I really try to avoid talking about my relationship on this blog. I don’t find it to be appropriate or relevant in many cases, but there is one thing about my relationship and influence that my girlfriend Sarah has had on me that we can all easily apply to our daily lives. Many people that are in a relationship may notice that they start to do things and adopt mannerisms from their significant other. One thing in particular that I have picked up from Sarah is the practice of writing good hand-written thank you notes!
As a kid, I always found writing thank you notes after a birthday or holiday to be a really big and tedious task. I would always procrastinate in writing them. The notes themselves that I wrote were very formulaic, “Thank you for spending time with me on my birthday. Thank you for the gift {Insert Gift Here}. The End.” As I got older, my parents no longer forced me to write thank you notes, so I no longer wrote them.
Towards the beginning of our relationship, I had just spent the previous Saturday evening celebrating Sarah’s birthday and had gotten her a gift. Later that Wednesday, I received an envelope in the mail from Sarah. The funny part is that I had no idea what was in the envelope. I didn’t know what to expect! As I opened the envelope, I was pleasantly surprised to find a thank you note, and the note was not the forced and awkward kind of note that I would write as a kid. It was thoughtful, personal, sincere and appreciative. Reading that note took the good day that I was having and made it even better.
Receiving this note made me think, “Wow, that was nice. Maybe I should start doing the same for others.” Over the course of the year, I have written many more thank you notes than I had in the past. Possibly being older affected this part, but I found writing them to be easier. Writing these thank you notes also made me feel good, possibly even better than receiving a thank you note. I have since had a large box of thank you notes on my desk because I simply never know when I will find the need to write one!
My friends, everyone enjoys being recognized for their efforts and contributions. When someone does something for you or gives you something out of kindness, make sure to thank that person. What someone gives you may not be a wrapped gift, it may be mentorship in some area of life or a skill that you will take with you for the rest of your life. Often, even a simple recognition will take someone by surprise if they did things for you in total sincerity. When we take the moment to appreciate the things that people do for us, we will become more mindful of these kind things, and we will end up treating others well around us better. In doing so, we will create a virtuous cycle in the world.
So, I challenge you to write a good and sincere thank you note to someone that has done something positive for your life recently. You will be surprised at how your rapport will grow with that individual!
