I'm assuming that you are most likely thankful for the friends and family in your life, but are you thankful for the difficult or challenging people in your life? Or perhaps some of your friends and family ARE the challenging people in your life (hey, it happens!). In keeping with the theme of building our "Gratitude Muscles" let's take a look at how we can be thankful for the difficult people we share the planet with.

Believe it or not, difficult people serve an important role in our lives. They challenge us to develop new people skills, deepen our character traits, become better problem-solvers, get outside of our comfort zone and think "outside the box". You know, things we wouldn't necessarily "volunteer" for, without a compelling reason.

Perhaps, you have a difficult boss, co-worker or employee that has challenged you to communicate differently in order to accomplish the goal you both are working toward.  Or maybe it's a difficult child that has made it possible for you to...