Mindful in 5 Podcast

Gratitude - Your Career Superpower

• Spiwe Jefferson • Season 5 • Episode 146

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What if you could turn every professional challenge into an opportunity for growth and fulfillment? In this episode of Mindful in 5, join the Mindful Ninjas as we explore the transformative power of gratitude as your ultimate career superpower. Inspired by the resilience and creativity of a child's mind, we'll explore how trust, authenticity, and optimism can radically shift your work perspective. Discover a powerful technique I call the "gratitude compass," helping you pinpoint something to be grateful for in your past, present, and future career paths, leading to a more joyous and enriching work life.

Reflect with me on the lessons from setbacks without judgment, and understand how past experiences can shape a more peaceful present. I also share insights from my enlightening conversation with Melanie Jones in the episode "Listening at the Speed of Business," where she demonstrates grace and resilience in navigating professional challenges.

If you're ready to see opportunities instead of obstacles, and to elevate your career and life with just five minutes of gratitude a day, this episode is your guide. Tune in and let gratitude become your career superpower.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy professionals find your peaceful oasis to thrive in complex work environments. I am Spiwa Jefferson, attorney, certified mindfulness practitioner and author of the Mindful in 5 book series. Here to guide you to a clearer, softer and more supported life. Join me and your fellow mindful ninjas as we explore science-backed mindfulness strategies for successful leaders that you can implement, starting with just five minutes a day. Elevate your work, empower your life, work higher, live stronger. Let's go.

Speaker 1:

Do you find yourself taking your professional blessings for granted, your vision clouded by daily stresses and challenges? A lack of gratitude can dim the cheerful light of your work life, leaving you feeling unsupported and disconnected. Today, our topic is gratitude your career superpower. On this Columbus Day, we are exploring gratitude as your career superpower, bringing a clearer, more peaceful perspective to your professional journey. And if you're wondering about the cute kids in imagery this season, we are embracing the beginner's mind by channeling childlike qualities trust, authenticity, creativity, resilience and optimism to transform our mindfulness practice and daily lives. Let your playful cover art as you view it inspire you to approach each day with fresh eyes and an open heart, and hopefully it does for you what it does for me. It makes me smile, no matter what kind of day I'm having. So back to our topic. So back to our topic. Imagine starting each workday with a sense of joyful appreciation, seeing opportunities where others see obstacles. By cultivating gratitude, you can transform your work experience into a softer, more fulfilling adventure, as I sometimes like to say.

Speaker 1:

You know the Bible. For God lovers, the Bible says ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened. In the secular world we talk about, and in the psychological world we talk about, things like self-fulfilling prophecy we talk about. You know, you hear people talking all the time about manifesting, and I think all of this stuff means the same thing, which is basically what you seek more of, you will find more of. If you go out into the world looking for fault, like there's a prize for it, you will continue to find things that you will fault the world for. On the other hand, if you go out with gratitude, looking for things to be grateful for, you will never run out of things to be grateful for. So let's explore a calming technique that I call the gratitude compass, and here is how this process works Each morning, identify one thing just one thing morning.

Speaker 1:

Identify one thing, just one thing that you are grateful for in each direction of your career, so you can think about it as North, my future. I am grateful for a joyful opportunity or goal that I am working towards. Maybe it's a project, maybe I'm looking for a job and I'm excited about the new job that I have in mind. Maybe it is a promotional opportunity that I'm going for within my organization. Maybe I'm expanding the role that I'm in and I'm challenging myself with new things and reaching forward into the future for new challenges and new opportunities. So that is north, south past. Consider a peaceful experience or lesson that has shaped you and at the end of the day, it's not just the good things, because actually we tend to learn more from adversity. We tend to learn more from the losses and the setbacks. And for those of you who think of failures, maybe failures, but I have a friend who said you know I prefer the term setback because setback doesn't feel so final right. So if you're thinking about the past, think about, think with peace about an experience or a lesson that has shaped you and view it without judgment. I like to say mindfulness is all about being present in the moment, without judgment and without being overwhelmed by what's happening around you. So it's also being able to think to the past without being triggered by what happened. If you want an example of somebody who does this spectacularly well, I invite you to listen to a podcast episode that I did with Melanie Jones, and it is called Listening at the Speed of Business. I will include a link to that episode in the notes. You will hear Melanie recount some of her experiences where she did not listen at the speed of business and the things that happened as a result, and listen to how well she's able to articulate it without being triggered, without falling on her sword and without crying about it and without beating herself about it. This is the kind of attitude that I invite you to have about things that happened in the past, because, guess what? You can't change them anyway. East, so we've covered. North, we've covered south, so we've covered north, we've covered south. East is present, external, a cheerful colleague or a resource that supports you. I surround myself with external resources. I am the general counsel, chief of staff and corporate secretary of my organization. I have a national women's General Counsel Network. I have a local Women's General Counsel Network. I am an active member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, which has so many resources. This year I also joined the Association, the Chief of Staff Association and there can never be enough mentoring and enough learning. And so think of, and so I have a whole bunch, I have a sister circle of general counsel, I'm in a sorority I mean, I am in another professional organization of beautiful Black women who support me. There is no end to the support resources that I have. And so think about a cheerful colleague or resource that supports you and surround yourself with people who support you.

