Appreciation: The Game Changer

If I ask you how often you appreciate everything, what will be your answer? Probably a few times in a day! Good to start with. But here is something more about it. Keep on reading.

At first, let’s understand the meaning of appreciation. I searched for the meaning, and this was the result, “Appreciation is about acknowledging the perceived value of something or someone” - Google. Appreciating every single and small thing is as important as having them. I have observed that we want to be appreciated. And from my personal experience, I can tell you that appreciation is a game-changer.

Let’s count on the things that deserve our acknowledgement.

1. Your life: I realized that being born is the first we need to appreciate. This life is so precious. And as a human, we are blessed to do anything and everything. Admit that we humans are more blessed than other creatures. Just take out your 2 mins. Ready? Starts from here. Take a deep breath. SMILE. Thank God for being born. Done? Now again, take a deep breath and Smile. This time thank GOD for being ALIVE. You and your life is something very precious. You are born for a good reason, you might not know the reason, but your life is for something good. Believe me.

2. People around you: Being busy with so many works, we often forget to take a pause and appreciate people around us. You can know their worth. To know more, just imagine that the person around you has gone out for a week, either for a vacation or for some work. Now imagine how you will feel? What will you miss about them? What would you do without them, and how will your day go? Now you know the value they hold in your life. Appreciate that. Tell them how important they are for you and WHY?

3. Things around you: You must be knowing that we should thank God for everything they have given us. But for understanding their actual value, let’s imagine. When you wake up, get in the kitchen for your favourite coffee, tea, juice, and you see that the container is empty. You will feel angry, and that might cause you irritation also. When you can get angry for truancy, then you should appreciate the things for their presenteeism. This applies to every single and small thing. Even a safety pin needs your appreciation for holding up your clothes.

4. Appreciate older people: We often forget that elders too require your appreciation. It can be your parents, elder sibling, grandparents, or a senior colleague. They did be knowing that they are doing good but appreciating them makes this acknowledgement more strong. Appreciate your parents, grandparents, and elder siblings for their support and guidance. Acknowledge their sacrifice and care. Appreciate your senior colleague for their excellent work. Tell them what you learned from them. This will build the relationship.

5. Appreciate the younger ones: Appreciating your younger ones are so so important and still ignorant. Let’s admit this, as a child, we use to do our work primarily for appreciation. We yearned to get appreciated. We used to do things and show them to our elders just to hear the words of appreciation. And as we get appreciated, we felt so much happiness that can’t be expressed in words. That motivated us to improve ourselves. We are here because of all the appreciation we got for our work and for everything we did. One thing more, while appreciating younger ones, don’t tell them about the mistakes immediately. Give them some time. Let them be proud of their selves. You can try this game-changer. Give work to your younger ones (they can be juniors also). Let them do the work. Whatever they do, just appreciate them and after some time tell them the area of improvement. Feedback should be, Praising them - 95% and telling them the area of improvement - 5%. Now see how the games change. The next time their level of work would be much high. Their enthusiasm would be at another level. Just give it a shot.
   

6. Appreciate yourself: Amid work and relaxation, we often forget to appreciate ourselves. Take a pause. Acknowledge that you are a COMPLETE person. Appreciate you for coming this far. You have survived a lot of things. Don’t wait for others to appreciate you. You do it for yourself. They might be busy with their own work, they know your value, but sometimes they forget to mention it. Same as we do. Be ok with it. You acknowledge your every effort, your success, your failure. Acknowledge, accept and appreciate.

Come on, let’s try this, take a deep breath, count on your fingers how many times have you overcame a difficulty when you thought that you are going to fall badly. There must be times you thought for a second that you are finished! But see, you are here, doing great. You may feel that you are not doing enough, but believe me, if you are feeling this, you have already done much, and now is the time to appreciate all of those things.

Ways/steps to appreciate:

1. Be aware: Awareness is the first step towards appreciating anything. Be aware of what you have to appreciate. To be grateful for. Acknowledge those things. If you want you can write to them, do that. So that you don’t forget those things in your busy life. From the day you are born till now, write down every single thing that you remember. See how many things you have to be grateful for. Once you start writing, keep on adding. Take out your time. Either 5 mins every day or 15 mins weekly. But writing down every day impels you to find one daily.
   

2. Pray: Prayer means talking to the divine power. And after acknowledging what you have, thanks to them for everything they have given you. Your life, family, job, health, career, etc. Thank them for these blessings. Tell them how you are grateful for everything in life. Do it with realization and with feelings. Thank them straight from your heart.
   

3. Appreciate them: Tell people around you about their quality and importance. TELL them. Don’t think that they already know it, and you don’t need to mention this every time. No, you need to mention it every single time when possible. Tell them face to face. If not possible, then just do a video call. If that too is not possible, then go for a text message or letter or something. Realize how will you feel when you will be appreciated every time you do something for others. You will feel good, right? The other person is also a HUMAN and feels the same way. I may sound strange, but trust me, talking with things around you and actually telling them you are essential makes you feel grateful about them. When I start working on my PC in the morning, I say to my pc “Good morning, everything is fine?” True, it will NOT give me a reply, but it just means I respect and acknowledge their presence in my life. I’m grateful to have these things.
   

4. The unexpected surprise: This is for HUMANS. HUMANS feel good while pampered. Don’t you? You can appreciate them daily. And for adding another level to the relationship, do something unexpected. For instance, cook their favourite food with your own hand. Surprise them with a movie and a popcorn plan. Or the best thing you can do is do work that they don’t expect from you. Sometimes, if you are a clumsy person, then organize your things or theirs. At first, they will be shocked and then surprised. But do it for their efforts. Obviously, not every time you need to do it as a return thing. Sometimes you can initiate.
   

5. Gift them: This one is also for HUMANS. Gift your folks their favourite things. If he/she is your junior colleague, then you can gift them a diary for planning. If they are your family members, you already know what they love—no need to spend much. You can just gift them their favourite type of watch or dress, maybe a perfume, or a headphone in their shopping cart. You can simply ask them also. You can surprise them with your gift. Remember, you need to surprise them, not to shock them. Buy something affordable.

I hope you remember that you need to appreciate yourself as well. So? Gift yourself. Buy something for yourself. Know you are valuable. And you can do small things to feel good about yourself.

Words of wisdom are always endless, but this article needs an end!

Thank you for taking out your precious time and reading this! I really appreciate this.

I hope now you know what you need to start. Tell me your ways of appreciating things. There must be more different and unique ways for it. Comment them and help people to discover new ways.