Think to Thank

Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/thank-you-feedback-letters-5077738/

This is me before posting the blog....the post-me-posting-the thank you blog however was quite different.

This is officially NOT my second blog, ( at least that’s not how it started out to be). I wanted to share a fleeting thought of thank you (and couldn’t fit it into the size of an FB Post however hard I tried!). So here it goes…

before I started writing my first blog I was full of apprehension, wasn’t sure if I could go back to being the writer I was in my school and university days, and wasn’t even sure if I still had it in me to write, give words to my thoughts, to my observations of the world around me and so I stalled a hundred times before posting my blog (much like doing a ‘she loves me, she loves me not’) before making a proposal though in my case it was more of a ‘they will like it, they will like it not‘.

This is me before posting the blog, the post-me-posting-the thank you blog however was quite different. I would like to say I was overwhelmed by the appreciation and motivation shown by my friends (to the extent of being proud) and even people who were not my friends (and were forwarded my blog by some of my really nice friends!).

The comments were so inspiring that I started to see myself in a different light (and so insightful that I am compelled to say that some of you might start writing yourself) It takes a second to like a picture, a few more to read a post but to take out time to know what I have to say, and even some more time to express your own views on what I just said is put together really a LOT of TIME.

For all those who applauded me with their encouraging comments and views, I want you to know what they did to me from an apprehensive, anxious wanna-be I-THINK-I-CAN write. They just exposed me to a confidant I know-i-can mode which finally led me to this important observation that I want to share with you – The ‘art of appreciation’. (Please note though there is no tutorial on How to say Thank you or how to write a thank you note).

I realized how powerful simple words of appreciation can be and what big results they can achieve (not that I coax you to appreciate my upcoming blogs as well!).

We like so many things, people, and experiences (outside Facebook..yes there is a world outside FB too which we sometimes forget to notice!) in our daily lives that we need to stop and appreciate.

Buzzing through our hectic days, combating the pressures of modern living, it is so easy to take each other for granted and forget the importance of letting people know how much we truly appreciate them.

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common,”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you remember how a good score on your report card made you run straight home just to get that big hug from Mom (and a ‘good but can do better’ from Dad)? Or how you raised your hand in a hurry during the class just at the hint of knowing the right answer expecting a good word from your teacher in front of all your friends, or how you climbed the stage all nervous and shaken and how the thumbs up and cheering from your friends made you forget to be scared of the crowd and you ended up giving your best performance.

You may not remember all the gifts you received on your last birthday or who gave you what but you will always remember the best compliment you received that evening for years to come.

My 8th grade English teacher would evaluate our answers in terms of both marks and remarks which meant that a lot of students could get a 9 out of 10 or even a 9.5 (a 10 on 10 was absolutely prohibited in literature) but only a handful would get her precious comments.

I would slog my nights not for that elusive 9.5 but for a good remark from her in her handwriting on my answer sheet. I would read it over and over again (unlike a 9.5 which no matter how great doesn’t make a good second read).

Or how about the first project you ran successfully, the first sales of your career, how you announced it to the whole world (in this case your work team and other senior managers) about your accomplishment…. waiting for the well done, congratulations, great going mail chain in your inbox.

I now understand my mom’s single question which she would ask without fail after every meal, how was the food, I wondered at times irritated, why she would ask the same question, for the simple meals she cooks, I now realize that after hours of hard work, all she wanted to know was that we liked her food.

We are after all humans with the need to be loved, validated, valued, and acknowledged.

‘I can live for two months on a good compliment’
― Mark Twain.

Look around and you will realize half the world working on this principle, why do you think a sports team has more chances of winning on their home ground? If you go back to history our great kings kept a herd of courtiers around them only to praise and flatter them.

They would even write poetry and songs on the king’s greatness and generosity to keep him in good spirits which eventually meant the welfare of all. Let’s talk about the most recently popular social networking phenomenon called Facebook. Have you ever wondered about the concept it runs on? It’s mutual liking and appreciation. You are as beautiful as the no of likes you get and as intelligent as people consider you to be.

We live in families, hang out with friends, work in groups and in teams. One word of appreciation can go a long way in strengthening these bonds, making families stick together, strengthening relationships, making teams more effective, and bringing out the best in people. It is an incentive to put up your best show.

The way I look at it is practicing appreciation infuses positivism. Try this – say thank you with a frown doesn’t work? That’s because to acknowledge goodness around you, you need to imbibe some of it yourself first, and to pass a smile you need to smile yourself.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
― Voltaire

So after finishing this blog if you don’t remember the last time you left a thank-you note on a colleague’s table, a smiley in a friends notebook, or a ‘I love you’ post-it for your loved one ….START TODAY and you will be surprised what wonders these little words can achieve.

For all I need sometimes…is a pat on the back, an assuring smile, and a few good words to last this while.

Thank you for Reading!

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