How much of what I post online is real sentiment or something I’ve pondered? How much is just “me too” posts to fit in and not to feel left out?
I think about the empty parade of happy birthdays courtesy of Facebook or the endless “thank the troops” posts on Memorial Day.
If you’re going to thank the troops then thank someone you know. Thank a family member. Thank a friend. Thank a spouse. Thank a co-worker.
Take a moment and thank someone you know. Thank someone who means something to you.
There are not enough “Thank You’s” in my line of work.
I’m always the villain.
Never the hero.
It would be nice to hear more thanks for the work I provide to my customers everyday.
This got me thinking. How often are other thankless jobs recognized and appreciated?
How often does the legal team get a Thank You?
How often do Human Resources get a kudos?
What about your own manager? Do you ever tell them you appreciate their time and efforts?
It’s easy to get lost in feeling under appreciated and overworked.
Take today to tell someone how much you appreciate their work. Find a teammate, co-worker, or even someone in a department you barely know and say Thank you.
Send them an email.
Pass along a Card Against Apathy.
Or even better, put a handwritten note or card through inter office mail or on their desk.
Do something small for someone today to show you appreciate what they do.
We could all show more appreciation to those around us.
A customer at Tim Hortons decided to pay for the order of the next person in line. The trend continued for 3 hours and 228 people.
Can you start a chain of kindness today?
Do you admire someone that makes cool things? Let them know. Send them a thank you note. Write them a letter or send an email. Send a private message on your social network of choice. Write a blog post and email them the link.
Writers and artists make things because they love to create. But there is no creation in a vacuum. If you appreciate their work, tell them about it.
Nothing lifts my spirits more than when someone responds to something I have written. I know people are reading my words when I write them. I can see analytics and hit counts. I can see there are people reading but I don’t know what they’re thinking.
There are so many distractions on the Internet it is easy to overlook the human connection behind the words, photos and works of others.
There are people behind the screen names and avatars. There are humans with as much self-doubt and apprehension as many of us feel about putting their work out into the world. Hitting Publish is scary.
Tell them you enjoy it.
Tell them you got something from it.
Tell them you disagree.
It doesn’t have to be long. It just has to be.
This morning, the latest patron letter from Patrick Rhone appeared in my inbox and it spoke to me.
It was a piece called “What’s Broken?” It was all about taking stock of your environment and figuring out the little things that are broken. What small, daily annoyances could I remove from my life to reduce friction?
It spoke to me in its profound simplicity. And for the first time since becoming a patron, I sent him a little note in return.
He responded in kind. It was a short but meaningful exchange. He knew his words had resonated within me and I appreciated his words and I got the appreciation and wisdom from those words.
Take some time today and write a little note to someone your respect or enjoy online.
It will brighten their day and you will both feel good afterwards.
Thank you.
Thank you to all the writers who have written books, short stories, poems, novellas, and stories online and off.
Thank you to reaching into your souls and tearing out the words and ideas screaming, whispering, begging to be let out. Thank you for sharing your stories with me. Thank you for making me feel a little less alone.
Thank you for allowing me to take the fantastic voyage you’ve led me on. Thank you allowing me to tag along on the amazing stories and worlds you’ve created.
Growing up in a small town, my entertainment was books. I read voraciously and each week I was in some new far away place. I wandered through the world of tomorrow and yesterday. I sailed across oceans and traveled the stars. I lived in the shoes of the young and the old. I lived with humans and animals and being of all sorts.
Thank you for all you have written. Thank you for all you will write. Thank you for your words. Thank you for your tears. Thank you for your smiles and triumphs. Thank you for the sadness and misery. Thank you for all that you’ve shared with me. Thank you for taking me to places I could never visit on my own.
Thank you.
Thank You Steve Jobs and the thousands of people who helped your vision become reality.
BREAKING: Apple says Steve Jobs has died.
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 5, 2011
This is how I found out about the passing of Steve Jobs.
I have no great words this evening. I have no stories or anecdotes. Yet, I sit here typing on an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, beside a Magic Trackpad. I type onto the screen of an iMac with my iPhone not far away.
My wife is laying in bed with her MacBook and her iPhone.
I am saddened. I feel there was a passing of a true visionary tonight. Say what you want about Apple and how Steve Jobs ran it, but he changed the face of technology. He changed how we think about, write about and interact with technology.
Technology is no longer a tool or a menace or an inconvenience. Technology is a part of who we are. Technology is a part of our daily lives. It is woven into the fabric of who we are and how we think and act. How we shop and conduct business. How we communicate near and far.
Technology became much friendlier after Steve.
The smiling Mac, a welcome face to the beginning of my journey into the Macintosh Apple IIe I spent so many hours playing with in elementary school. The PowerMac G4 I spent countless hours producing newspaper layouts in college. The original MacBook I carried with me everywhere I went for nearly 4 years.
Steve Jobs made the world a better place. He taught us how tech is not cold metal and plastic. He brought it into our homes and into our hearts.
He did this. He did this with the help of thousands of Apple employees past and present.
Thank you Steve Jobs. Thank you Steve Wozniak.
Thank you for setting into motion a vision of what technology could be.
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