Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude and you know, over the past several weeks I've been updating my keynote talk as. I'll be headed to Spokane Washington in just a few days to deliver my first. In-person talk since COVID. Now I'm digging into the topic of loneliness in the workplace and stumbled upon some research from several decades ago that I actually hadn't heard of before.

So there was a psychologist named Arthur Aron, who set out to find the question, the answer to the question. How might we in a laboratory setting? Find a way to create instant intimacy between strangers. Through his research, he was able to come up with a set of 36 questions, which were designed to be asked in a specific

order.

The question start more surface level, like given your choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as your dinner guests? But quickly the questions turn more deeper with questions like this. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone. What would you most regret?

Not having told somebody. And why haven't you told them yet?

So Aaron brought in strangers. Into his laboratory, they paired up and took turns entering the 36 questions. And here's the interesting finding. 57% of the participants bonded enough to get together after the study on their own. And one pair even went on to get married in VR and invited all of the participants from the study to the wedding.

According to this research, you can create intimacy by asking meaningful questions.

Now in January of 2015, an article came out in the New York times written by mainly Lynn caldron titled. To fall in love with anyone do this, where she shared her story of going through the 36 questions with a man who wasn't a stranger. But was actually an acquaintance. And they did indeed fall in love and later got married.

So the point of this, I want you to start to become more conscious of the interactions that you have. Get beyond small talk, ask meaningful questions, be an active listener. And use conversations as a tool for cultivating deeper connections with the people in your life. Or even strangers.

I'm Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from St. With gratitude. So I first want to share a quote with you. It's one of my favorite quotes. Author's unknown, but it says this, um, particularly rough days when I'm sure I can't possibly endure. I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100%.

And that's pretty good. So we've all had rough days, right? Those days where it feels like you can't do anything And as the day passes your mood declines. And then just when it feels like the day can't get any worse, it does. The hardest part about these bad days is trying to turn your mood around. Just keep in mind that you've had bad, bad days in the past. Right. And what happened? You got through them.

In fact, you have a perfect track record of getting through bad days, just like that quote says. So next time you having a rough day, take a step back and remember that you've gotten through them before and you'll get through this Okay. I've got three other things that may help you on rough days. Number one.

In the morning, write down 10 things. You're grateful for. Number two. During the day unplug and get outside in nature. Really enjoy your time outside and be present. And number three. In the evening, write down all of your wins for the day. I'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute Cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from say it with gratitude. It is Friday. That means it's time for some fun. So I want to hear from you. And want you to go to Instagram? Find me on there. My profile is Scott Colby. And send me a DM. Let me know. What's one fun thing you've got going on this weekend.

You know, I was talking to my parents yesterday and I was just telling them that I started to do the daily gratitude minute. Once again. Uh, but I wasn't doing it quite every day. And I said, maybe I should change the name. To the daily ish. Gratitude minute. Um, I probably want to officially change it to that, but that's what it seems to have become not doing this every single day. So we can call this the daily ish gratitude minute.

Okay. My message for the day. I want you to think about the fact that there are some things that are completely out of our control, right? Uh, natural disaster. A death in the family getting sick. But what we can control is our reaction to the things out of our control. Right. We can control how we respond.

We get to choose how to respond to the things out of our control. We can choose to respond in a positive, productive way or a negative, stressful and anxious way. You know, this is much of a reminder to me as it is a message to you. But I hope you take it to heart. Have a fun weekend this is scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily ish gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And as I record this on September six, it's a big day because. September 6th, 2016 is the day that I launched say it with gratitude. So we are celebrating. Six years of gratitude. With my brand say with gratitude. So it's a big

Uh, when good reason to celebrate, uh, today, I want to talk about meaningful conversations and how you can talk to anyone. You know, meaningful conversations, help us feel closer to the people we care about. It's a really good way to connect with somebody. To have a meaningful conversation Sometimes it's tough to be a good listener though. I'm guilty of it. As you know,

As much as anybody else. And I think it's happened to all of us. Sometimes we're just tired from a long day, we're distracted by kids or we're stressed about something in our own life, maybe something at work and. It could be a challenge to sit down and, and just be a present listener to the people who are important in our lives. But the good news is that conversations are skills that we can actively work on and bring us closer to the people we're having the conversation with.

