In the holiday spirit, I share this Fast Company article, “Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet.”

My favorite suggestion is to embrace gratitude as a business strategy. Many of us suffer from GDD or Gratitude Deficit Disorder. Who do you know who is a masterful “thanker”?

Despite our good intentions and actions, we receive much more flak than gratitude. We are hungry for genuine appreciation and thanks. We want to know that we matter, and that our efforts make the world a better place.

So as we end 2011 and start a new year, think how you will communicate your appreciation. How can you catch people in the act of goodness or kindness? How can you fill the global hunger for gratitude?

In this spirit of gratitude, here is a poem that a fellow Tweeter shared with me recently. It’s a golden oldie.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,

even to the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons;

they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain or bitter,

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals,

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love,

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life,

keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s

Happy Holidays however you celebrate: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!