Mindful Gratitude Practices to Elevate Work and Life

What if you could transform your business—and your life—just by practicing gratitude? Join me, Morris Sims, as I unravel the profound impact a genuine gratitude practice can have on travel professionals, from agency owners to advisors. Drawing from my own journey from chemical engineering to life insurance and now consulting, I'll share how embracing thankfulness has fueled my personal and professional growth. This episode goes beyond the habitual thank-yous, encouraging you to mindfully acknowledge the genuine connections that enhance your life and work.

Facing the common struggle of rote gratitude, I discuss the importance of breaking free from routine prayer and appreciation. Learn how to shift from automated lists to heartfelt acknowledgments, and explore strategies for maintaining a sincere gratitude practice amidst the daily grind. Whether you want to enrich your morning routine or simply enhance your relationships, this episode is packed with insights and personal anecdotes that aim to inspire a deeper, more impactful expression of gratitude. Tune in and discover how a mindful approach to gratitude can lead to a more fulfilling and successful life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Today I've been thinking about how to actually be more physically and verbally grateful and thankful for all the things in my life every day as I start my day. Hmm, well, here's what I've been thinking about. Welcome to the Travel Masters podcast. We're here to help travel advisors and travel agency owners get what they really want from their business. I'm Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for our podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:41

I'm an ex-chemical engineer turned life insurance agent. I got to tell you selling life insurance was a lot more fun for me than being an engineer. After a few years, they asked me to teach other people how to do what I was doing. And well, long story short, we wound up in New York City for 20 years. That was quite a change for a young Alabama boy. I retired after 20 years as the vice president and chief learning officer, where my team and I trained over 12,000 agents and their managers to be independent business owners and sales professionals. Now I'm not one to stop working, so I started my own business and I was blessed to find a sweet spot with travel professionals that I was able to help. Now I've got several travel agency consulting clients and I'm the co-founder of the Travel Masters Learning Community, where we provide opportunities for travel professionals to become more effective, efficient and to get what they want from their business.

Speaker 1: 1:39

On this podcast, I'm going to be interviewing guests that I believe are going to have a message that can be of help to you our travel professional community and I'll do some solo episodes as well with some other stuff that I really think can help you in your business. So, with all that said, hey, let's get this party started with today's episode. What do you say? Hi, I'm Morris Sims and this is the Travel Masters Podcast. I really am excited about this and I thank you so much for joining us here today, and I hope you enjoy this show, because we're going to be talking about giving thanks and being grateful.

Speaker 1: 2:27

You know many authors who write about getting your mind right or about getting a morning routine started or creating a morning routine. They talk about taking some time to be grateful for all the things that are going on in your life. Well, you know, I've tried it for years and even though I am sincerely thankful and grateful for my life and for my family and for all the people in my life, I find myself sometimes I just feel like I'm just reciting something while thinking about something else. You know it's like thank you, lord, for my family. Oh, when is that appointment today? Is it 9 or 9.30? And oh, what am I going to do? And thank you for all the ways you bless my family and for all the blessings that we— when was I supposed to call Tom? You get the idea.

Speaker 1: 3:14

It just sort of my brain wanders and I stop and I'm not really sincerely thinking about what it is that I'm saying, because I've said it every day for so many days in a row. Now you get the idea, it's habit and I feel like I'm letting everybody down because I don't pray with gratitude for each and every individual person. I feel like I'm not doing my part. So I'm not sure that really, truly, I'm not sure that's the best way to go about being thankful for the people in my life. Besides, if I really want to list all of the people and blessings that I'm thankful for, it might be lunchtime before I get done. It's just. It's incredible how blessed we are.

Speaker 1: 4:00

So today I have been thinking about how to be more sincerely grateful when I start my day, and here's what I thought I'd try, rather than rote prayer. You know, just saying the same thing I say every day that rote prayer of gratitude. I'm going to thank God and show my gratitude for everyone, but then I think I need to do something more. I need to do my normal. Thank you, lord, for my family, carla and the kids and the grandkids, and our extended family and all those who've gone before us. Thank you for them, each and every one, for my friends, for my co-workers. But then I'm going to think about one person. I'm going to choose one person to think about on that day and thank God for why they are or were a real blessing in my life, and see if I can't spend some time just remembering how important that person is to me and how grateful I am that they were brought into my life in the first place. Now there's the rub I'm going to have to stop and focus and think specifically about someone or something and why I'm thankful to have them in my life. I'm betting that I just bet that's going to be a little more difficult than it sounds, certainly more difficult than just saying a rote prayer every morning, and I'm betting it'll help me remember to be thankful for even more as I go through my day. The icing on the cake is going to be if I write a short note or pick up the phone and call and just touch base and see how they're doing. Just let them know that you know I'm thinking about you, just some way to connect and make sure we connect that or keep that connection going.

Speaker 1: 5:51

This Thanksgiving I'm going to work on being intentionally grateful and take positive action because of it. So what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? I wish you the very best. I wish you the very best Thanksgiving for you and your family and the holiday season coming up and in your business. You know. Be thankful for your business. Be thankful for every client you have and every person you've been able to plan a trip for, and be thankful for that too.

Speaker 1: 6:22

And thankful for the result your business is bringing and the wonderful time you're having running your business, because if you're thankful for it today, it's going to make a difference in the future. So be thankful for your business, for the ups and the downs and the goods and the bads. It's all going to work out to your advantage. Go out and meet somebody new. It's always the way I like to talk about business Go out and meet somebody new because they don't know what you do, but they need to know you and you need to know them. Have a great Thanksgiving again, and I'll see you next time right here on the Travel Masters podcast, and until then, I'm Morris Sims.