I always say that being a good listener is an act of gratitude. It's showing somebody, the person that's doing the talking. That you care about them. And so if you're looking for a way to show gratitude to somebody, just be a good listener. This week. I want you to be more conscious of the interactions that you have. Get beyond small talk, be an active listener and use conversations as a tool for cultivating deeper connections with the people in your life.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. And you know, I talk a lot about keeping a gratitude journal or writing. Thank you cards. But today I wanna switch things up a bit and share with you eight fun and somewhat different ways to express gratitude.

Okay, let's get into it. Number one. Appreciate the simple things in life. Trying to figure out what you're grateful for can seem. Overwhelming. If you're only focusing on big things. What about the simple things in life? That cup of coffee in the morning. The bed you woke up in that beautiful butterfly you saw in your walk.

What about your ability to walk? Not everybody has that capability. We tend to overlook the simple things in life and take other things for granted. Try not to do this. Okay. Number two, look up and smile. A lot of people don't smile these days and often you have to be the one that initiates it. But not only the smiling make you feel good, smiling at somebody will make their day too.

Smile more and watch how your day can instantly turn around. While you're at it. Give compliments to. Be sincere. Find something about the person that you appreciate and let them know. Okay. Number three, volunteer. Think about giving back to your community. Whether you feed the homeless, build a playground for kids or volunteer at an animal shelter.

Find something that will allow you to make a positive impact in the lives of others. This will make you feel great. Number four, create an impact video. Make a video for someone that has. Impacted your life and send it to them. Really make it heartfelt and tell the other person, not only that they have impacted you, but how.

I guarantee they will love it. Number five practice, random acts of kindness. Through your generosity, you can positively affect another person's life and bring joy to yourself from having done. So. It could be given a care pass package to the homeless. Handing out roses to random strangers or buying someone in line.

A cup of coffee. Number six, keep a gratitude jar. Keep a jar filled with notes on life's blessings, big and small in your home. And whenever you or your spouse or children feel down. Choose a note from the jar for an instant lift. Number seven post positive notes or quotes around your house. To help keep the feelings of gratefulness alive and part of your day, write little positive notes and post them around the house.

So they are in plain sight as a steady reminder of all. That is good. At last but not least number eight. Share your gratitude around the dinner table. You can share one thing you were grateful for that day with your family and ask them to do the same. This also helps teach the practice of gratitude to, to children.

Enriching their lives. And there you have a eight fun and different ways to express gratitude. I hope these help you i'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute. Cheers.

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby from SAIT with gratitude. And, you know, one of the most powerful things you can do for somebody else and for yourself is to write a handwritten card, expressing your appreciation for somebody. It's even more powerful. If you don't have a specific reason for writing the card, you just write it.

Just because. Imagine how surprised and delighted the recipient of the card will be when they see it in the mail, open it up and read it. But if you don't have a specific reason for writing the card, what you should you say in it? It's sometimes challenging to know what to write. My friend Yasmine told me how he writes his notes of appreciation.

So I want to share his format with you. Hopefully this sparks some ideas on what to write. Here's his template as told by Yasmine. He says to start the card with, I remember the time of when. So now you're reconnecting with a moment that you and your card recipient shared something special. A magical moment or experience. And by doing that, now, it brings you into that moment and for the card recipient.

And brings them into that moment.

The next thing you can write in your card is what I appreciate most about you is. So it's not necessarily something that the card recipient did. It's not a gift that they gave you. But it's a quality about that person. Something that you appreciate about them.

And then the final part of the note. This is the part we can just think to yourself. If today was your last day, what would you want that card recipient to know? And then you're going to really dig deep in terms of what you would want to share with the recipient. Now that is a powerful appreciation card template. Thank you for Yasmin for sharing that with me.

