I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude this week.

(It might be the grateful perspective the holiday creates… or it might be the fact that I’ve eaten my body weight in my favorite homemade cornbread. Hard to say...)

On Thursday, I wrote about gratitude as a leadership skill. The kind that goes deeper than a quick thank-you or a polite acknowledgment. But over the last few days, I kept circling back to something else: 

Gratitude isn’t just about noticing others. It’s also about noticing ourselves.

Most of us are quick to appreciate the people around us. We’re far slower to appreciate the progress we’re making, the ways we’ve grown, or the difficult steps we’ve taken that no one else ever sees.

Leaders especially struggle with this. We’re trained to look for problems. To fix them. To support others. To notice where things fall short. 

And in that process, we rarely step back and recognize the ways we’ve stretched, changed, or stayed steady through a hard season.

But the more I reflect on this year, the more I realize how important self-gratitude is, not in a self-congratulatory way, but in a grounded “I see how far I’ve come” kind of way.

Gratitude for the challenges we didn’t want but grew through anyway. Gratitude for the moments we showed up even when we were tired. Gratitude for the insight that only arrived after we stumbled first. Gratitude for the care we gave ourselves, the boundaries we honored, and the progress we made slowly.

And in leadership, this kind of reflection matters. 

Because the leaders who acknowledge their own growth tend to lead with more patience, more groundedness, and more compassion for themselves and for their teams. They don’t rush past their progress. They don’t discount their resilience. They don’t forget that they’ve climbed out of difficult places before.

So as this week wraps up, I’m reminding myself, and would encourage you too, to look inward for a moment.

Notice one way you’ve grown this year. One challenge you navigated. One place where you showed up with more clarity or courage than you had before. One strength that emerged because life asked you to stretch.

For me, I’m grateful for the steps I’ve taken toward the kind of work I want to do. I’m grateful for the people who walked with me through challenging moments. And I’m grateful for the continuous learning that has shaped how I lead and how I show up.

Gratitude isn’t just something we give away. It’s something we need to give ourselves.