While this Thanksgiving may be different, one thing will remain the same...
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For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, I'd like to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving!
This has always been one of my favorite holidays. After all, what’s not to love about a day dedicated to the pure and mutual intention of being thankful?
Our family normally spends Thanksgiving together. We all travel to my sisters’ house. Mom makes the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. My sister makes the Jell-O with marshmallows and the pop-open biscuits we only have once a year. My daughter and I make spanakopita appetizers (still not sure how that tradition started). My husband makes the gravy and he and my brother somehow always ends up washing the dishes at the end of the night (thank you both).
Extended family and friends arrive with flowers and food and love. Whoever doesn’t have a family to be with that year always joins ours. Cousins run around in the background laughing and playing. Tables are pushed together and set outside as that’s the only place that will fit all of us. It is truly one of my favorite times of the year.
Of course, this year will look quite different.
We won’t all be together - we’ll be spread across the country in our respective cities and homes. I will miss the cousins laughing and playing together, I will miss catching up with everyone and I will especially miss being with my Mom, the beautiful conductor of it all, bringing everything and everyone together.
But while this year may be a little different, one thing will remain the same.
Before we eat, we will go around the table and each share what we are thankful for. This family tradition requires us to pause from our lives and intentionally express our gratitude. It is my favorite part of Thanksgiving.
I invite you to do the same, regardless of whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or how it looks this year. I invite you to take a moment to pause and express what you are grateful for - today and every day.
Gratitude is alchemy. Being intentionally grateful is one of the simplest and most powerful things we can do to live a full and happy life. Even when times are strange, scary and awful, we can always find something to be grateful for.
“As we invite the energy of gratitude into our daily lives we become alchemists…turning dark into light, scarcity into abundance, and fear into love.” – Deepak Chopra.
I’ll start now. Thank you. Thank you for your support, your trust and your time. For reading my emails and articles, sharing your stories and experiences, and for your feedback and appreciation. I'm grateful for you.
With love and gratitude,
Tracy
P.S. As a way of saying thank you, and to help you finish the year strong, I’m offering a special Black Friday sale on my Discover Your Next Online Course. If you're feeling a bit stuck or lost, wondering what to do next with your life or career, or just ready to make a change, this course is for you. It will help you figure out your next step so you can start the New Year with clarity, excitement, and certainty you’re heading in the right direction. Enter the code THANKFUL at checkout here to get 90% off the course today and through the end of November.
A trend is evident across organizations: budgets are tightening, and talent development is often one of the first areas to take a hit. As investment in AI climbs, budgets for training, leadership development, and teambuilding are decreasing.
It’s logical on paper. AI is the future. It promises speed, efficiency, scalability, and cost savings. Organizations are transforming to meet future demands, and AI investments are vital for long-term success.
However, there’s a risk quietly building beneath the surface: we’re optimizing organizations through AI while underinvesting in the humans doing the work. That’s a dangerous tradeoff.
What happens when we inadvertently deprioritize the growth, development, and human connection of the people managing these AI processes – and everything else that keeps organizations running smoothly? The unintended consequences may not show up on a dashboard, in OKRs or KPIs today or tomorrow. But they will. Disengagement, eroded trust, and talent loss often don’t announce themselves until it’s too late.
As budgets shift and AI investment accelerates, the real question isn’t: How much can AI replace? Instead, it’s How can we best-equip humans to succeed and thrive in an AI-powered workplace?
The answer is not to slow AI development, but to match it with an equal and continued commitment to the human-forward development of people.