Saying Thank You!

Have you ever counted how many times a day you say “Thank you” to other people? It takes a nerd to do that, but the point is, we often say it less often than we should. To the delivery person, to the clerk, or to anyone who does service for us or help us — these are what we can do. But it gets harder to say to your bossy boss, or to difficult people, isn’t it?

Will Bowen has a popular book called A Complaint Free World. The simple message is: quit complaining. The less you complain, the happier you will become. In fact, I would think that saying “Thank you” (even silently at the heart) will help one reduce or quit complaining. “A Thank-You World” complements and catalyzes “A Complaint Free World.”

Why? Because unless you are a good actor and can say “Thank you” superficially or politically, you normally say it from the heart. And if you are more appreciative, and more content with what presents to you, you naturally complain less. This is quite a simple reality, but we often overlook it, so much so that Dr. Wayne Dyer notices that and reminds us in the book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life.

The idea is simple, but can be challenging to do in practice. Our mind and ego holds us back. That’s where meditation or yoga comes in — it calms and purifies us, so that we naturally and spontaneously feel more appreciative, content, and loving.

Just for fun: In how many languages can you say “Thank you”? I believe with no exception it exists in every language. Maybe this shows nothing but that fact that appreciation is an essential element in humanity — it’s universal regardless of nationality and language. I guess I can manage to say “Thank you” in 9 languages (if dialect counts as a language) — German, French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hakka, Taiwanese. Something useful when you travel!

Thank you for reading my post!