Count Your Blessings

I’m a big believer in counting my blessings.  I find that living with a grateful heart makes my life more joyful and fuller.  As Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself pausing to reflect on those things that enrich my life and my profession.

I’m grateful for colleagues who are willing to share their experiences.  I have lots of friends who work in Development and I love hearing what they’re up to. I learn many lessons from hearing what worked (or didn’t work) for them.  I love that in my area, we don’t have a sense of competition among us.  Instead, we work together and share information to benefit everyone.

I’m grateful for fundraisers who write the books that inspire and educate me.  Where would we be if we didn’t have experts to learn from?  When I’ve had the chance to meet those I consider experts, I was delighted to find them to be genuine, honest, and real. I appreciate their enthusiasm for our craft and their willingness to share their knowledge with me.

I’m grateful to my friends who support me.  At the end of a long day, a listening ear is a precious gift. I owe a great debt to many friends who encourage me, challenge me, and console me. Their love and support has helped and strengthened me, and given me the motivation to push myself a little harder.

I’m grateful that I had the chance to become a Fundraiser.  Philanthropy is a wonderful field of work and I’m so glad that I fell into it years ago. I’m grateful to the organization that gave me a chance to raise money for them when I had no experience.  I learned so much from that first job and it tickles me to see their good work continuing on today.

You may have heard the saying “too blessed to be stressed.”  I believe that if you spend more time on the positives in your life, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for the negatives.  I also believe that a positive person is a much more effective fundraiser.

Have you counted your blessings today?