Giving Thanks.  Oh Not Again!  Gratitude!  Each year I just get over the last one.  Get over the fright of Halloween.  Adjust to the unnecessary moving clocks back and forth one hour . . .  And think about the pending spirit-oriented holidays as well as the iconic BIG deal — A new near!

Oh my.  What to do with my life now?  Again?

We have a profession which requires some spiritual principles:  ethics, service, believability, competency, and unbiasedness.  Also transparency, truthfulness, and competency.

BUT — Standards in our scope of work say we must do what clients expect, and what peers do (right or wrong!)

Earlier blogs recognized the blatant benefits of gratitude as a tool of wellness.  Read Gratitude 

Yet gratitude goes beyond usefulness as a tool.  It also makes practical other principles of spirit – on our inner being.

It takes courage to do the right thing, even as it may cost worldly benefit, like money.  It takes a sense of responsibility for our role in the ‘public trust.’  It takes discipline,  even when I damn well don’t feel like it.  It takes humility – seeking and really knowing our own strengths and deficiencies. And most of all:  it takes willingness.

Nothing much happens until we are willing to change.  Willing to look.  And willing to make a decision to turn our willingness into action.  A decision.

Gratitude.  A tool for connecting with our people. For health.  For connection.  And for confident self worth. When our insides are real and not in discord with our outsides and our values – we can feel good about ourselves and our belonging.

As the excess of appraisers becomes reality, again.  As our business flow slows down – What to do?  Where to start?  What is my future?

One place to start is by giving thanks.  And we can follow up with the spiritual principles of our religion, or simply our place in the universe as it relates to (non-denominational) spiritual self, psychological self, and primal self.  These principles can reconcile our needs for self-preservation, safety, and personal growth.

From thankfulness, it is a natural progression to acceptance of how things really are and openness to new paths:  to humility, to inner integrity, and to the concept of service.

Gratitude and service complement as a pair.  It is impossible to feel genuine gratitude without a healthy need for service to others.  To our society, our community, our family, and to ourselves.

When we serve well, we are paid well.

When we serve well, we have integrity.