What if the secret to your best Thanksgiving is learning how to actually receive a compliment without deflecting, dodging, or immediately returning the favor?

In "Accept Love," I offer a fun framework for the holidays: Gratitude, Excitement, and Devotion. Think of it as a mental training plan for family gatherings. Gratitude shifts your focus. Excitement brings the spark. Devotion keeps everyone in the circle. And then comes the real challenge—letting yourself be loved without trying to earn it.

This Thanksgiving, don't just show up. Show up with an open heart, ready to receive. Read this piece, try saying "I'm grateful for your presence" to someone's face, and watch the whole room light up. That's the energy. That's the legacy. That's HiLevel.

The GED Foundation

Gratitude

Gratitude is your foundation. It's the focus on what's present. It shifts your focus from what's missing to what's working. And what you focus on, you can amplify.

Call it out. Say it to their face. "I'm grateful for your presence." Watch what happens to the room.

Excitement

Excitement launches you. Gratitude grounds you, but excitement is what propels you forward. It's the passion—the belief that something good is coming and you can get the job done.

Bring it. Be the spark. Excitement is a choice, and it's contagious. Good families and teams come together around it.

Devotion

Devotion is your mental strength. It's the energy that families and teams draw on to live their truths—how hard they're willing to work to tighten the circle and achieve love and acceptance.

Gratitude grounds you. Excitement launches you. Devotion sustains you.

Accept Love

Grinding is familiar. Giving comes natural. But receiving—that's where growth lives.

To accept love, you have to feel it. You have to slow down long enough to appreciate each other, to fuel the fire together. This is the HiLevel process: Awareness, Acceptance, and Actions—the path that allows you to give your best effort under pressure.

Awareness

Open your eyes. Love is already in motion around you—teammates who show up, family who stays, people who believe in you when you forget to believe in yourself.

Stop. See it.

Acceptance

Let it land. Don't deflect. Don't minimize. Don't rush to repay it. Just receive.

This is the breath before the next rep. This is recovery. You need it.

Actions

Now move. When you've truly received, you operate differently. You're not desperate. You're not grasping. You're full—and fullness overflows.

That's when your presence changes the room.

The HiLevel Call

This Thanksgiving, don't just show up. Show up with intention.

Elevate gratitude. Bring excitement. Commit with devotion. And have the courage to accept love.

When you were a child, love came to you. You didn't earn it. You didn't question it. You simply received—open, unguarded, full.

Somewhere along the way, you learned to give. You became the provider. The protector. The one who shows up for others. That's good. That's growth.

But here's what no one told you: the journey isn't complete until you learn to receive again.

As a parent, you pour out. As a grandparent, you pour out deeper still. But you cannot give what you refuse to feel. The love that flows through you to your children—to their children—must flow into you first.

This is the completion. The child who received becomes the elder who receives again—not empty, not depleted, but full. Full because you let love in. Full because that's what makes you someone who can pass it on.

That's the cycle. That's the legacy.

That's HiLevel!

Brad Yates, HiLevel Coaching

GED builds the foundation. Accept Love opens the door. The HiLevel Call brings it home.

Photo of Kalani Rivero by Island Style