The New Crop: Issue #37
what bank robbers, DJs, preachers, and moms have in common + gratitude + stakeholder analysis
What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: How “gratitude allows us to participate more in life”
📚 Read: Stakeholder Analysis
😆 Today’s Laugh
Can’t say I’ve ever thought about things this way… 😂
💭 Today’s Thought
In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, my thought today has to do with gratitude.
Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis writes:
Research on emotion shows that positive emotions wear off quickly. Our emotional systems like newness. They like novelty. They like change. We adapt to positive life circumstances so that before too long, the new car, the new spouse, the new house—they don’t feel so new and exciting anymore.
But gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it; we’re less likely to take it for granted.
In effect, I think gratitude allows us to participate more in life. We notice the positives more, and that magnifies the pleasures you get from life. Instead of adapting to goodness, we celebrate goodness. We spend so much time watching things—movies, computer screens, sports—but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives as opposed to spectators.
My favorite line in here is that last one: “…but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives as opposed to spectators.”
Isn’t that what we’re all after in one way or another? To feel more alive and like life is happening through us, not to us?
Why wait until we’re in our old age—when those we would thank might be gone—to appreciate all that we had?
There’s no better time to start incorporating gratitude into our lives than right now.
🖊️ Today’s Reflection
If you’re new to journaling, I highly encourage you to read Nancy Adler’s article: Want to be an outstanding leader? Keep a journal.
What’s something or someone that you have that you’re grateful for? Write a thank you note to them/it.
In what situations or areas of your life do you want to experience gratitude more often? What might that give you?
When do you find it easy to practice gratitude? When do you find it hard?
📚 Today’s Read
Today’s read is more like a tool than an article, and it’s one that I’ve found helpful when navigating projects that have a lot of active and/or passive participants. A stakeholder analysis can help you gain critical, early alignment and buy-in from key stakeholders, by helping you tailor your approach to each one. Click here to read more.
See you next week!
xo,
Anne