looking around with a new lens.

I am blessed with a healthy body and mind. A team at Forge Search that is coming together in ways that is beyond what I could have imagined. Beautiful children who always want to get an ice cream cone no matter how cold it is out. A husband who has helped me put together almost every desk for the team at Forge despite his own hectic work schedule. The opportunity to impact lives by elevating recruiting with honesty, empathy, and respect.

It’s easy to push for more, to let the healthy discontent grow just a little too big.

For me, gratitude is the work of right-sizing—a sacred work of resisting all the voices that tell me I must do more, be more, have more. The work of being present in who I am with and what I have. And that even in loss and limitations, there is beauty.

As we enter into a holiday season where the whole world is clamoring for our resources, my hope is that we can all enter into the sacred work of resistance through a practice of gratitude.