Infinite reasons for insanely great gratitude

As all you over achievers are well aware, the first thing people notice about you is your attitude. If you didn’t already have a great attitude, you wouldn’t be reading this, but you also know the overriding theme for this delightful holiday season can be summed up in a single word that has tanked many a positive attitude: E.X.H.A.U.S.T.I.O.N.

Committing to insanely-great gratitude can help your attitude when you’re dang dog tired.

Now that we’re kicking off our Thanksgiving month, I invite you to ramp up your gratitude to the next crazy level: Insanely Great Gratitude.

Why?

Feeling and expressing gratitude produces positive energy that permeates our sphere of existence. Who can use a bit more energy at this time of the year? Gratitude also makes you more attractive because the stress is stripped off your face and you can smile more easily. [Research shows smiling lowers stress instantly.]

If you lower your stress and feel more energy, you circumvent boatloads of problems, issues and pains. You become an even more magnetic person.

Insanely-great gratitude not only helps you, it helps those around you. And it’s free.

So how to you take a person who already personifies a pretty good level of appreciation? Here are ways to ramp up your gratitude to the next level of crazy. As a card-carrying frugalista, none of these is a bank buster.

1. Thank your employees and suppliers for the tiny specific ways they help you, at unexpected moments. Don’t wait until Turkey Day and don’t thank them for their hard work. [Boring.]

You could thank a person for always being cheerful at the end of the day. Or for not taking it personally when you bark. Or for dressing up consistently, smiling brilliantly or answering the phone enthusiastically.

When it comes to praise, gratitude and appreciation, I have a mantra for you. Say it morning, noon and night:

Specificity is sexy.

It’s exactly like Tara Guerard’s “darling details” in another domain, and just as effective.

That tip is to communication what Hermes is to a scarf. To know what stress and exhaustion do for your  communication, just think nuclear device.

2. Thank your customers for supporting you. But don’t be all normal and predictable about how you go about it.

Hand-written notes on beautiful cards are nice. Gifts are always welcome and parties are fun. Show them that they matter to you. That you notice their loyalty.

Imagine you were to create awards for different types of customers: the first, the most frequent flier, the one who brings more friends to your place, the latest one or the one who buys the most shoes when you sell all kinds of products. Or the one who always buys things in blue or the one who never returns product.

Like always, have fun with it. And remember your specificity mantra.

3. Thank your family for putting up with you. Even if you’re bringing the big bucks, your family at times will wish you were normal. [They really don’t want that, it’s a way of asking for you to notice them more.]

4. Thank the random people who make your life better, even if you never see them.

What a debt we owe Howard Schultz for bringing us Starbucks. What about the folks who invented the microwave, vacuum cleaner or even indoor plumbing? [I will be thinking quite a lot about that person when I visit my Peace Corp volunteer son in Lesotho next year, who lives plumbing-free.]

The simplest thing is to write a quick note. However when the people you want to thank are either unidentified or gone on to the next life, simply stop for a minute (okay, more like 2 seconds) and think how much you appreciate what they did.

5. Make your own list of specific brands, experiences and other things you’re insanely grateful for.

What about hot showers, Nespresso machines, scented candles, chapstick, cashmere, salted dark chocolate and sunscreen, champagne and perfume? And then there’s our own The Laundress, who brought us amazing detergent for wool sweaters. Or Cheri and Whitney for bringing us together?

But wait, there’s more. It’s another mantra! (Or if you prefer, “womantra.”)

BONUS! You can also use an insanely-great gratitude as a mantra to keep you sane during the crazy season. Here it is:

I am insanely grateful for my amazing successes and blessings as I continue

to attract incredible opportunities into my life.

Indeed we have so much to be grateful for. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to tap into that always-renewable energy of insanely-great gratitude.

Laura Mixon Camacho, PhD, is obsessed with communication as a tool for building bridges and careers. She believes all conversations should be carried out with style and enthusiasm. And a presentation is just a special sort of conversation. Laura creates quirky communication workshops and she does private one-to-one coaching. She is the go-to coach if you want to improve your communication skills so that you can move your business or career forward with more confidence, more impact and less stress. Read more at www.mixonian.com.