I remember these moments vividly.
The day the President of a company I worked for said to me, “Mary Lou, you’re better than you think you are.”
The day I opened a small package that arrived at my house from a colleague I worked with. In it was a small note that said, “Just a little something to show you how remarkable I think you are.”
The day I read the hand-written thank you card above from a colleague expressing gratitude for many things I did to help her grow and develop and support her in her career and life.
The day my team gave me this beautiful, framed picture with their messages of how much they appreciated me as their leader.
What’s my point?
For these and so many other times people have said and done things like this for me, I always felt better about myself. Humble … and better.
They showed me they cared about me as a person and that how I treated them mattered. Every time that happened, the messages and words of thanks, praise, support, and encouragement helped me get past something I was struggling with.
By helping me feel better about myself, I found renewed courage to press on. I felt fresh winds fill my sails and that helped me get over the hump, past the challenge, so I could move on to better things.
What’s interesting is this.
I do these types of things all the time. I make it a practice to give people a reason to feel better about themselves. I make it a practice to show people how much I care about them. It’s just something I do.
Making others feel better about themselves, showing them how much you care, is a prosperity principle I live by. It helps others elevate their self-worth and self-confidence.
And in doing that, it helps me be a better person, helps me get the things out of life that I want, helps me be more attractive to others who then want to work with me, be around me, and be a part of my life.
Is it a wonder then that the types of things I’ve done to make others feel better about themselves come back to me time and again?
What do I do exactly? Let me share a few examples.
- I complement people on how good they look.
- I tell complete strangers how great that color looks on them, or that I love that purse, or that they have a beautiful smile or hairdo.
- I send hand-written thank you notes to people for being kind to me, for being my friend, or to just thank them for who they are.
- I mail cards to people to tell them I’m thinking of them and how amazing they are.
- I remind people of great things they’ve done and the impact those things had on me and others.
- I thank the woman at the cash register for taking such good care of me and making my experience a pleasant one.
- I thank the guy who pumps gas for me (I live in NJ, it’s illegal to pump your own gas – such a privilege) for doing a great job, serving me safely and helping me get to my next destination.
Are these things hard to do? No.
Do you need special skills to do them? No.
Do they cost anything? No.
Then why don’t more people spread good vibes around more often?
Maybe they don’t think about it. Or maybe they don’t understand how powerful these small gestures can be.
Why do these things? What difference could it possibly make?
Hear this.
Many times, the person I’m blessing with kind words and acts hasn’t heard someone say something nice to them or do something nice for them for a very long time. I know this because people have told me so.
- “That’s the nicest thing someone has said to me in a long time.”
- “No one’s ever told me that before, thank you.”
- “That card you sent made my day, my week, my month, my year. I hung it up on my refrigerator.”
- “I needed that; I was having a bad day today.”
- “Thank you.”
I love this quote from Maya Angelou.
When was the last time you breathed a positive word into someone?
When was the last time you were the breath of fresh air someone else needed in their life? Or pumped wind into their sail?
How many times in the last week did you tell someone how much you appreciate them – not only what they did, but them themselves?
When was the last time you got on the phone with someone you adore and called them a “winner?” Or a “Rock Star?”
How you make others feel is a direct reflection of how you feel about yourself.
That’s worth repeating.
How you make others feel is a direct reflection of how you feel about yourself.
If you speak positivity into another person, the words you say to them are piped back into you. You hear them as you say them. Your mouth is not only speaking them, but your ears are hearing them, and therefore your mind is absorbing them. More than one of your senses is engaged, burning the positivity into your mind.
Wouldn’t you agree that hearing good news and positive sentiments is going to feed your mind with positive thoughts? Of course! Your thoughts are more powerful than you can imagine.
There is plenty of negativity and negative energy circling the Universe. This quote from American spiritual leader, Peace Pilgram, is powerful. We are surrounded by negativity and bombarded with it, thousands of times a day. There’s only one way to combat that. Reverse it. There’s only one way to reverse it. Speak positive things into other people and into the world!
Give someone you know or a stranger a reason to believe they are worth your time, worth a word of praise, worth a special thank you. Show them you care.
What goes around, comes around. The seeds of positivity you plant into others will grow into gardens of goodness.
Now, that’s a prosperity principle everyone can afford, everyone can do, and everyone benefits from. In my book that’s a win, win, win.
To your prosperity!
Additional Reading: “Holy Moments,” by Matthew Kelly. Its entire focus is on spreading kindness to one another, one person at a time, until we realize the “butterfly effect.” What a wonderful world we can create through simple daily acts of kindness.
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