Creating a Habit of Gratitude in Business (and Life!)
It was too perfect to be coincidence when my friend, Michele, called last week and invited me to participate in a 30-day Gratitude Challenge that her company was sponsoring. I’d spent the few days prior to her call thinking about the balance between self-interest (ex. “I need to make money!”) and service (ex. “how can I help you?”), and had determined that lately I’ve been falling on the self-interest side a bit too much.
I knew I needed something to tip the scales in the other direction.
Since then I’ve been thinking about what it means to create a Habit of Gratitude. And I’ve challenged myself to follow these three steps until I become an “expert appreciator.”
3 Steps for Creating a Habit of Gratitude:
1 STEP ONE: THANK THE PEOPLE YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT. Your friends. Your family. Your customers and followers. Don’t wait until their birthday. Don’t put it off until Christmas. Say that you couldn’t imagine life without them now. Your gratitude doesn’t do them any good if you keep it to yourself.
2 STEP TWO: GIVE BACK ON SOCIAL MEDIA. True confession: I’m guilty of being a social media stalker. I read through the updates on Facebook but don’t leave remarks. I skim through my blog list and don’t comment. In doing so I’ve come to one conclusion: stalkers are creepy. Watching others put themselves out there without joining them is weird. So leave comments and remarks. Be a friend. Quit figuratively peeking into people’s windows without saying hi.
3 STEP THREE: GET A SYSTEM. As with all good habits, you need a routine and some discipline to make them really stick. Gratitude is no different. Have a plan for expressing your gratitude and schedule time for it. Use your address book and your calendar and schedule reminders for the future (ex. “call Shelly next month to follow-up on her new job”). Stock up on cards and gifts to be ready for a spontaneous moment of appreciation. Set aside a half-hour every day to thank someone new.
My hope for this personal challenge is to temper my natural selfishness and to be more generous with my heart, my words and my time.
My hope is to make a habit out of gratitude.
Who are you grateful for today? Share your thoughts here–
*Learn more about the 30-Day Gratitude Challenge I’m participating in HERE.
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Stephanie, you are an amaing writer. I could not have said it better myself. Thanks for having a great heart.
I am grateful for you.
Michele
What a great post and reminder. So often people forget to say thank you or show they care. That is the reason I started customerwowproject.com.