Cover Photo by Camila Cordeiro on Unsplash
Make both of your days great with this simple gesture
A few days ago, Shaunta Grimes published a great article where she was talking about a reflection she did about her past 6 months. The idea is simple: list the good and bad things that happened to you within the last 6 months.
What do you think your list would look like? she asked. Would it be mostly good stuff, or mostly bad stuff?
I’m a happy man. When people ask me how things are going, I answer with a very positive “Grrrreat!” So, I was eager to do the exercise and really internalize how awesome my past 6 months were.
It turns out, they weren’t as awesome as I thought.
You see, I’m an eternal optimist. Things always go right in my mind. And when things don’t, I focus on learning from the experience. After all, you learn best from failed experiments.
This exercise tested my optimism. It even made me wonder: did my optimism cloud me from reality? How could I be this happy, yet have more things on my “bad” list?
Then, I let the negative self-talk reach me. I asked myself, “Could it be that I’m actually not that happy?”
This was dangerous logic. To focus on the negative in such critical light deludes your perspective. And I knew this, too. I could feel that I was convincing myself of something illogical.
I looked again at my list of good things. Indeed, the list was shorter, but the events listed were each singularly more impactful. Each brought immense, outsized amounts of happiness.
Chief among the positive events were those involving the people in my life I love and admire. And so near the end of the exercise, I decided to start writing to those folks, people like my business partner, my assistant, friends, family, etc.
Completely out of context, I simply wrote them, “Here’s how I think you’re remarkable…” followed by a list of things I truly do believe they’re remarkable at.
All told, doing this helped me realize two things:
It’s much easier to recognize how remarkable other people are; and
We don’t tell people how much we appreciate them often enough.
This exercise proved to be beneficial not only for them but for me as well. For the rest of the day, I was filled with intense positive energy. The negative self-talk I let in for a few minutes was now gone and I was ready to live a remarkable life again.
And really, all it took was just a little dose of gratitude towards the people who helped make my past 6 months great.
Dare say it! “Here’s how I think you’re remarkable…” It’s not rocket science and it brings a whole lot of good in this world.
Let’s imagine for a moment a world where it’s okay to let people know how remarkable they are to us.
If more people realized how remarkable they truly are, wouldn’t they have more confidence?
Doesn’t confidence increase energy levels and reduce anxiety and depression?
Why do we let that world be a utopia?
So, right now, think about the people you surround yourself with. What makes them remarkable in your eyes?
Tell them, right this second. Call them or write to them, but be sure to let them know. That very simple gesture can make a tremendous positive impact on someone’s life and your own as well.
Spread the word! :)
You can do this!