Happy Sunday Everyone:
Hopefully this one works out…..Sometimes I know in my head what point I want to make but getting it into words can be a struggle, and given how long I’ve been staring at my screen…I’m struggling.
This whole thing is around gratitude. I know it’s a topic I’ve discussed before, probably multiple times, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t too many things more important than gratitude. Where my head is right now is how much we actually show our appreciation for what others do for us? Sometimes I think appreciation and gratitude should be synonymous with one another. Showing/telling someone how much you appreciate them, or their efforts is showing your gratitude for them, right? So I received a random text on Friday, while I was on spring break, from a long time, and great business partner. She asked if I thanked her clients once we closed a loan? She wasn’t suggesting I didn’t, but she also didn’t know, and she was curious. So for me, I’m thinking, how much can she think I appreciate her business if she has to ask this question? Thankfully, I was able to respond with “we email, we call, and then we send a gift”, which made her very happy, but she shouldn’t have to ask in the first place. I know for a fact, most of us “assume” people know we appreciate them, we assume they know we are grateful. If you “assume” someone understands you appreciate them, you don’t. If you assume, someone knows you have gratitude for them, you don’t. Kim knows I love her, so why tell her? Kim knows I think she’s an amazing wife and mother, so why tell her? My team knows they’re great, so why tell them. My business partner knows how I appreciate her by how we do their loans, so why actually tell her? For me, I’m going to be much more focused to never leave it up for interpretation as to whether or not I have gratitude for someone being in my life, business or personal.
Fast forward to Saturday, we get done with the best ski day in the last 5 years. We’re with dear friends and our kids, and we’re at a club my folks belong to, which they only joined so their family could use it. Private chair lift to Northstar, valet parking for skiing, it’s a joke, fantasy land for adults. On our way out, I called my parents and told them, with detail, how we all had one of the best days of our lives, and how much we appreciated everything they’ve done for us. Excuse the sappiness but I made my folks day, and they made mine, win win. I don’t think gracious people sit around and wait for thank you calls to roll in, but I think we’d all be lying to ourselves if we didn’t say it’s a lot more fun to be gracious to people who appreciate graciousness.
Shifting gears somewhat, although all of this is in the same context around gratitude. I see a post from my little cousin Ben, on Facebook (literally right after Kim and I discussed a topic for Sunday Thoughts). My little cousin Ben is 6’4, 240 lbs., a Veteran Army Ranger, he’s an American Hero. Physically, he is beautiful (pictures attached and please no jokes of lack of resemblance). Inside, he is crushed. He struggles with PTSD and TBI (Traumatic brain injury). He fought in the Middle East, he was with his best friend when their truck hit a roadside bomb, without too much detail, he had to place his best friend in the body bag. He has seen, what would be my guess, far worse things than anyone reading these Sunday Thoughts. When I’m stressed out I have a glass of wine and a steak, if I’m really stressed, I might jog 4 miles. When he’s stressed out, he puts a bag of rocks on his back and runs up the side of a hill. His idea of stress relief is pushing his body to its breaking point. He’s a hero to me, he’s a hero to my family, and I’m hopeful all would view him as a hero to our country. I think what I admire most is he had everything growing up, a lacrosse hero at William/Mary College, could have done anything after school, but he chose to be an Army Ranger, and although I’m sure he’d tell you he would do it again, he is left battling some serious demons. Ben started a non-profit to help Veterans with PTSD and TBI. He is running 81 miles at the end of May (Nonstop). I’ve never “marketed” something on Sunday Thoughts but I’m certain he would appreciate it, and he deserves it, please go to https://myevent.com/9weekwarrior
Trying to connect the dots on this, I understand there is a lot going on. Whether you’re showing gratitude in business, in your personal life, or for causes that are far bigger than any of us, in thinking of gratitude, we have a much better chance of executing on it. I think gratitude compounds, it pays itself forward in everything it represents, which is always good.