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10 Ways to Celebrate Family This Thanksgiving

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• November 24, 2016

10 Ways to Celebrate Family This Thanksgiving

Many family members travel far and wide to spend a few days together eating Turkey, watching football, catching up with one another and let’s not forget enjoying those Black Friday sales.

The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) found that during the 6-day Thanksgiving travel period, the number of long-distance trips (to and from a destination 50 miles or more away) increases by 54 percent, with the average Thanksgiving travel length being 214 miles. The survey also found that visiting friends and family is the single biggest reason Americans travel during the holidays. Visits to family account for 53 percent of all Thanksgiving long-distance trips.

What do these statistics reveal? Family Matters. In a time when it seems everyone is glued to their cell phones we still crave relationship and time spent with those we love the most. Yes, everyone has that one annoying family member, or the relative who tells their never-ending stories year after year yet, at the same time the holiday wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t there.

The statement still rings true, “Family… at times you don’t want to live with them, but you still wouldn’t choose to live without them.”

This Thanksgiving take some time to really focus on those relationships which make-up your family. To give you some ideas, below are 10 ways to celebrate Family this Thanksgiving.

1. Be Kind. Kindness really does count. Give a little extra of yourself to make another member of your family feel valued. Take some time to listen to that never-ending story shared by your Great-Relatives, you just might find you learn something about your family you never knew.
2. Give. Giving isn’t difficult it just requires effort. This Holiday Season, sign your family members up and together in some way serve the community. It may be adopting a family to provide gifts for this Christmas or volunteering at a Community shelter.
3. Put away your cell phone. Have a no-cell-phone Thanksgiving together. Provide a basket and collect the phones. You will be amazed what you will learn from one another.
4. Help. Get everyone involved in preparing the Thanksgiving Spread. Let the little ones make name cards or fold the napkins. It’s more fun when everyone has a part.
5. Say Grace. Give thanks for the food you are about to eat and the family who is gathered around the table. Provide a blank tag and a pen and have each family member write one thing they are thankful for this year, then share them and hang each tag from a chandelier or candle stick.
6. Play Ask the Oldest. Have each family member ask the oldest member of the family one question about their family heritage. You will find amazing things about your family you may not have previously known. You will also understand the Legacy that helped define you.
7. Be Present. Be fully present in each moment. Give your time and attention to one another and don’t let distractions interrupt your time together. Put aside any differences from the past and enjoy the now you are given. None of us are promised tomorrow.
8. Reach Out to those who are absent. If you have family who could not be with you, take some time during the day to give them a call. Let them know you miss them and you are thinking about them. Make sure you remind them how much they mean and matter to you.
9. Walk off the Turkey. After you clean your plate, take a walk together. There is nothing better than spending a little time outside exploring nature. Talk while you walk, you will burn some of the calories you just consumed and be a little healthier in the process.
10. Bless one another. Share a blessing over the ones you love. Speak blessing and words of affirmation over one another. One of the greatest gifts you can give to the members of your family is words that affirm and encourage them. One word of affirmation can impact the course of someone’s life.

The words thanks and giving are both verbs requiring action. Words plan but actions do. Make this Thanksgiving the best by giving a little more of yourself to your family. It’s true,

“While the world is ever-changing around us, we start and end our lives with Family.”

Guy Hatcher – known as The Legacy Guy – is the author of Your Future Reflection: How to Leave a Legacy Beyond Money available at Amazon.com. A gifted speaker, Guy speaks often on Leadership, Succession, and Legacy to both business and faith-based groups. For booking information please go to www.guyhatcher.com.

Overcome Identity Struggles and Step Into Leadership

• admin
• November 14, 2016

How to Overcome Identity Struggles and Step into Leadership

Many potential leaders struggle with issues of identity. They place their identities in the success of their companies, the status of their positions, the size of their bank accounts or how other people view them. When you have a crisis in identity you also have what I refer to as a Legacy crisis.

Meaning you cannot influence what you do not have.

One thing I have found working as a mentor alongside many individuals in leadership is until they are able to see themselves from a God perspective rather than a human-driven perspective they will continue to struggle with identity issues.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

We are to view ourselves through God’s lens—a lens of authenticity and truth.
Miriam-Webster’s definition of authenticity is real or genuine; not copied or false; true and accurate; made to be or look just like an original.
Authentic identity comes when you come to realize your unique gifts and traits were placed within you by God and you recognize He gave them to you for a greater purpose.

Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks so he is.” The mind is a powerful tool. When we allow the remarks, opinions and mean-spirited comments of others to drive our opinion of ourselves or the actions we take, we open the door for the enemy to have a foothold in our lives.

We begin to speak and act from a defeated position rather than from a “truth” position.

In John 10:10 scripture tells us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Let’s look at your “I” factor for a minute. “Your “I” factor is your gift—not your talents or skills—but the unique and special way that you think. It’s more than just personality—it’s the unique design God hard-wired into you that forms and influences every thought you think, every choice you make, every word you speak and every action you take.” (Who Switched Off your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf.)