Have the terms “please”, “thank you” or “welcome” ever felt like a waste of time to you? Reading a thread about sending “thank you” letters over the weekend led me to thinking about whether gratitude is quickly becoming a lost art. Does “thank you” require a note, can it be verbal, or does it necessitate face to face interaction? What reveals the idea most effectively? How would our society regain the gratitude gene without developing yet another process?
While researching, I came across a 2009 article in a major psychology publication that suggested people should stop with excessive gratitude. Down the rabbit hole I went without hesitation because I cannot develop a thought model of how this excessiveness would appear. Sans sarcasm or as part of a comedy routine, I believe gratitude can only better everything and everyone. I was refreshed to find a contrasting article from last year that suggests the foolishness of grace lost in our daily lives. In my line of sight, the pace of life in 2018 continues to display degradation of graciousness and unfortunately, the rapid decay seems to be self-steering. Assuming society forever resists slowing, I return to how we can regain grace as part of our daily routine.
The key here is identifying the value of intention. The use of gratitude is only advanced with intention, the same process that requires focus, action, and positive energy to manifest. These characteristics are readily attributable to successful leaders throughout history. The same set of ideas exuded from any good leader readily moves gratitude back to the forefront of successful behavior. While easier to accept improvement through indirect effort, it might simply be time to accept that we cannot automate everything. It might be time to revert to days gone by and accept something non-technical as impactful to our daily lives.