Today's discussion is about gratitude, specifically My gratitude. One of the things that we try to do here at our office is to spend about an hour every morning delving into a thought-provoking book. We read a few pages, then discuss it and question how we can apply the text to improve ourselves, not just regarding business, but on a personal level. How can I be better today than I was yesterday? How can I be better next week than I am today? What am I doing to improve my life? What am I doing to improve my mind? What am I doing to improve my body? What am I doing to improve those people around me? What kind of an impact am I making?
The book that we have been reading over the last few months was authored by Joe Polish, the founder of the Genius Network, and the book is titled, “What’s in it for them?” That was one of the things that got me excited about this book. It’s not about what’s in it for me; it’s about what’s in it for them. What are you doing for others? One of the requirements of the Financialoscopy team is to write notes of gratitude each week. In fact, every Monday one of the topics of our regular weekly meeting is how many notes of gratitude each team member wrote the past week. They can be for someone in their life. It could be a client, but it could also be family and friends. It could be to the person who checked them out at the grocery store. It just needs to be a note of gratitude.
I decided to send a note of gratitude to Joe Polish thanking him for his book. He maybe didn’t realize that there are businesses like ours that are literally reading two or three pages together and then using it for discussion. So, I wrote a note of gratitude. This is why I’m sharing my gratitude with you today because I received a note of gratitude back from Mr. Joe Polish that said: “Mark, thank you so much for the card. I am super happy my book is valuable. I hope you enjoy this one. Check me out on my website…” He sent an additional new book for us to read, and he even autographed it saying, “Mark, keep giving.” It’s all about developing an attitude of “What’s in it for them?” and then his next book is “Life Gives to the Giver”, which really is so true. I think this is going to be the next book that we go through here at the office. I wanted to share my gratitude with you today because of this very unexpected gift. We don’t show gratitude expecting things in return. We do it just because we should and because showing gratitude helps to spread an attitude of gratitude, but every once in a while, there are these little gifts that come back around. I would call them Pennies from Heaven. If you bless enough people in your life, you will also be blessed.
