THE 10 + 1 BUILDING BLOCKS OF RELATIONSHIPS: APPRECIATION

I'm pleased to welcome my friend, Chris Vonada again for the next in his series on the 10 + 1 Building Blocks of Relationships. Welcome, Chris!



Appreciation. The positive reinforcement that greases the squeaky wheel. Whenever I think about appreciation, gratitude comes to mind.

Gratitude motives one to acknowledge their thankfulness for kind gestures. This effort improves their relationship with another person, the one who has been kind, caring and loving to them.

Here are my All-Stars for Appreciation:

• Appreciation is noticing the little things. It doesn't have to be off-the-charts 3-second handstand material to invoke gratitude. Those events don't happen every day. Don't wait for the formation of the Himalaya's to show appreciation.
• Share your positive feelings frequently and with meaning. Don't speak EGO-ESE... that's my Urban Dictionary word for puffing up someone's ego. That's not really authentic.
• Be specific and make it thoughtful. Write it out if you have to.
• Gratitude actually takes practice! Keep trying and you'll get better at it.
• "Appreciate the people in your life for being authentic, but don't ever expect them to be perfect." - CV

Yep, I have some examples... and Yep, I'm thinkin' of the HB...

"I appreciate how helpful you were today when you made lunch and brought me some green tea while I was working. You are always so thoughtful like that!" 

She is a really sweet, warm, caring, sensitive, kind, genuine and nice person. So when she does something that is sweet, warm, caring, sensitive, kind, genuine or nice, I need to try to recognize it.

"That was really sweet of you to care so much about Big Bobby, he's been kind of down and I know that you helped pick him up by chatting on the phone with him today."

I tell her how incredibly cute she is in the morning. SO cute, that I came up with a name... CDC... but, since it sounded like the Center for Disease Control (that's not what it really stands for)... and since she's a wee bit of a germ-o-phobe... we had to nix that one and just go with HB.

"You were so so sweet to me this morning! I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but you always seem to keep a positive attitude. That really makes it difficult  NOT to love you... AND it makes you that much cuter in the mornings!"

Appreciation doesn't always have to come in the form of words. Sometimes I can express my gratitude  in other ways as well... flowers, cards, taking her car through the car wash, picking up the cat food from the Ace Hardware... there are many more...

Hoping that this sets a spark of passion for appreciation in your heart today!

What other ways can you think of to express Appreciation?