The Inner Wealth Podcast

Ep174. Thanksgiving Day Traditions and Gratitude for Everyday Life.

• Mike Kitko

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In this Thanksgiving episode, Mike Kitko reflects on the power of gratitude and its role in cultivating freedom, joy, and fulfillment. Through personal stories and reflections from his travels, Mike contrasts the material wealth of first-world countries with the deep spiritual richness often found in places with fewer resources. He shares how choosing gratitude, regardless of external circumstances, creates an abundant inner world and fosters a life of meaning and connection.

Key Takeaways:

  • Gratitude is a Choice: True fulfillment comes from appreciating what you have, rather than focusing on what you lack.
  • Inner vs. Outer Wealth: Material abundance doesn’t guarantee happiness. Joy and peace are cultivated within.
  • The Miracle of Life: The fact that you’re alive is a gift. Recognizing this creates a profound sense of gratitude.
  • The Power of Presence: Thanksgiving is a reminder to pause and celebrate the relationships, experiences, and opportunities we often take for granted.
  • Freedom Comes from Within: Regardless of your circumstances, your internal quality of life is a reflection of your thoughts, emotions, and gratitude.

Notable Quotes:

  • “Gratitude begins when we recognize the miracle of simply being alive.”
  • “Even in material poverty, I’ve seen people radiate joy and love. That’s the power of an internal quality of life.”
  • “True freedom and fulfillment are found in focusing on what you have, not on what you don’t.”
  • “Material abundance doesn’t guarantee happiness, but gratitude guarantees joy.”


Music Credit: "What's Left of Me" by Wes Hoffman & Friends

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Mike Kitko is an executive self-mastery coach, speaker and author. He found external success through powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. He ultimately fell into depression, toxic abuse of alcohol, and the near collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness and success.

Speaker 1:

Do you ever wake up feeling like there's something missing in your life? Do you ever feel the need to escape your business? Are you running your life or is your life running you? I'm Mike Kitko and I'll help you design and create a life so authentic and aligned with who you really are you'll get excited just to wake up. I'll help you create real wealth, success and freedom from the inside out. Welcome to the Inner Wealth Podcast, where we learn and choose to live inspired each and every day.

Speaker 1:

This episode, episode 174 of the Inner Wealth Podcast, is set to publish on Thursday, november 28th, 2024. And that means it is Thanksgiving day in the United States of America. This is my single favorite day of the entire year and I did a couple of years ago, I did a Thanksgiving day episode and and I talked about you know my love of Thanksgiving and and I want to, I want to take the time and I want to take the opportunity to make this entire episode about being grateful and gratitude and the power of gratitude. When, when, in October, angie and I visited the Dominican Republic and we've been to we've been to Cancun before we've been to outside the United States, we've been to Cancun and we've been to a couple of cities in Mexico, we've been to also Cozumel and we've been to Belize and we've been to Honduras and and we've traveled a little bit and we've seen a little bit of other countries outside the US. I've also in the Marine Corps, I was in Thailand and I went to Singapore. Our families also traveled to France and to Scotland. So we do a little bit of traveling and we get to see other parts of the world and we get to see other cultures and we get to see the way that other people live and there's there's eight, over 8 billion people on the planet and there's a lot of similarities in in where we go and where we've been, and there's a lot of differences and you get to see a different way of life and you get to see the way that others live when you travel abroad and it really, really it's valuable and man it makes.

Speaker 1:

I believe that traveling outside the US makes somebody wiser than any book can ever make them. Now, when we've lived in the US and we've traveled to France and Scotland, I gotta I gotta admit and when, when I, when I was in Japan, I gotta admit that there's a a a higher level quality of life. Now I'm talking about quality of material life. There is a there's a higher level of of quality of material life and materialism and comfort and quality and just a different way. It's like an elevated level of how you live in creature comforts in the US, france and Scotland and I'm sure a lot of other countries in Europe France and Scotland and I'm sure a lot of other countries in Europe. Now, every country, every state, every city has its good and its light and its dark parts and its good and its bad parts and every place has its shadows right. So I'm not naive enough to think that there's anything any place that has it all figured out and it's perfect. But when you go to these first world countries, when you're in the US, scotland, france, you tend to see a higher level quality of material life.

