Acknowledge Someone Every Day
It was the 1980s. A lot of people were striving to better themselves and find answers for the purpose of life. Some great teachers and a few charlatans produced workshops and seminars that lured thousands. We rushed like sheep, with fists full of money to enroll and get a front row seat. It was exciting; it was scary. We faced our fears; we divulged our secrets; we took off our public masks; and some of us reinvented ourselves, taking on a whole new way of being.
I had many liberating adventures during the 1980s. None was more freeing or profound as the time I spent with Dr. Bill McGrane at The Self Esteem Institute in Cincinnati. The 5 Day, intensive retreat, was filled with lectures and lessons, discussions and assignments, some simple and others confronting, but all in the spirit of self discovery.
One of the more simple lessons was one that seemed to have a major effect on me and altered the way I’ve lived my life, since that time. The lesson was about acknowledging others. Bill suggested that many of us have gone through our lives without sharing acknowledgements. We assume that others simply know how we feel about them, and usually that may not be the case at all.
We began by observing the ways we acknowledge our parents and children, then our extended families, then our friends and neighbors, then leaders in our communities, then others. For me it seemed that my past was filled with intentions to write a note or make a phone call; but frequently those notes and calls were placed on hold and most to all were never completed.
Bill suggested that there was a curious power in acknowledging others and that we’d all understand, once we began the process. One of the rules governing acknowledgements is that they must be sincere. Never say something that is not true and heartfelt.
We each began creating a list of people to acknowledge. I wrote my list directly on a calendar. In the 1980s, people weren’t doing emails like we do today. So our expressions were in the form of letters and postcards. There wasn’t a specific form. There was however the requirement that we do one every day for an entire month.
I invite you to do the same exercise that I did some 25 years ago. I promise you that it will be life changing for you, in the most positive of ways. Begin today. If you don’t begin today it will most likely never happen.