Speaker 1:

So West is present, internal a clear skill or quality you possess that serves you well. I tell my kids all the time everybody gets something, nobody gets everything. So don't waste your time looking over there at your neighbor and thinking, wow, look at that, they've got this, they've got that, because at the end of the day, we all get something and we elevate the skills of others that we do not have because we do not see those skills in ourselves, and so we really admire them. We tend to devalue the skills that we have because they come easily to us, and so this idea of West present, internal is reflecting on a clear skill or quality that you possess not your friend, not your neighbor, not somebody in your circle, not one of your colleagues, but you you possess. That serves you well. So that's the idea. Each morning, you want to identify one of those things north, future, south, past, east present, external, west, present, internal. Identify one thing that you are grateful for in each direction of your career and I promise you this you will not run out of things to be grateful. For once, you get into the habit of grateful findings and looking for things to be grateful for, to be grateful for. Studies show that practicing gratitude can significantly improve job satisfaction, fostering more peaceful work relationships and a joyful outlook. So a perspective for you to think about. Just as explorers in days gone by navigated by the stars, gratitude can be your clear guiding light in the sometimes stormy seas of your career journey.

Speaker 1:

One of my favorite gratitude statements is at least Ooh, this meeting went sideways and it was a total disaster. Well, at least it's over. Or wow, this report that my coworker just gave me is absolutely awful. At least there's some aspects of it that I can use. Ooh, I totally bombed when I gave that speech. At least I was giving it internally, to a friendly crowd instead of the external crowd that I was practicing for. You see how at least works, and it is a way of giving gratitude for the things that go right, even in the face of things that might go wrong.

Speaker 1:

So your cheerful challenge for the week is use the gratitude compass each morning before starting work. Notice how it brings a softer, more supported energy to your entire day. And even if the day was absolutely horrible, guess what? At the end of your day you can sit down for five minutes and you can reflect and you can say at least it's over. And as my favorite motivational speaker, zig Zig, used to say, yesterday really did end last night. So don't wake up the next day beating yourself up over the thing that you can't change, that has already happened and that most people have probably forgotten about, because most people don't think about you nearly as much as you think about you. So lay that judgment aside and just say, hey, at least I get a brand new day with brand new opportunities, and I'm going to kill it today. That's what you do and that's what you can say in your new five minutes the following day, and then you reflect on one of those things that you're grateful for in each direction of your career. Are you ready to harness the peaceful power of gratitude in your career?

Speaker 1:

I invite you to visit the downloadable section of spewageffersoncom and see the growing list of downloadables that are there for you on all these various topics. You will find a typically a free overview that you can download. That provides you an overview of what you can expect in the blueprints, as I call them, and each blueprint is a 20 to 30 day guided process for diving into a particular aspect of your career and your personal habits that you want to either change or reframe. So keep checking back, because I'm growing it over the course of the season and let me know if you find it helpful, and let me know also if there are other topics that you would like to see. There should be a text me button that you see in the podcast notes right at the beginning of the episode. So send me a text, let me know. It's quick and it's easy, and so you can click on the link in the show notes to get to the downloadables page. And the downloadables page also includes sample chapters for the Mindful in 5 books as well. So whatever your fancy is, you will find something in the downloadable section that will be useful for you.

Speaker 1:

So, as we wrap up, remember gratitude is not just a feeling, but a joyful practice that brings clarity to your professional life. The more you cultivate it, the more you'll discover to be grateful for creating a clearer, more supportive work environment for you. More supportive work environment for you, and you will find, I like to say, you attract what you reflect, and the energy that you put out there will come back to you. So may your work be filled with peaceful gratitude and joyful appreciation. And if you're sitting there thinking, well, spewa, that's all very well for you, but I can't think of anything that I'm grateful for in my job.

Speaker 1:

Let's start with this you have one, lots of people would love to have one, and I would be willing to bet that if you quit that job today, there'd be a line out the door of people who would be applying for that job that you have. And if you can't think of anything else, you might be like well, okay, fine, I have a job. Now what? Well, they pay you for working there, maybe. So are you not grateful for the income that you get? And you might be thinking well, it's not enough. Well, it might not be enough. But guess what? It's an income that does something for you. It covers some of your expenses, and so start there.

Speaker 1:

If they pay you benefits to do this job not everybody gets benefits. Do you have a retirement plan? Do you have health benefits? Do you have time off? Do you have a retirement plan? Do you have health benefits? Do you have time off? You should at least have that. Do you have sick days? You should at least have those.

Speaker 1:

So find something about your job. Do you have at least one person that you like at work? Be grateful for that. Do you have one person who was kind to you yesterday or last week? Be grateful for that. So, do you have days that you can work from home? Are you hybrid? Do you like being hybrid? Do you get to work full time from home? All of these things are things that you can identify as things to be grateful for. So don't say I have nothing to be grateful for. Just start One thing, just one thing, even if it's the most basic thing. Just come up with one thing a day that you like about your job for the next 30 days and watch that list grow. May your work be filled with peaceful gratitude and joyful appreciation Until next week. This is Be Weigh, saying be mindful and joyful appreciation Until next week. This is Speway, saying be mindful and be well.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to Mindful in 5. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend, follow and rate it on your favorite podcast platform. Pick up your signed copy of the book and journal from spewayjeffersoncom, or unsigned copies from Amazon, barnes, noble or wherever you get your books. Visit spewayjeffersoncom to download sample chapters of the book, watch videos and become a mindful ninja. Join us on the LinkedIn Mindful in 5 group and share your thoughts. Until next time, be mindful and be well.