Your success depends on the input of many other people, so it pays to acknowledge them from time to time.
Your success depends on the input of many other people, so it pays to acknowledge them from time to time.
Here in the US, we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s the coolest holiday of the year to me. I love Thanksgiving. Food, family, you name it. It’s a time to be thankful.
But I want to challenge you on the way that you’re thankful, and I want to give you some things to think about in the few weeks left before the Christmas holiday season.
I don’t want you to just be thankful for things. I also want you to thank. Thank people. Not be thankful for something, rather be thankful for someone. And don’t thank them by email and don’t give some insincere card to people and think you’ve gotten away with it.
You thank people on the phone if they’re far away. Not with a voicemail, but person to person. If they’re far away that’s sometimes the only way you can thank them. And you thank people in person if they’re in your marketplace or in your area.
Here’s a list of people to be thankful for and to personally thank.
• Your customers. Without them you’d have no money.
• Your co-workers because without them there would be no team or family of people to help your customers win.
• The people of influence in your life because those are the people that have actually created the atmosphere for you to become successful.
• Your prospective customers. Thank them for the opportunity.
• Your vendors. They’re the people who have actually made it happen in your business.
• Your close business friends because they’re the ones who have given you the referrals.
• Then there’s family. Start with your extended family –your family all the way out there to those distant relatives.
• Then thank each member of your immediate family. You know the ones who really mean a lot to you. The ones you really love.
When you get your family together during the holidays, prepare a short talk about the gratefulness and the gratitude that you have for all the people who surround you. Tell them how you really feel. Thank each one personally for something that happened, or something they did for you, or something you learned from them during the past year.
Thanking other people for something makes them feel great – but it makes you feel better than great.
Finally, don’t forget to thank yourself.
Be thankful for the lessons you’ve learned, the successes that you’ve had, and the issues that you’ve had to overcome during the year. Be thankful for your family. And while I recognise some people in your family are closer than others, try to be thankful for all of them.
And be extra thankful for the ones that you really share genuine love with.
In the US, Thanksgiving is your day – a celebration day, a family day. It’s the day where you come to the realisation of who you are and how thankful you are. A day to celebrate who you have become. And a day to acknowledge others who have helped you become who you are.
Try to take these positive affirmations into every day.
And for all of you who are reading this, I’m thankful and grateful for you, my customer. Thank you for your contribution to my business success and thank you for your loyalty, your continued loyalty, to my message.
I’m going to make you a promise. 2015 is going to be an amazing year; all you have to do is show up and work hard. Give thanks for that. Celebrate that.
Jeffrey Gitomer is an American author, professional speaker and business trainer, who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development.
© 2014 All rights reserved. Don’t reproduce this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.