We complain a lot about missed opportunities. My question to you this Thanksgiving holiday is how many times have you "dodged a bullet" and not even realized it?

About one year ago a kind-hearted marketing executive I knew was driving his wife and two children home from a Thanksgiving dinner. The light changed and as he drove his car legally into a left turn a Mini Cooper came barreling through stopped traffic and a red light at 90 mph to hit his van broadside. All four people were killed instantly.

A little over one year ago a caring father was crossing the street in a crosswalk of our city with his nine-year-old daughter at dusk when a drunken motorcycle rider did not stop and hit them both. The father lost one leg and his daughter lost her life.

Recently a woman was driving from our county into San Francisco to meet her boyfriend. She was texting while driving on the freeway. She lost control of her car, it crashed without affecting other traffic and she lost her life.

What if my friend who was driving his family home had driven 5 miles an hour faster... or slower? What if the father enjoying an evening walk with his daughter had gone on one more trail? How many times have we been texting while driving and without knowing it had just barely survived? Although he cannot determine our fate, we can pause from the rush of our lives to give thanks for all the times disaster has "just missed" us.

You can thank luck, God, an angel or whatever you prefer. I suggest it is a wise, healthy decision to pause on a regular basis to express gratitude.

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway recently wrote in Christianity Today Magazine that "Studies show that grateful people are happier and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships. They are more forgiving and supportive than those who are ungrateful. They are less depressed, stressed, envious, and anxious... The Roman philosopher Cicero was onto something when he said, 'Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.'"

This is something to think about. Please have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving is filled with laughter and good memories!

Be an Intentional Leader (with gratitude).

MEETING IDEAS

Although you could take the concept of gratitude and extend it into a discussion of the many things you are thankful for that occur with your customers and employees, I suspect your short Thanksgiving week has eliminated your team meetings. Therefore I leave the meeting ideas up to you this week.

I hope you enjoy a full weekend off!