Sending a big Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the states today! Traditionally we think about gratitude on this day—naming what we are grateful for and thanking those who have played a role in that.

I am a huge fan of having a gratitude practice, and have written about it here and here, and even made it my anchor on the worst day of my life, right here.

But today I don’t necessarily want to talk about gratitude.

Cliché, I know, but I was interviewed yesterday by my friend Mitch Harb over at Easy Wins, and one of his 4 healthy lifestyle tenets is happiness. And, of course it is, right?

So today, I want to share with you a few things regarding happiness.

First, you can listen to the whole interview HERE—I discussed my story of food obsession, competition lifestyle, and how I started the business at JillFit. I shared what I believe “mindset” to be and the exact moment that I started to change mine. And then finally, how I view training and exercise, even for beginners. We talk willpower, habit change and finally, happiness.

It was a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy it. Give it a listen if you, I dunno, have a long car ride today and let me know what you think.

Next, I’d like to share with you the things that make me the most happy, and then challenge you to identify the things that you love and evaluate how often and how much effort you put into engaging in them.

Two things in particular make me the happiest.

This is doing stuff! Taking action toward my goals, creating things that help people, coaching, writing, doing webinars, even as silly as it sounds, playing around with Instagram stories to make them fun, interesting, educational and even aesthetically pleasing, lol.

Two years ago, I took the month of December off from business coaching. It was by design to “give myself a break,” which was a good intention. But what I learned about myself is, ironically, that engagement and working with others is actually more relaxing and enjoyable than not! It was the first time in my life I experienced something close to depression, as a result of pulling myself away from something that charged me up.

Sure, a day here and there of zoning out to a movie and getting off social media is advisable, but when you do something you love for a living—what most people miss is that—it doesn’t feel like work. You don’t actually want to take time away from it. It’s more relaxing to be engaged.

Second thing is fulfilling relationships.

I’ve never been one to have a million friends. I have a small inner circle of highly trusting relationships and we go deep. I’ve had uncomfortable, truthful conversations with every single one of my best friends and we are more solid for it. They’ve called me out. They’ve brought their truths to me, and I’ve shared mine with them. We’ve laughed, cried, been uncomfortable at times and even raised our voices.

And we always come out on the other side with more understanding, compassion and a greater appreciation and yes, gratitude for the friendship. And because of those things, I know that these relationships are built on trust and honesty.

And those are the most fulfilling relationships, and the ones that make me the most happy and feel the most supported and connected. And I pull from them a lot.

Okay, now … what I want from you:

Sometimes we forget to do this—to call out the most important things—and we forget to share with our loved ones the way we love and appreciate them. Or we forget to indulge in the things that make us the most happy. We let life get in the way, and forget to nurture the things that make us feel fulfilled.

Reply back with the things that make you the happiest and why. And then ask, have I been engaging in them? Why or why not? Let’s do this exercise together as a little emotional check-in, yes?

Let me know. I’d love to hear.

Okay, that’s it for me today. Enjoy the interview and know that I appreciate YOU so much—your being here and being open. Feeling grateful is easy when I get to surround myself with people who want to also level up—mindset, body and business.

Life is good.

Thank you, love you, happy Thanksgiving.

Xo,

Jill