Speaker 1:

Now, when we traveled to outside of the country and we go to Belize and Honduras and we've gone to places in Mexico and we went to the Dominican Republic, we're going to go to Turks and Caicos here in January, you get to see. We like to go on excursions and go out and see the country. We stay on a resort but we get off the resort and we go out and see things and explore and and see how people, the average people in that country live, and and when we went to the Dominican, and especially when we were driving through Belize, we had this we were going horseback riding in Belize, when, when we we drove through common areas in those cities, in those countries and and there was just there was a, a survival mode that the average person in those countries live in that we will never, ever, experience in first world countries. I want to try to paint a picture. We were driving on a tour bus in the Dominican and we're going through and it was about, you know, we had a couple hour drive in a tour bus, so we got to see a lot and there weren't many really modern places in the Dominican Republic, but when you saw the places where people lived and their residence, it looked like it almost looked like a war zone in some cases.

Speaker 1:

They were in a lot of cases not all, but in a lot of cases they were more like shanties than they were homes. And there were some homes, don't get me wrong, but there were also a lot more shanties than they were homes. And there were some homes, don't get me wrong, but there were also a lot more shanties than there were homes. Now I'm going to describe what a shanty in my mind, what it is. It almost looked like a shed. Some had doors and some didn't, some had windows and some didn't, and the roof was typically made out of like a steel wavy steel I guess, to keep the, you know, to make the rain flow off the roof. But these roofs and these homes and these houses were rusty and they were beaten down and there was a rainwater system on top of the roof. On many of these shanties there was a rainwater system on top of the roof and in the yards of these places in a lot of cases it looked like a junkyard.

Speaker 1:

Now I couldn't help when we were driving on this bus and I saw that same image, that same picture over and over and over on our two-hour drive. I saw the same over and over and it just. You had these pockets in these areas, large population pockets in areas where it was just. They lived in absolute squalor, where it was just. They lived in absolute squalor. But also when you saw them and if you waved to them, they smiled and waved back and there was a spirit, there was a joy, a happiness, that their material prospects and their current material circumstances. It didn't appear to damage or dampen their internal quality of life and their fulfillment and their joy. Because in a lot of cases, I guarantee you that's all they know, that's all they've ever known and that's what life is to people in the Dominican Republic, the average person in the Dominican Republic. Now, we saw that same thing in Belize and we saw the same thing in Honduras and we saw the same thing in a lot of places. When we went on excursions in Cancun and Ixtapa, when we went to Ixtapa, mexico, which is on the West Coast, we saw the same thing in multiple places.

Speaker 1:

Now, we didn't see that. We explored a lot of Scotland and we explored a lot of the U? S and although there are, there are really dark pockets of of these places in in the world, the quality of life still in in in the beat up cities. I'm from Baltimore city and there's one, there's one place in Baltimore where, when you're going up the up the freeway, if you make a right, you're okay, if you make a left, you're, you're, you're fucked, because it's the inner city and it's just. You know there's violence and there's there's gangs and there's just you know there's crime. But if you, but if you turn right, you're in the inner the, the inner Harbor area and it's, it's beautiful and it's just, it looks modern and it looks vibrant. But if you make that left you're, you're in war zone. But even in those circumstances, those homes still have, you know, in a lot of cases they still have air conditioning, they still have water that comes out of a faucet, they still have, you know, roofs that are that protect them. They still have controlled environments in their homes, even though the area is a war zone.

Speaker 1:

Even the poorest of the poor in a lot of places in this country, in the US, have it materially better than people in a lot of the third world countries in the world. And I don't use dark places and poor places and third world country. I don't use these to disparage them or to in any sense of criticism or any sense of putting them down. There's no judgment in this. It's just an observation of the way I see these areas and what I've seen and what I've experienced Now, what I gleaned and I especially loved when my girls, my two daughters, when they were young and we got to explore these third world countries and we got to see what poverty really looks like, what material poverty really looks like.

