Happy Sunday Everyone:
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about recalibrating gratitude. The message to myself was an overall check point on making sure I don’t get stale on gratitude. The concept of “set and forget” in marketing is a blessing and curse. Nice to have a system in place that takes care of itself. Not so nice to have automated gratitude where you forget about the concept itself, being grateful and showing it.
The timing on hitting the send button on those thoughts was kind of amazing. Two days later I received one of the kindest, most thoughtful gifts, of my lifetime. If you wanted to take automated gratitude and flip it upside down, and ask for the polar opposite, my gift was that. You’re reading this for the first time; I’ve had time to ruminate on what it takes to be so thoughtful. What type of investment, what type of heart, what type of human. I compare it to me and ask, “would I do that”, answer honestly is “no”. It makes me grateful, and it makes me want to be better. That’s a good thing on both fronts. Hang out with people that make you grateful, and make you want to raise your bar.
The gift that showed up was leather bound book titled “Sunday Thoughts”. JJ Mazzo, my guy, with his amazing team member, Sam, took it upon themselves to capture every Sunday Thoughts I’ve written the past 7 years, put it into a massively high-quality book and send it to me. My own team gave me the same gift 7 years ago for my 45th birthday (world’s greatest team!!). JJ decided I needed an up-to-date version, so he captured each thought from where that book stopped to current date (picture of both attached).
One of my favorite actors is Jack Nicholson. One of my favorite lines from Jack is in “As good as it gets”. He screws up everything with Helen Hunt on a date and right before she’s about to walk out on him, she requires a compliment, Jack simply says “you make me want to be a better man”. As I type this, I do consider some of my tougher buddies sitting back saying “you cheese ……” but I’m okay with it. You have to be aware of people that make you want to be better. Better might not even be the right word, grow is more like it, people that make you want to grow. I’m not envious of JJ’s mindset and heart, I’m grateful for it. The gift makes me want to study the people I love and care about and show them the gratitude they deserve.
If you could take a minute and sit back and consider what goes through someone’s head and heart to be so thoughtful. You can’t take anything away from it, its 24-carat goodness. JJ’s gift requires consideration. Obviously, it means more to me because I’m the recipient of it, but it makes you pause to consider the impact we can have in showing our love and appreciation for the relationships that are most important to us.
I love my book, but I love even more the thought of what it will do for me on paying it forward to others!