By Mary Ann Faremouth, CPC
I recently heard a speaker recite a piece about gratitude that brought a smile to my face — especially hearing it just a few days before Christmas, often referred to in songs and other writings as “the best time of the year.” The spirit of gratitude can make all of us enjoy better times in many ways. The piece the speaker read was by the author Melody Beattie, who has written many books, including Gratitude: Affirming the Good Things in Life. The recited poem went like this:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
As 2024 comes to an end and we look toward a new year, I am reminded of the first step of the Faremouth Method™, “Do a Self-Inventory,” and the last step, “Be a Hunter.” They remind me of Janus, the two-headed god of transitions for which January was named. Janus looks back and forward, essentially describing what we might be deliberating on coming up on a new year. The new year has long been associated with making resolutions through the examination of where we have been and how we want to improve our situations. While in past years most people might have thought this to be the perfect time for a reset, releasing old patterns, what if the most common denominator for 2025 is that we want to find a new attitude of gratitude to go along with those new goals?
Philosophers through the ages have said that life is lived in between the pauses, and every ending is just another beginning. We breathe in and breathe out. The beginning of a new year is the best time to breathe new life into our lives, our projects and our careers as a guidepost for looking forward and creating something new and better.
The opportune time to analyze what we truly want for ourselves is when something ends, a chapter concludes, a door is closed or a fragrant candle is snuffed out. The time between now and the new year can be our pause to think about how we can plan or investigate a method that will help us move forward. And with all those new goals we might have in mind, we can become more grateful for the lessons we have and could continue to learn.
The power is really within us to create our own new beginning, to reinvent ourselves into a new happier version. But factoring in gratitude along the way just might make our journey more rewarding and even more enjoyable. So much of that experience must start in our minds and in our thoughts. We must create that vision. Support along our journey is a welcomed and necessary part of the process. In my latest book, Revolutionary Results, which came out in 2024, I talk about lessons that I have learned along the way, and in many of the chapters, gratitude comes through for both the good and the challenging events.
Just like the God Janus, conduct a self-inventory of the past and your hunt going forward to determine how you can make 2025 a year of positive efforts. If you need a guide to help you move forward with the lessons of gratitude, investigate the chapters in Revolutionary Results. A spirit of gratitude has made my experiences even more rewarding and may assist you in this “best time of the year” and beyond to grow in exciting and humbling ways as well!
Mary Ann Faremouth
Mary Ann holds a CPC (Certified Personnel Consultant) credential, was certified by the Board of Regents of the National Association of Personnel Consultants in Washington, D.C., and was awarded an Advanced Communicator Bronze, Advanced Leader Bronze Awards by Toastmasters. She cofounded Jobs: Houston magazine in 1997. Mary Ann maintains affiliations with professional organizations, including oil and gas, financial, construction, IT, and structural, mechanical, and civil engineering. (www.faremouth.com)
Mary Ann’s award-winning first book Revolutionary Recruiting has been listed by Book Authority as Number #1 Best 100 Recruiting Books; #1 Best Seller, Non-Fiction, Amazon (2019); Top 20 Recruiting books, Recruitics; Readers’ Choice finalist (2019), Houston Literary Awards; Best Non-Fiction (2018), Best Cover (2019), and Best Self-Help (2018), Authors Marketing Guild. Her books support individuals and corporations, tap into each candidate’s unrealized potential to find the right person for each job, maximizing both employee satisfaction and the employer’s bottom line. Mary Ann showcases her expertise of the recruiting world on a monthly podcast for The Price of Business and weekly articles for USA Business. Her new workbook, Revolutionary Reinvention, was recently released on Amazon. Mary Ann lives in Houston, Texas.
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