This time of year everyone is talking about gratitude.

While I’m so grateful for all the people and things in my life — and I do have so very much to be grateful for this year — I’d like to issue a challenge. I want us to think about what we are grateful for within ourselves.

It’s easy to look outside ourselves and see the people who have gone above and beyond to show up for us.

It’s easy to marvel when something miraculous seems to drop from the sky into your lap.

It’s easy to thank some unnamable universal energy or some random generous benefactor for making it all happen.

But all that would by moot, if you didn’t acknowledge the part that you played. Without your positive mindset or your dedication to make lemonade out of lemons and learn from every situation, the good stuff that happened to find its way into your life wouldn’t even register.

So, for every good thing that happened this year, there’s a reason to be grateful for the piece within you that made the most of it.

Here’s what I mean…

Yes, of course I’m grateful for my husband and the amazing partner he’s been as we welcomed a new baby into our lives.

But, I’m also grateful that I’ve evolved into the type of partner who can let him be himself, do things his own way, and that I’ve been able to honor his needs and processes. I’m grateful I’ve learned what a partner truly is.

Yes, I am grateful for the opportunity that landed in our laps and that we will have an easy transition to a new-to-us bigger apartment just down the hall.

But, I’m also frankly shocked with myself (in a good way), and grateful at the same time. I am grateful that I was able to live with unflagging faith that everything would work out. I am grateful I could a living example for my family of this kind of calm. I am grateful that I was able rest in the fact that no matter the resolution to the question “where will we live?” I knew we would be okay. And I never got stressed!

Yes, I am grateful for all the amazing clients I’ve been able to work. I am grateful to bring my skill and experience to bear for an organization I believe in.

But, I am also grateful that I was able to open my mind and rediscover my passion and talent. I am grateful for the realization that this work can make me happy if I was doing it in the right context. If I’d never gone out on a limb and sought out this contract opportunity, I never would have reclaimed my passion and talent for marketing, branding and strategy. And I’d never have dreamed I could bring that passion to bear for entrepreneurs who are doing the work they are meant to do in contribution to the world.

Now it’s your turn. Do you see how you played a part in all the great things that happened to you this year? How are willing to honor yourself? What are you grateful for, from within?