Speaker 1:

I loved to be able to help them see that and experience that that the way we live in the US is not just normal for the rest of the world. My girls have never needed anything. We have never struggled to pay a bill. They've never seen us financially struggle. So I was appreciative of the fact that they got to see what real physical struggle, material struggle, looked like. But I also loved when those same people that are struggling materially are still filled with enough joy and enough love to not have their spirit darkened and dampened by their material circumstances.

Speaker 1:

And this is the concept and the lesson that I want to share with you on Thanksgiving Day in the United States, you see, there's over 8 billion people in this world and I know it's probably mind-blowing and mind-b bending to us, but over 50% of the population of the world has never seen or touched a phone. Over 50% of the population has never accessed any type of technology, and I'm talking about the population of the world. There are places in this world that have no running water. There are places in this world that have no access to healthy drinking water. There are people in places in this world where hunting for your food is still the normal way to live and just that, there are no creature comforts. You eat what you kill and they're still living as our and I'm talking in the US as our ancestors lived hundreds of years ago, before the advent of grocery stores and modernization of society and kind of like commercial slash, communal living, where we all bring some value to the world and we all store and stock some kind of excess so that other people and create some excess so that other people have access to it.

Speaker 1:

And I'm not talking about communism, I'm talking about commercialism in terms of everybody adds value to society and because everybody adds value to society, everyone has access to what they want or what they need if they continue to add value to society. Because that's what commercialism is, that's what capitalism is. You add value to society and then you extract value from society because of what you've given and then you have access to what you need. And the more value you add to society, the more value you create in society and the more value you'll have in your own life. That's capitalism. The more you add value, the more access you have to what you want and need, the more access you have to what you want and need, but it makes sure that everyone's adding value to society and not just taking from society.

Speaker 1:

In the US and in first world countries, when we wake up in the morning, we turn a faucet and water comes out. Drinkable water comes out of our faucet and our sink In the first world country. It never gets in most homes in the US it never gets below, let's say, 65 degrees and it never gets above 75. Because there's some, there's some aired air, controlled temperature in in most, most of this country, most first world countries, when you open the refrigerator there's food, when in most first world countries you have access to transportation to go from place to place, and in most of the world that is not the case. That's why living in first world countries gives us so many opportunities to be grateful.

Speaker 1:

Now there's a book called the Gap and the Gain and what it talks about is, if you're always measuring yourself against the gap, against what you don't have, against what you haven't accomplished, against what you want, if you're always comparing yourself against a future state, you'll always live in lack. But if you always compare yourself against the gain, your evolution, your accomplishments, your achievements, what you have instead of what you don't have, you'll always feel a sense of gratitude and you'll always feel a sense of humility, and this gratitude and this humility creates an opportunity to be fulfilled and to be joyful in life instead of just always chasing this future state to be okay, no-transcript. Their fight for survival will be gone, and yet, when we're in the US and we have access to everything we need, we create struggle where struggle doesn't really exist. And this is some scientific studies, some statistical studies have revealed and help us understand that a higher level of material quality of life does not equal a higher level of spiritual and internal quality of life. Material quality of life can be elevated through accomplishment and achievement and through giving value in the world, but an internal quality of life joy, fulfillment, peace, love, harmony, humility, gratitude these things must be chosen. They must be chosen regardless of your material quality of life and these two are not connected.

Speaker 1:

And there are people on this planet who are really poor and are fulfilled and happy and free. And there are people on this planet that are really wealthy, that, basically, are trapped in a captivity of an inner world that's not harmonious, that's not happy, that's not loving, that's not grateful. And this is why my new book is called Inner World, outer World, and it talks about how to navigate these two worlds and especially how to get into your mind and body and understand what's in there and start to clear out the clutter that's keeping you from being fully grateful for just freaking breathing, because just the fact that you're breathing, just the fact that we're breathing, is an absolute miracle. There was a one in 400 trillion chance that you were going to be born, but here you are listening to this podcast A one in 400 trillion chance. You are a miracle, just the fact that you were born.

