A Day of Giving Thanks

Countries with Agile Best Self Readers

I try to take a few extra minutes on Thanksgiving Day reminisce about the amazing and wonderful things that happened over the last year. Yes, this year was more challenging than most years. To be clear, as a firm believer of Susan David’s work, I don’t believe in ignoring negative things. I believe in being sad when I am sad, grumpy when I am grumpy and being ok with being ok.

But this moment today is about gratitude and wonder. I’m surprised and absolutely humbled by our Agile Best Self website stats and 2020 accomplishments.

  • Visitors to the Agile Best Self site come from over 57 countries. Yowza! How amazing is that?
  • 3270 + views of posts!
  • Website comments have doubled.
Countries with Agile Best Self Readers (57)
  • Our “Agile Best Self: North Star” workshop was selected for the Agile2020 conference. The conference was cancelled, but we moved the workshop online and had some wonderful learnings across multiple sessions with over 50 participants.
  • Our first Agile Best Self: Heart to Heart podcast is in the editing stage right now, soon to be released.

The numbers and accomplishments are compelling. I hope that everyone reading this can find some reasons to be thankful and grateful this year. My second hope: moving forward, each of us can customize and apply the cornerstone principle.

Agile Best Self Principle #1: Our highest priority is to be our best self and enable others to be their best selves.

Copyright © 2018 – 2026 Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson

The Value of a Metronome

I remember taking piano lessons as a kid. I also remember the hours of practice to the sound of the metronome. The sound, annoying if you are a bystander, helps to pull you forward by keeping that steady, uniform beat. I remember playing scales and songs over and over again until I could keep up. Same thing when I picked up a stringed instrument when I was a little older. Fast forward several decades and then I ran into what a metronome sounds like over a 273-member marching band my kids were a part of in high school. You can imagine the frequency and volume needed — it was all of that, trust me. It used to annoy the heck out of me in my younger years, but I now see the value in it beyond keeping a beat. It pulls you forward — challenges you to keep going and achieve the desired outcome.

A few weeks back, Michaele and I decided to implement a metronome of sorts to energize our Agile Best Self writing focus. We both committed to writing every other day about gratitude, and by doing so we uncovered new sources of gratitude. On this Thanksgiving Day eve, I am grateful for making the commitment to do this series. It has been an awesome way to commit to connecting with our like-hearted community!

In the face of some trying times in 2020, I got to reflect on so many amazing events, people, places and past experiences happening right now in my life. I am also grateful to have such a collaborative and supportive co-creator in Michaele who joined me in this gratitude writing challenge. Having that gentle, but productive peer pressure was just like that metronome — it kept pulling me forward. I don’t want to break our streak Thank you, Michaele!

As far as I am concerned, I plan to keep going with the writing habit. A new habit has now formed and now I hope to sustain it, and we will see what happens next. The next series topic area coming soon, but for now — Happy Thanksgiving!

Copyright © 2018 – 2026 Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson