Let's get real for a second. You are allowed to be grateful and exhausted. You can love your business and still feel tired. You can be thankful for your clients, but still crave a break. You can be proud of your progress and still wish you were further along. That's not being ungrateful. That's being human. Hi, I'm Cindy Gordon and you are listening to The Overwhelmed Entrepreneur Podcast. Before we dive in, if you are not getting my weekly productivity tips yet, grab them using the link in the show notes. They are the behind the scenes systems that I use to stay productive while running my business. If you've ever caught yourself saying, I should be more grateful, I should have done more, I have so much to be thankful for. Why am I so stressed? This episode is for you. This is something that comes up again and again with my clients, especially this time of the year. You scroll through Instagram and you see people posting record months or so blessed highlights, and suddenly your normal feels not enough. You start to feel guilty for being tired, guilty for wanting more, guilty for not being cheerful enough, but here's your reality. Check gratitude doesn't mean ignoring the hard stuff. It means seeing both the good and the bad and what's draining without shame. You don't have to have fake cheerfulness or post gratitude declarations on social media to prove that you're thankful. You just have to tell the truth about how you're feeling. We've been conditioned to believe that gratitude and struggle can't coexist, but that's not how humans actually work. There are three big reasons we feel guilt around gratitude as entrepreneurs. First comparison culture. You scroll social media and see everyone's highlight reels. Record months, dream vacations, the perfect work life balance. And your brain instantly measures your reality against their carefully curated version, and suddenly your actual winds feel tiny. Second, the pressure to perform gratitude. We've all been told to focus on the positive, and while that's powerful, it can turn toxic. When it makes you feel guilty for being a human, like you're not allowed to acknowledge what's hard because you should just be grateful for what you have. Third, the achiever's trap. We are so wired to grow and achieve that. You struggle to slow down and be grateful without instantly shifting into what's next. Your brain treats gratitude like a checkbox instead of an actual feeling. The truth is gratitude and ambition can coexist. You can be deeply thankful and still hungry for more. That's not a contradiction, that's balance. Here's a couple ideas of how to practice gratitude without feeling guilt this Thanksgiving week. Just three simple mindset shifts. Start with celebrating your lane. Forget about those highlight reels. Look back at January and ask yourself, what can I do now that I couldn't handle a year ago? Maybe you set better boundaries. Maybe you finally hired help. Maybe you stopped saying yes to everything. That's growth worth celebrating, even if it doesn't look Instagram worthy. Next, express gratitude and action. Gratitude isn't a post. It's how you treat people. Send a quick thank you text to a client, voice note, a business friend who supported you. Tell your va, Hey, I appreciate you. These small real moments matter more than perfectly created, thankful captions that took you 20 minutes to write the game changer. Rest like you mean it. Gratitude isn't just about saying thank you. It's about honoring your body, your mind, and your business that carried you through this entire year. If you are truly grateful for what you've built, protect it. Take that nap, close the laptop. Let something wait until next week. Rest isn't laziness. It's respect for everything that got you here. So let me show you how to make this little gratitude shift stick. When the guilt creeps in, first, make one small, powerful mindset change. Instead of saying, I should be grateful. Say I am grateful. And here's what's still hard right now. That little word swap from should to am removes the guilt and brings you back to the present. Second, write it down. Don't keep the gratitude in your head where it gets tangled up with guilt. Write down three things you are genuinely grateful for in your business. Not what you should say, but what's real. Then write one thing that's been hard. Acknowledge it without judgment. Both can be true at the same time. Third. I want you to remember this. You don't have to earn the right to rest or celebrate. You've already earned it by showing up all year long. Every time your brain says you should be doing more, remind yourself that doing less right now is what your grateful business needs. So let me give you a little bit of the behind the scenes from my own journey from this. There were years when I ran through Thanksgiving week, like a marathon, still working, still checking emails, still trying to get ahead before the holidays. Every year, I would tell myself, I'm just so thankful to have this business, but deep down, I was exhausted. I wasn't practicing gratitude. I was performing it. I was proving to myself and everyone else that I was grateful enough, hustling enough, and doing enough. Then I made a different choice. Now, every Thanksgiving week, I actually pause and reflect. I look at what went well, what didn't go well, and what I need to do differently next year. I send three gratitude notes, one to a client, one to a business friend, and one to myself, because real gratitude includes you. You did the hard things this year. You showed up. You kept going even when it was hard. That deserves acknowledgement and not just an Instagram post that says hashtag Blessed. That shift from performing gratitude to actually practicing it changed how I end. Every year, I step into January energized instead of burnt out because I honored my business and what my body actually needed. This is what I want you to remember today. You can be grateful and still need space. You can be proud and still be figuring things out. That's what being an entrepreneur really looks like. It's human, it's messy, and it's worth it. So your challenge for this Thanksgiving week is to write down three things that you are genuinely grateful for in your business. Not what you should say, but what's actually real. Write one thing that's been hard, acknowledge it without judgment and write one way that you are gonna rest this week. Guilt free. You don't owe anyone a highlight reel this Thanksgiving. Real gratitude means seeing both the good and the hard without the shame. And if you want more support like this, kind of work with building systems and a mindset to help you enjoy your business, instead of surviving it, come join me inside the Growth Collective membership. It is our dollar a day membership, 365 for the year for weekly office hours courses. And a community that gets it. Lock your rate in for Life. Link in the show notes. If you're on Instagram, hit the follow button on exclusively Cindy. Now go protect your piece and enjoy your week guilt free. Now go protect your peace and enjoy your week guilt free. And remember, friend, you've got this.

Thanks for spending these few minutes with me today. Remember, overwhelm isn't permanent. It's simply your brain's way of saying pause and take a little reality check. If this was helpful, you'll love my weekly email tips where I share the systems that keep me and hundreds of other entrepreneurs on Track Link in the show notes. If you got value in today's episode, please share it with another entrepreneur who needs that reminder. If you're loving the show, I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a quick review. It helps other overwhelmed entrepreneurs find us. Make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss your weekly dose of clarity. For more resources and to connect with me, visit exclusively cindy.com. Until next time, remember you've got this.