Gratitude has no Substitute!
A SMILE. A HELLO. A SIMPLE NUDGE. A GENTLE NOD. A THANK YOU.
And all things like that.
All these a few years ago were seemingly more real than now.
Life wasn’t this fast-paced. The routines were much simpler. Being social was more ‘in’ person rather than ‘in’ media (digital). And in this evolution of our human race, we somehow are losing out on our sense of gratitude. It is not always a one person’s journey to get where they are, when they are. It is more often than not, a sum total of many visible and invisible hands coming in together.
It is time to pause, think, smile and say ‘thank you’ to those people.
It is not referring to a simple thank you where the expression is based on some ‘to-do’ or some ‘required politeness’. The body language gives away and I have experienced this many a times and in fact pointed it out (at times being pointed out as well). A genuine thank you where the person helping us, serving us, assisting us, mentoring us, coaching us, doing anything that makes our lives better.
Yes, our attention span has taken a toll on this basic human expression called gratitude. We resist truly expressing ourselves in even our emails or texts or tweets. We end up just writing. and sometimes very much to the point. We somehow just stop at that habitual thank you, and other times even forget that.
EXPRESSING ONESELF BEYOND WRITING A ‘THANK YOU’ WOULD MAKE IT MORE THOUGHTFUL AND REAL.
In my experience, the moment the sense of entitlement goes away, gratitude emerges. In my lifespan and career span, in my personal and professional life (yes, they are actually two different!) my friends have often asked me for past 30 years on phrases I have often used. Phrases such as – ‘life is good’, ‘luck has favored’, ‘am a product of India’s liberalization in 1991’, ‘My success belongs 99% to others’, ‘the rising wave has lifted many, but sustained the ones who have thanked those invisible hands’(not referring to Adam smith here) or ‘I am here because of the team and the society’. No self-glory here but these are the questions where I have engaged with folks for long debates.
I had myself almost forgotten to keep the expressive thank you, the real Gratitude, in the forefront until last year when one of our leaders made it into the organization charter. Such was the effect that not only did I start thinking about it again, but it started percolating down to our teams and we actively started talking about it.
A realization that something as basic as this which is inherent to the human nature needs reminders.
Yes, it is now being spoken in the larger realm of expressing gratitude in the form of helping others, socially weaker section, people who are less fortunate than us, helping the needy – a sense of gratitude towards the society. And not just in the form of money, but in a currency of spreading awareness, giving our time and activity engaging with people. The gratitude that we are part of the society that makes us more fortunate ones than the millions around. It is not complicated. I would urge you to pause. And start. Once Again.
THANK YOU !!
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