By Joe Anselmo, Co-Owner & CEO of Turning Point Real Estate

We're all familiar with this saying especially when it comes to setting goals. This Thanksgiving, as I remember what we are actually celebrating, I thought not just about the first Thanksgiving feast, but what had to happen before the feast in order to make it possible. Someone had a goal . . . a really big Goal. I wonder if that person could ever imagine the pain and suffering that would have to be endured in order to achieve it. Perhaps, but I believe that instead, they were more focused on what was to be gained.

The following is a wonderful example of the power of goal.

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers-an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower's original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

This week, take a moment to be grateful for all our blessings and don't hesitate to express your gratitude to those around you for their love and support.

Have a great Thanksgiving. Joe