Speaker 1:

And Thanksgiving Day gives us an opportunity to fully check in with the miracle that we are, the miracle sitting around the dinner table around us are, and the quality of life that we all share and the safety and the security that we have and the richness that we have access to in this country. And on Thanksgiving Day, when you connect or Thanksgiving Day or every other day of the year, when you connect to the gratitude that's in you just for having clean air around you and just for having running water, having food, for having the ability to exercise, for having the ability to just lay yourself in a bed that's safe, that's comfortable, that's under a roof that's not leaking, in an air-controlled environment, where your survival is not in danger and in jeopardy. When you connect to the gratitude for having the essentials of life, for having everything you need, and you give up worrying about what you want and focus on having the fact that you have what you need, this is when real love and gratitude and humility and joy and fulfillment and peace and harmony inside of you will open up and will unlock, and that's what I focus on on Thanksgiving Day. I wake up bright and early typically do anyway, but on Thanksgiving Day I'll likely be up around 5 am. I have done all the grocery shopping for my family. Because I love grocery shopping for my family, I love prepping the food and the ingredients and typically I don't let anybody help me and that might be selfish, but they don't love cooking as much as I do but I do the prep work and I do the cooking and they always ask if they can help and I always say no or if I need help and I always say no.

Speaker 1:

There'll be Christmas music on. There'll be football games on all day. We'll watch the parade in the morning and then turn football on and there's what? 12 hours and 11, 12 hours of football on. Tomorrow the house will smell amazing, we'll have candles lit, we'll be with our family, our little family, and we'll just show up to love and appreciate and respect each other and be grateful for the materially rich life that we have, but we'll also be grateful for the spiritual rich life that we have, that we've created as well, and we'll be grateful that we have each other again this year, because maybe that won't be the case next year. So let's take time to really appreciate that right now.

Speaker 1:

The menu will be turkey smoked turkey brined smoked turkey. I make an artful turkey and it's moist. Most people say turkey's dry and mine is juicy. We'll have ham, we'll have mashed potatoes and stuffing. We'll have cranberry sauce. We'll have some deviled eggs my kids love deviled eggs We'll have some asparagus and some Brussels sprouts. We'll have rolls, and it's the one time a year, couple times a year, but the one time a year where we make a feast.

Speaker 1:

That's traditional and it's just pretty typically the same foods we eat every year on Thanksgiving and we revel in the fact that we get to do this thing again together as a family and that we have never, as a family, missed a meal and that we've always had what we needed. And we've lived an evolutionary life where 2016, for us, changed everything and it was a transformative year and it set us on a journey of creating harmony and love and peace in our family, when our home environment was a war zone, full of conflict and full of shame and full of just disgracing each other. And we get to sit down together and we get to have a meal and break bread and we get to celebrate the fact that our family is unified and our family is healthy and our family is happy, and that wasn't always the case. Guys, thanksgiving Day for me is just a miraculous day and I never want it to be anything, but so I'm going to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. This year. It's my single favorite day. Maybe you have a favorite day.

Speaker 1:

Maybe, if you're listening to this, tell me what your favorite day of the year is. Or maybe tell me what your Thanksgiving schedule is, your agenda, what do you do? Do you go to hang out with family? Do you entertain? Do you not do anything? Do you go to a restaurant? Let me know what you do.

Speaker 1:

I'd love to hear from you. You can go in the show notes and there's ways to connect with me. Let me hear from you. Let me hear what you do on your holiday. I just shared mine with you and I just shared why Thanksgiving Day is my single favorite day of the year. I'd love to hear from you. But listen, as I wrap up this episode, I'll just leave you this way From my family to yours, from me and my family to you and yours have an awesome Thanksgiving Day.

Speaker 1:

Or, if you're outside of the US, this podcast has been listened to in 63 countries on six continents. If you're outside of the US, have an awesome Thanksgiving day on November 28th 2024, from the US, and I'll have you in my heart and maybe you'll enjoy the day just as much as I do. I hope that's the case for you. But wherever you are, I hope you live a truly, truly grateful life and give thanks for everything that you have, and maybe for even just a little bit. Stop focusing on what you don't have. You have everything. If you're listening to this, you have everything you need to be full of joy, to be full of freedom, to be full of peace, to be full of love, to be full of harmony. Right now Focus on the fact that you have everything you need and live in a full, complete state of satisfaction, even if for just one day. If you enjoyed what you heard and you want to learn more, go to wwwinnerwealthglobalcom for more tools and resources.