First of all, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I know that a lot of people that listen to this show aren't in the United States, and I just wanted to take a quick minute to talk about what Thanksgiving actually is and what it means to us, what it means to me.
In particular, the first Thanksgiving in the United States was hosted in Virginia in although most of us associate the first Thanksgiving being in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. Either way, both of them were celebrated by Pilgrims, the early settlers of the United States as a celebration of Thanksgiving to God for the crops and the harvest towards the end of the year. The celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621 was a celebration of a good harvest by the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.
The Native Americans were instrumental in helping the Pilgrims survive in the early years that they were in the United States. When the Pilgrims came to the United States, they had no idea how to farm the land here and how to survive in a country that is completely different from their own. And so they relied on the Native Americans and worked with them in order to learn how to grow food here.
Nowadays, when we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, it's a tradition that revolves around family, friends and a specific meal. Most people eat turkey and dressing along with things like mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and always pumpkin pie. So when we talk about Thanksgiving, a lot of us talk about the food and the fellowship of being with our family and friends. But it's important to remember during this holiday in this time of year that the origin of the holiday was to give thanks to God for His blessings of this year. And whether you believe in God or the universe or whatever higher power that you believe in, now is the time to give a special thanks, to pause from your daily life and to think about all of the things that you're thankful for.
I just wanted to take a few minutes to let you know how thankful that I am for you. This podcast has been such a blessing in my life, and I know that I wouldn't still be here doing it if it wasn't for you listening every single week. So I'm thankful to be a part of your life, and I really hope the work that I do has helped you as much as it's helped me.
My life has changed so much over the past three years since I started my blog, INFJ woman, and my Instagram account (@infjwoman). And then this podcast, which I started about eight to nine months after I started everything else. It's really crazy to me how much everything's changed.
And I've been thinking recently about how much I've grown personally in the last three years, and that's something else that is crazy, amazing, wonderful, scary, at the same time. When I think about it, it's really been brought to light recently because I had an opportunity to get a new job. And typically, when I go to apply for jobs, it's a terrible process for me because I'm really bad at thinking about and talking about what I've accomplished. I'm really pretty, almost like toxically humble. I don't know if that's a way to say something, but it's like I just can't come up with anything good that I've done or anything that I've accomplished because it's just my self-confidence and self-love have been so low in the past that anytime when it comes to bragging on myself or trying to sell myself as far as getting a new job and things, I'm just not very good at it.
I had this opportunity recently, and they asked me if I could do one specific thing, and I said, yes, I can build you a new website, which is the thing that they wanted me to do. But I said there's a lot of other questions that you need to ask as far as what kind of content do you want on your website. There's a lot of missed opportunities that you have. And so I went into, basically social media marketing, email marketing, all different types of digital marketing. And there's so much that they're missing out on that they could do.
So basically, I took the position from being a website developer to a director of digital marketing. And what was surprising to me looking back at it was that I sold them what I think that they should do with such confidence. In the past, I wouldn't have been able to do that. It would have been a lot of questions and a lot of “what if,” and “what do you think.”
It's new for me to have that type of confidence and to go somewhere and say, here's what you need to do. This is exactly what you're missing. I can do this for you. I can fix all of these things for you. It was one of those things where it just feels like everything that I've been learning in the past, really, in the past ten years. But more specifically, in the past three years, I've been learning at a very accelerated rate, all of the things that they need. And it was like my higher power said, hey, this is what you need to do. And I made the perfect job for you. Here you go.
So we'll see what happens. It's still kind of up in the air, but it's interesting. And whether I get that job or not, that won't affect anything that's going on here. I just thought that it was interesting how much I had changed and day by day when you're just doing your daily routine, you're getting coffee and going to work and watching your favorite shows. You don't really notice how all of the work that you're putting in is making a difference or changing anything. Really, you don't really notice it until something big like this happens. And then it's like, Whoa, that was way different than what it used to be. So that was pretty awesome for me.
Another thing that I've been working on is I'm doing what's called a moral inventory, which is like trying to dig in further to some of these issues that I've had in the past with confidence and self-love. And it was really scary in the beginning to even think about a moral inventory because I really wasn't sure what it was. And thankfully, I have this guided book that helps me through what that means. And I sat there and stared at the book for a couple of weeks because I'm like, I don't know if I want to do this. Do I really want to be honest with myself about a lot of different things?
I kept asking these questions until finally I opened the book a couple of weeks ago and started diving into the questions, and I just really broke the surface and it's really been extremely enlightening already. So I'm excited to keep digging and to find out what's there. I really want to help you grow more as well.
That's why I have my podcast, my blog, and my Instagram account. That's why I do the work that I do. I have seen so much growth in myself, and I know that learning my personality type has helped me. I know that that's where the beginning of all of this growth was for me, and it's helped me dig into having so many issues, so many problems that I've had, and really helped me understand myself so much. And I really attribute all of the growth that I've had to understanding myself so much better than what I used to, and I genuinely believe that understanding is the basis. It's where you have to start.
I believe that a lot of the world's problems could be solved if we all understood each other better. But you really can't understand other people better until you understand yourself better. So I want to help you understand yourself more. I want to help you grow with whatever it is that you're struggling with the most right now. If you haven't looked at my website lately, I really want to encourage you to go look at it. It is https://www.infjwoman.com/. I am constantly adding more resources there, trying to expand what's already there. I've been adding a lot more workshops and courses.
I'm expanding my podcast, too. I'm going to be doing two episodes a week now, the one that you're used to on Mondays and then I can't decide. Probably Wednesday, possibly Thursday. I'm going back and forth. Maybe Thursday. Maybe we'll just start a trend with this one and commit to Thursday. Right now, the episode on Thursday will be a shorter episode, and it's going to be about building confidence and around confidence for now, at least. So you'll have that to look forward to.
But if there's anything else, anything that I haven't done a podcast about on a blog about or anything that you want to learn more about, I would really love to hear from you. You can always reach me. My email is skuhn@infjwoman.com. You can find me on Instagram, which is @infjwoman. I read all of my direct messages, so please feel free to send me a direct message.
I really want to help you. That's what I'm here for. And I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what it is that you're struggling with and how I can help you. So, yeah. Having said that, I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you're spending the day with your friends and family and having a great day.
And I also wanted to let you know that it's totally okay to be overwhelmed and exhausted by your family. I always am. When I spend time with my family, I always am and make sure that you take some time for yourself, even if it's just ten minutes in the bathroom. If you need a couple of those breaks just to catch your breath, don't feel guilty for it. Don't be concerned about it. Give yourself the space that you need. Maybe you need to go take a walk around the block or something like that. That's totally fine as well. Remember that you'll be back to normal tomorrow or this weekend or next week. Whenever it is, you can totally make it through this. Everything will go back to normal very soon.
All right. Again. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you again soon.