Two more great thoughts on gratitude – with my thanks to Dan Zadra for the first one:

“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. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  – Melody Beattie , author of Codependent No More

“Proactively acknowledging people for no specific reason is one of the most generous and positive things we can do for them,” Mike Robbins, in his book Focus on the Good Stuff: The Power of Appreciation (John Wiley & Sons, 2007, $19.95, 211 pages)

Planning to squeeze some holiday shopping in between answering customer calls or working on your next project?
If you’re checking deals on Cyber Monday or any other work day, first check out your employer’s policies on personal Internet use. Understand all the minutae of how many minutes of personal web use is acceptable or what constitutes excessive personal emails or chats.
And think through how your online shopping spree could change your perception and personal brand at the office. It may show your humanity and interest by buying gifts, but it also could put a chink in your hard charging, working like a ninja person.
So consider these three tips:
Go on the off hours. Arrive to work early to check the sales and do any “pre-shopping,” then buy on your lunch break. Let your boss know if you think that’s necessary, says Charles Purdy, Monster-Hot Jobs senior editor. Better yet: Announce to the surrounding cubes that you’re “Hitting the online sales now instead of going out to lunch. I’ll let you know if I find any good deals!”  This lets coworkers know what you’re up to so they won’t look surprised to see you on a store site.

Be selective. One third of employers allow employees to shop online but monitor for excessive usage, according to Robert Half Technology. So set an online timer and stop after 30 or 45 minutes of online shopping. And shop only when you’re ahead of work; use a 15 minute shopping spree as a reward for finishing a major task. Or shop online for some personal gifts after you’ve cleared your inbox and to do list for the day.

Prevent personal information from being ‘shoplifted.’ If a holiday offer looks too good to be true, it likely is, warns Robert Half Technology. Don’t click links or sites that could infect your company’s network with phishing attacks or viruses. Don’t go on those on your Blackberry or iPhone either – though those could be an option if your employer frowns on online shopping or is among half of employers that block online shopping sites.

Finally, know the costs and consequences of overstepping the shopping boundaries. One in five employers have fired a staffer for Internet use not related to their job and one in 10 have fired someone for non-work related emails, according to a CareerBuilder survey of 2,457 hiring managers. And lest you think the holiday spirit will save you, 5 percent of employers have fired someone for online holiday shopping. No one needs the gift of an unemployment check this season – so if your workplace has Scrooge-like policies on Internet use, take your lunch hour and shop from your personal laptop or iPhone.

More information:

A Monster HotJobs  article offers other smart tips on online shopping.

The Better Business Bureau gives 10 tips for safer online shopping, including paying with a credit card for the protections against fraud.

CareerBuilder’s survey shows nearly one-third of workers say they shop at the office.

Two more gratitude quotes to share:

“If you can appreciate again and again all the things in your life that money can’t buy, then you’re really rich.” – Dan Zadra, founder of Compendium and author of five books on gratitude.  (Read more about Dan Zadra and his ideas for creating a grateful culture in the office in my Glassdoor blog post .)

‘Tis the season for gratitude and appreciation. Of course, every season has sprouts of thanksgiving.

In honor of Thanksgiving and the December holidays, I’m starting a string of quotes – posted every two or three days – to inspire, incite and introduce more of the “attitude of gratitude” into our lives.

And I’d like to encourage you to start your own gratitude practice – a gratitude journal or a daily affirmation or something else to bring the people, moments and things in your life into your attention. I’m using a gratitude journal and it really brings positive thoughts into my morning.

Here’s the first quote:

“The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for.” – motivational guru Zig Ziglar

Jennifer Ransaw Smith is setting amazing and audacious goals for herself  – and she’s doing it barely a year after she couldn’t  bring in enough to cover all her basic bills.

Now she aims for a seven figure income within two years and an IronGirl competition in 2011. She also wants to fund her Roar Foundation to assist 50 women and 50 girls, mostly in foreign countries, go back to school or develop themselves.

Smith, who’s the subject of my latest Washington Post Capital Business article, calls herself a brand strategist and business success coach.  She’s also a motivational speaker and a woman on a mission. “I want to help people build legacies,” she said. “Women… want to help people and change lives. How do you change your community? How do you change the world?”

She owns Roar Coaching and Consulting in suburban Maryland. She also owns a positive, driven, engaged mindset that she’s using to create a wonderful business and life, with summers in Tuscany with her husband and three children. She has such enthusiasm, passion and zeal to change the world one woman or group of women business owners at a time.

