Gratitude is Better Together
Have you ever tried to carry something heavy… without telling anyone how heavy it really was?
From the outside, everything looks normal. You keep leading. Keep deciding. Keep showing up.
But inside, the weight grows quieter and heavier at the same time.
And what makes it hardest isn’t always the pressure itself. It’s the feeling that you’re carrying it alone.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been naming something simple and honest:
Pressure has a way of shrinking us. Gratitude is how we return. How we expand.
And last week, we explored where that return actually lives — not in big dramatic changes, but in small moments:
Before you respond,
Inside a conversation,
After a decision.
Small pauses. Quiet breaths. Ordinary choices that slowly reshape how you live and lead.
But there’s something important we haven’t named yet.
When Gratitude Stays Private, It Shrinks
This may be one of the greatest shortcomings in how gratitude is often practiced and taught.
Around the world, gratitude is often framed as a personal discipline — something you journal, reflect on, or hold quietly inside.
And there’s nothing wrong with those practices. I do them daily. They matter. They help. They begin something real.
But if gratitude never leaves the page… never enters conversation… never becomes spoken, shared, or witnessed…it quietly loses strength.
What was meant to be relational gets reduced to individual.
What was meant to be lived together gets practiced alone.
And over time, gratitude that stays private cannot fully carry the weight we ask it to hold.
This isn’t criticism. It’s an invitation to something more whole.
Shared Gratitude Changes the Climate of Leadership
Because the moment gratitude is spoken out loud, something subtle begins to shift.
Honesty deepens. Pressure softens. Trust grows. People feel seen. Heard. Valued.
And leaders often notice something surprising: You don’t have to carry everything alone for people to feel strong.
In fact, the opposite is often true.
When you as a leader practices honest gratitude— not forced positivity, but real noticing and real appreciation — something begins to ripple through your team.
Conversations change. Tension lowers. Belonging increases. Courage quietly rises.
Not dramatically. But unmistakably.
Gratitude, when shared, doesn’t just comfort people. It reshapes culture.
If Gratitude Is Meant to Be Shared, It Needs Somewhere to Live
Sometimes that place is simple:
a trusted friendship,
a small circle of leaders,
a team learning a more human way to work together.
And sometimes, it becomes something more intentional.
Over time, I began to realize that if gratitude was truly meant to be lived— not just understood— It needs a space where people can practice it together in the middle of real leadership and real pressure.
Not as a program. Not as performance. Not as another place to prove anything.
Just a grounded space where honesty is welcome, pressure can be named, small moments can be noticed, and gratitude can be spoken out loud without pretending everything is fine.
That realization is what led to the creation of The Grateful Business Alliance.
The GBA is not the only place gratitude can be lived.
Just one place where it is being practiced on purpose— by entrepreneurs and leaders who are done carrying everything alone and are learning to live and lead from gratitude as a way of life.
The Invitation
If you lead a team, this invitation reaches even further than community.
Because the deeper question is this:
What would change if gratitude became a shared practice your people experience — not just something you believed?
What might shift in:
How your team speaks to one another,
How pressure is carried,
How wins are noticed,
How hard moments are held.
This is where gratitude stops being an idea and begins to become an environment.
If you lead a team, will you find one practical way to infuse gratitude into conversations and meetings this week?
Open a meeting by reflecting on good things that have happened since the last time you were together as a team.
Or invite people to share how someone went above and beyond to help them.
Send a text or note to express specific appreciation to someone for who they are or what they contribute.
Find a moment in 1:1 conversations for genuine gratitude and appreciation.
Please post a comment here of what happens when you do. Or send me a DM. Last week, a leader held an important meeting and called to brainstorm ideas on how to include gratitude in the gathering. Starting with a gratitude moment helped! It created connection and provided room to breathe.
If you desire to be part of a community where living and leading with gratitude are encouraged and celebrated.
Not more content.
Not more noise.
Just a place— or a people— where gratitude is real.
Please explore the Grateful Business Alliance or DM to set a time to talk.
Next week, we’ll name more clearly what it means to Live IN Gratitude not as a concept… but as a shared way of being.
I’m grateful for you. 🌱