A Simple Thank You

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I have come to realize the simple words “Thank You” are two very important words to me. I have noticed not all people say thank you. Maybe their mama didn’t teach them to say thank you. It makes me wonder what thank you means to people. Maybe it has different meanings for different people.

What does thank you mean to you? Is it important to you to be thanked when you have done something for someone else? Do you thank people when they do something nice for you?

You really can not go wrong with saying thank you, it doesn’t matter how big or small the gesture is. It’s always worth it to say thank you.

Go ahead, try it!

I challenge you to say thank you a few extra times this week.

If your spouse does the laundry, say thank you, even if they do it every week.

If your child puts the dishes in the dish washer, say thank you, even if it is their chore.

If your mom or dad cooks dinner for you, say thank you.

If your coworkers, supervisors or staff are showing up and doing a good job at work, say thank you.

If someone retweets something you have posted on Twitter or Liked something you put up on Facebook, say thank you.

I personally am going to start sending more handwritten thank you cards. Emails, text messages and phone calls are all appropriate ways to say thank you these days but don’t you appreciate a handwritten card so much more now since they are so uncommon?

When I used to work in the corporate world at the Bath & Body Works office we had something called the WOW card. Anytime someone did something we appreciated, we were supposed to write a little note on the WOW card and give it to them. You could give the card to your boss, the janitor, coworkers, assistants, anyone. It was such a great practice and it was always so nice to give and receive those WOW cards! Wouldn’t it be fun to start up the WOW card tradition on a personal level and send your friends and family a WOW card every time they did something cool?

I started writing this blog post on the bus this morning, then posted a question on Facebook asking people their feelings about Thank Yous. It’s unanimous people love Thank Yous!

One friend posted this:

“If the only prayer you ever said was thank you, that would suffice.” a proverb, posted by –Sarah

Funny, I had thank yous on my mind today. Someone in my life has not been saying thank you at times when I felt they should so I spent today reflecting on thank yous. The more enlightened people tell me, I shouldn’t expect thank yous, I should just do things out of the goodness of my own heart. Or they tell me we shouldn’t thank people for doing their job, they are expected to do their job. Well that doesn’t work for me, I’m not enlightened enough I guess, I like thank yous. If I take the time to prepare dinner for you, give you a ride somewhere, or just something generally nice I want a thank you!

After my day of thank you reflection I decided I should start focusing on saying thank you more, rather than focusing on people who don’t say thank you when I think they should. Who am I to decide how people should act anyway?

So thank you for reading this post. Thank you for supporting my blog. If it weren’t for you I’d be talking to myself an awful lot online. I really, really do appreciate that you take the time to read my blog, my tweets, my Facebook updates and to actually come out to events when I coordinate them.

THANK YOU!

I just went out and got the mail a few minutes ago. Guess what was in my mail box?!

Not one, but TWO thank you notes from my good friend Peggy over at the Success and Chocolate blog. She sent me 1 Thank You note for a tiny little gift (purple pens) I gave her and another Thank You for ME agreeing to be interviewed on HER blog. Wow! a Thank You for agreeing to be interviewed! I should be thanking her! Thank you Peggy! A bonus was the 2 thank you notes were written on cards created and designed by my artist friends! The Success & Chocolate card was designed by C. Proppe and the You Rule! card was created by Tamara at Bean Up The Nose Art, who is the queen of thank yous (one of the reasons I admire her so much).

How cool is that?!

While I’m in gratitude mode also want to mention my friend Marilyn’s (who always reminds me to be grateful) Vision Book Art Workshops

Thank you!

3 thoughts on “A Simple Thank You

  1. Heidi

    I think that you are well on the road to discovering the greatest secret; while you can not change how other people behave, you can certainly TEACH them by your own actions. That was hard to convey to you in 140 characters last night, but you got where I was going with it. My husband and I work in the helping professions, and it’s not lost on us that the people who need our help the most are usually the least able to give us any thanks for it. With that being said then, why do we do it? Really, at the end of the day, it would be disingenuous for me not to say that I help people because I like to. I want to be the person who knows the answer, has a the ride for you, or takes the phone call in the middle of the night. It makes me feel whole and connected when I help others. I’m not enlightened enough that I don’t want to be thanked — of course I do! And sometimes my feelings get hurt in the silence that lingers where a “thank you” would more than fill it. But in those silent moments I have to remember (as I fume) that when I keep my actions centered on me and my own needs, I am more likely to be happy. And really, that’s what I ultimately want. Thank you for the interesting opportunity to think about gratitude today. 🙂

  2. Tamara Holland

    Gosh dang, Sally — THANK YOU FOR THIS POST!!! I loved hearing about the beginnings of it on your Facebook page this morning . . . and to log on here later in the evening and see a photo of one of my cards, plus your words of kindness and admiration? Holy crap. It’s a red-letter day, woman!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. (And I, too, am not one of the enlightened beings who just does stuff and does not care whether anyone appreciates it. I can do that some . . . but not much. We are all just human, after all. So i really, really, really appreciate this, and all that you always do to highlight the work of all of your friends.)

  3. maria

    Great post! We get so wrapped up in the reams of our own grievances or dark feelings that we forget how powerful those two small words are when it comes to changing the emotional landscape of our world. Thank you for the reminder – but more than that, thank you for all the work you do in the “virtual” community, work that goes to make for real change in our “actual” communities. 🙂

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