Here’s Jennifer Ransaw Smith’s five career tips for women entrepreneurs and anyone planning to rise:

1. Develop a strong brand and position it for success. Nothing is more important than your personal brand – it is your reputation. Many entrepreneurs don’t put together a concrete plan on how they want to perceived. Be known as an industry expert and act like one—then you will be paid as one.
2. Identify a distinct target audience. Too many entrepreneurs are so anxious to make money and get clients, they will serve “anybody who walks in the door with a credit card and pulse.” This doesn’t build success and longevity. Instead, know and understand your clients, their stresses and solutions to their most pressing concerns. Narrow your niche and watch your bottom line expand.
3. Expand your circle of influence. Take time to develop quality relationships that will help propel you to success. Don’t sit on the sideline and “admire people” or “wish we connect with someone.” It’s crucial to  “uplevel” your relationships and meet those you  “always wanted to meet” for lunch, coffee or dessert. Do  this 12 times a year  to build your circle.
4. Leverage your talents to create multiple streams of income. Avoid “linear thinking.”  Look at your talents and write down all the ways to leverage your skills and bring them to the marketplace. Consider author Suzy Orman. She speaks, writes books, coaches, does workshops, is on radio, television. “This is the kind of expansive thinking that helps build empires.”
5. Raise your monetary thermometer. Women, Smith said, are often afraid to discuss money. This can hold you back from earning your true worth. Increase your fees. Said Smith: “I can almost guarantee that you probably aren’t charging enough. Stop thinking you have to charge what you can get. …. Decide right now that you are worth more.” This requires a shift in mindset, she said, ” so you truly believe you deserve to be well compensated for bringing your skills and talents to the marketplace.”

Smith shared these tips with me for the Post Capital Business; but they were not included because of space constraints.
Many of these ideas spring straight from Smith’s life and experiences. Others she gained from mentors and her own coach. Some she picked up from reading books and listening to the stars of personal development. She offers this quote from Jim Rohm, the late business motivator and philosopher: “If you invest in your business you’ll make a nice living. If you invest in yourself, you’ll make a fortune.”

Smith invested in herself through coaching, and through a Mastermind group and more.  “One of the reasons this will be my most succesful year to date is I have spent so much time working on the mindset…. People are dramatically attracted to me. I started to believe I was that person,” that game changer.

Aim higher. Think bigger. Go for the gold, and chase it with all your being and all your energy and all your talents.

This morning, I realized that I am starting to think this way again. I see my successes and I believe they are real and will last. I see opportunities and know they will be mine.

So today, I raise my flag higher and dream bigger. Today I will send that pitch that once it is in print and online will inspire and assist millions. Today, I will figure out how to bring a video onto this blog.

I want to show the Will Smith piece, in which he gives five tips for living. The one that resonated today – the one I already shared with Facebook friends and Tweeted is clear: “Why would you be realistic? What’s the point of realistic?”

Or as I recently shared with a resume writer and coach who’s struggling with clients in bankruptcy and foreclosure, remember the wisdom from St. Francis of Assisi: “‘Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

If stress at work keeps grabbing hold of you, you may need a “stress buddy” plus some strategies on saying no effectively.

Pouring on SPEED  could help too – though not the run fast and work faster sort.

That’s advice of Mark Gorkin, a psychotherapist and author of “Practice Safe Stress.”  SPEED is his formula for natural stress reduction – and it means Sleep (six or more hours a night), Priorities, Empathy, Exercise and Diet.

All those pieces of SPEED are valuable to help keep workers from burnout, he said.

So will finding  “a stress buddy at work,” he said, a coworker you trust. This colleague will allow you to vent and respond with what he calls “tender loving criticism.” This person is “in your corner and will challenge you a little,” he said, noting that his girlfriend often serves that role in his career and life.

Known as The Stress Doc, Gorkin feels stress most often when he has a number of programs back to back – he generally gives at least six to 10 speeches or seminars a month. He sometimes reschedules seminars and knows he must “be willing to disappoint people.”

Eating a good lunch and an afternoon snack will revive and sustain – and give a break from the pressures to produce. I am trying this by noshing on apples, raspberries and yogurt in the afternoon, or a handful of almonds and a glass of juice. I’ve also started using meditation or a short 15 minute nap to drain the stress and deliver more focus and creativity.

Gorkin has spoken on the value of letting go – of fear, of the wrong career or of too much stress in your life.  He believes in humor and community as powerful antidotes to stress. He  has helped create programs for military wives, small business owners and women, including a Busy Women’s Retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia that sounds divine.

One of his sayings: “A firm no a day keeps the ulcers away and the hostility too.” Add to that  a firm yes to stress-reducing health foods, a brisk walk and an empathetic friend and your stress levels shall be less.

A version of this first appeared in the Washington Post Working, and I hold the copyright on this article.

For more stress relief and other advice, Mark Gorkin’s website has links and resources galore.