When you hear the words “thank-you note”, do you think of your Grandmother Betty and for all of those gifts you HAD to dutifully pen a gracious thank-you note … even if you didn’t really LOVE the blue fuzzy house shoes she gave you, three years in a row?
In the world of business, sending a handwritten thank-you note is often the proverbial “icing-on-the-cake”. You don’t have to look far for many positive stories on the power of the handwritten note.
Recently, John Kralik, an attorney from Los Angeles, wrote a book on the power of the thank-you note and how it changed his life…. Not only socially, but professionally.
365 Thank Yous is a book that tells the story of an inspiration, the writing of 365 Thank You Notes, and how my life was changed by the people who received them.
In December 2007, I had reached what I viewed as a nadir in my life. While my life seemed full of debts and disasters, I ached for the things and the security I felt I deserved. On January 1, 2008, as this dissatisfaction pervaded my thoughts, I took a walk in the mountains above Pasadena, where I was inspired to write one thank you note a day for the next year.
Although it took more than a year to complete the writing of 365 Thank-you notes, I continued writing them until 365 were completed. And then kept on. I learned to be grateful for the life I had, recognizing that the love I had for my children made my life already richer than the many people I envied. I learned to be grateful for my law firm, my practice, and for the love of friends and family that surrounded me. I became thankful for the many people around me who dealt with challenges far greater than the ones facing me, with courage and style. I learned to recognize the many people in my life who had protected and cared for me.
365 Thank Yous tells the story of how all these things happened, and could be traced to the willingness to be grateful, in fact to the grace I received from writing 365 Thank You notes.
Here is a link to John’s website: http://www.365thankyounotes.com/
Who can you send a thank-you note too?
