"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" 
~ William A. Ward

Being that it's Thanksgiving month, you'll be seeing a theme of gratitude and appreciation running through our November posts. And speaking of which, let me take a few of my 86,400 seconds for today to extend a big thank you to Redstage Networks, our website developers, for making this blog (and the rest of the site) work. If you're ever in need of a Magento site, these guys know their stuff.

There are many things I'm thankful for – life, health, loved ones – but in the spirit of a true MindClings blog post, I offer a few of the less obvious ones, each tied in with one of our Mindset Cards by Topic categories:

9 Things I'm Thankful For (by Topic)

1. Self-improvement authors – I LOVE books that have a personal or professional growth component to them and though there are too many authors to thank individually, I credit a great number of them for opening my eyes and redirecting my career. (Career Transition)

2. The Fresh Beat Band – When I need to send a couple of emails or make a call, this annoyingly chipper bunch of singing teens occupy my 2-year-old without fail. Yes, their excessively "sunny" songs run through my head for the rest of the day, but it's a small price to pay. (Productivity Improvement)

3. My Starbucks buddy, Sal – Each time I go into my local Starbucks, Sal greets me with a smile and occasionally a free brownie for my son. It's a small part of my day, but I enjoy the friendly and welcoming environment as much as the coffee. (Building Relationships and Connections)

4. Magento – For those of you not familiar, Magento is an incredibly powerful, robust and expandable platform for eCommerce websites. Although it has been a challenge to learn (Yes, one HTML character can indeed screw up an entire page.), the back-end admin environment is amazing. Really streamlines the sales transaction process too. (Sales)

5. My husband's B.S. detection meter – Whether it's my excuse for not making a phone call or my less-than-convincing explanation of why something won't work, he sees right through it and calls me out. It may sound like an odd thing to be thankful for, but I know I can always count on him to be completely honest with me. (Responsibility and Accountability)

6. My former bosses – Each and every one of them taught me something valuable, including in some cases what NOT to do in business and how NOT to treat people. (Leadership)

7. My work schedule – Having the flexibility in my weekly schedule to spend more time with my son is a true blessing. I realize not everyone has this luxury but it's one of the (many) things I love about being a business owner. (Business Owner/Entrepreneur)

8. HGTV – Yes, I admit it. I'm an HGTV addict. (Right now, Property Brothers and Holmes on Homes are two of my favorites.) But all of these home-improvement shows motivate me to go organize closets, paint walls and gut bathrooms. Their over-arching "you-can-do-anything" attitude, coupled with the over-simplification of tasks like knocking your living room wall down for that "open-concept" look, make me feel like I can tackle anything! (Self-confidence)

9. Miss Emhoff – She was my high school Latin teacher. Considering she was teaching a "dead" language to a bunch of unappreciative 15-year-olds, she had the enthusiasm of a little kid at Christmas and the patience of a saint. More importantly though, she taught us a language that, while not conversational, has helped me decipher the meaning of words and phrases (and yes, even Jeopardy questions) for years. Thank you, Miss Em! (Effective Communication)

So there you have it. I've only taken up about 156 seconds (well, that's how long it took me to re-read this to myself…) of your 86,400 seconds for today, so you have plenty of time to go out and be thankful. Start now by telling us one of the more obscure things you're thankful for in the Comments section below.