And imagine if you got a heartfelt card like that in the mail, how would that make you feel? So I want you to go out. Be kind and write somebody a surprise heartfelt note of appreciation. I'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby with say it with gratitude. You know, we sometimes forget that small, consistent steps can lead to big results. So today I'm here to remind Often we think we need to take big steps in order to make progress towards a goal, but that mindset usually leads to inaction and inconsistency.

So instead focus on taking small steps on a consistent basis. Over time, you'll reach a large goal. So if you're building a house from bricks, you're laying them one at a time. Right? The structure doesn't go up overnight. It takes months sometimes more than a year to build that house brick by brick.

Think of a goal you're working towards. What's a small action step. You can take towards it today. Now what's a small step you can take tomorrow. How about the next day? Just keep being consistent day after day build that foundation and before you know it you'll reach that goal i'm scott colby with say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude Cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby was saved with the gratitude, wanted to share with you a tip from my book, the grateful entrepreneur, which is all about creating relationships in your business. Uh, tip in there that actually happened to me tonight is get together with your customers and clients while you're on the road or while they're on the road. So this evening, one of my clients that I've been coaching virtually for almost two years,

She is vacationing in the smokey mountains, about 45 minutes from where I live in Knoxville. She's here with her husband and son. From New Jersey, she contacted me and said, Hey, can we get together for dinner? So I had a lovely dinner with her, her husband and her son. It was great to meet her in person finally. And that's one of the things that you can do to just grow your relationships with your customers and clients, especially ones that you just interact with virtually.

And that is to get together in person with them. When the opportunity presents itself, it can grow your relationship. It can help them stay a client or customer of yours for a much longer period of time. Because now when you meet them in person, you have more of a personal relationship. So when you get the opportunity, meet your clients or customers on the road, we're just get together with them in person. If they're in your city.

Now if you want a free digital copy of my book, the grateful entrepreneur, along with some other goodies. Go to gratitude, toolkit.com and you can download it for free. I'm scott colby was say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby. And had a question for you. Do you feel like there is a lack of appreciation in your workplace? You know, research shows that 79% of employees quit their job because they don't feel appreciated at work. And even if a company does have an employee recognition program, most are doing it wrong.

You see, during an employee recognition program, a company recognizes an employee for a job. Well done. But as humans, we'd rather be appreciated for our heart. We'd rather be appreciated for who we are as a person. We don't want recognition to be tied to our performance all the time. The other things that most companies don't understand is that each individual employee likes to be appreciated in a specific way.

So a company-wide employee recognition program where you might get a thank you and a certificate or a bonus for a job. Well done. Won't work very well. Now for some employees that might be fine for others that might not be meaningful to them. It's up to the leaders to find out how each individual team member likes to be appreciated.

And then appreciate each team member in their preferred way consistently. I learned this in the book, the five languages of appreciation in the workplace. And I've been fortunate enough to interview one of the coauthors Dr. Paul White, about this very topic. When you appreciate each team member in their preferred appreciation language on a consistent basis, you'll have employees that perform their best and stick around for the longterm.

Resulting in cost savings for the organization. I'm scott colby was say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers

Welcome back to the daily gratitude minute. This is Scott Colby was say it with gratitude. Got an unusual idea. Wanted to run by you. You know, I was interviewed on a podcast recently and we were talking about gratitude and connection in the workplace. I think connection really starts with conversations, asking questions, and then creating a safe space that allows your team to open up and speak from the heart.

I then talked about a way to take the connection. One step further, get outside in nature if possible, but at least somewhere where there is green. Having conversations by asking meaningful questions is great. But if you're doing it in a conference room or other place at work, you might get distracted or might not be as vulnerable.

When you get outside in nature, it stimulates creative thinking, your critical thinking skills improve as well. You have more space to disconnect and breathe and the conversations will be taken to a new level. So even though this might be an unusual idea, it's one that's well worth exploring. I hope you're going to consider this for your workspace, getting outside in nature and having meaningful conversations.

I would also love to hear what you think about this idea. So feel free to connect with me. You can email [email protected]. I'm scott colby was say it with gratitude and this has been the daily gratitude minute cheers