Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. You know, when I give my keynote to companies and at conferences on creating a happy workplace by increasing human connection and leading with gratitude, I recount my time in Guatemala, specifically when I first arrived in Guatemala and when I had to say my.

And the bottom line is when I arrived in Guatemala, they made me feel completely welcome. They, uh, loved us with open arms. By us, I mean, the volunteers and I, they made us feel welcome and like we were a part of their family or part of the community immediately. And then by the end, when it was time to say our goodbyes us volunteers, we didn't want.

We had felt, um, so ingrained in their community, we had a lot of fun. We got our work done, and I talked to companies about making your team feel the exact same way. When somebody is new to your company, you can welcome them with open arms and then you want to create a team that doesn't wanna leave. Right?

Turnover is the biggest, um, one of the biggest costs that companies. There are lots of turnover, people leaving. You have to train new employees. It's hard to find good, good help sometimes, especially in this day and age. So how can we create an environment that welcomes our team as they come in and makes them not want to say goodbye?

That's the ultimate goal. That will save your company a lot of money in the long run. And you could do that several different ways, but two best ways I know of is to increase that human connect. feel, make people feel like they, uh, you know, belong to something. Uh, and also to appreciate your team in a meaningful way.

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. On yesterday's episode, I talked about an online event that I went to Sunday evening called Thank You Live and all about appreciating people in our lives in 2022 and, uh, appreciating the things that we accomplished in 2022 looking.

Before we look forward to 2023. Another cool thing that we did, two things. One, we wrote a card or a note to somebody in our lives that made a difference in 2022. And one thing that Blake, the leader of the program, Suggested that we do is that we start our card with a prompt without you. So imagine you're writing an appreciation note to somebody else and you lead off by saying without you.

Now, this is something that I teach, uh, companies to do when they're writing handwritten notes to their customers or their team members, or really anybody in their lives. A secret here. I actually stole it from Blake. I learned it last year, and I love that prompt. So without you think about leading off your appreciation notes or your gratitude thank you notes with those words.

Without you, what would your life look like without that person? But the other cool thing that we did on Sunday evening, we wrote, Ourselves a thank you note. That's right. We wrote a note to ourselves, appreciating us, thanking us for things that we did in 2022, or maybe ways that we persevered, things that we overcome.

So I had never written a handwritten note to myself, and it's great because we often think about the things that we didn't do, but think about writing your. A note in 2022, thanking yourself for certain things that you did or experiences that you went to, or obstacles that you overcome. Hope this helps you, uh, enjoy and have a great end to your 2022 as we look forward into 2023.

I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. Last night I participated in an online event called Thank You Live, hosted by Blake Fly. His mission is to do this event every year for 55 years. So this was number seven, I believe he does it every December. and there's several things I like about it, but I'm gonna focus on one thing.

It's one of the first things we did. Uh, we, he had us reflect on our year, you know, when December comes and it's almost time to turn the calendar into the new year. I know for me personally, I know for many people we focus on what we want to accomplish the following. That is great, but we don't tend to reflect on the things that we're proud of, that we accomplished during the past year.

So what Blake had us do was write down every month of the year, of course, January through December, and he had us write down something that we accomplished, something that we are we're proud of for each month, and it could be multiple. So you might be wondering like, Hey, how I can't remember what I did in February.

I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. That is true. So Blake gives some hints on how to remember, uh, things. And the thing that worked for me, uh, the best was looking at my pictures. So I just went to my online photo album and Google, and I looked at all my pictures for January. and that reminded me of something that I accomplished.

Did the same thing for February, March, April, all the way throughout the year. So that helped me remember all that I had done, and that's not the only way you could do it. He suggested you could also look at your calendar. Um, sometimes that reminds you of what you did, uh, during the year, maybe even social media photos.

And look, search for those by month. Um, anyway, so I encourage you to go through this. Reflect on what you did this past year. Celebrate your accomplishments, see what you're proud of, and that'll help you feel good and and focus on what you want your next year to look like. Uh, one last thing before I sign off.

I've got some really cool tools to help you live in more gratitude, both, uh, personally and professionally. Uh, you can go to gratitude toolkit.com and download some goodies there. They're all free. 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. Recently, I've been working on my mindset and more specifically the language that I use just so I can be more positive day to day. You know, I think our minds tend to be more negative as humans. That's only natural, so it can take some work to think positive thoughts and.

That's one way gratitude comes into play that can help you be more positive naturally, but also just watching your language. So I've been looking at my language specifically around money and having a more of a positive mindset. I tend to, you know, when things are expensive in the grocery store or the gas prices rise, then I'll say something like, Hey, this is, this is expensive, or this is crazy.

Why is this cost So, and that doesn't do any good, right. That that's a negative money mindset. So in terms of what you can do to have more positive mindset, not specifically towards money, cuz that's something I'm working on personally. It may not be something that you're interested in, but, so just in general, uh, I got this from a book that I've read called Life is Good.

So The Life is Good Book, life is Good, is a, is a world renowned brand, but they have a book out and I remember. Chapter on gratitude. They said, replace the words I have to with, I get to. And so I was just thinking about that yesterday, replacing the words like, I have to pay my bills with, I get to pay my bills.

Not everybody gets to pay a heating bill, right? If we're homeless or, you know, other circumstances we might not have that, that, uh, going for in our lives. Perhaps we can't afford, uh, a gas bill and we don't have the means to do so. I have the means to do so. So when I think about it, and maybe this is something a takeaway for you, replace the words, have to with, get to and watch, just how that changes your perspective on what's going on in your life.

I get to go to my job. I get to pay my bills, I get to buy grocer. That's awesome to be able to, to be able to afford those things and have those means in your life. Just remember, not everybody is as fortunate as us. 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. You know, as I recently have been updating my keynote presentation about leading with gratitude to, in order to create a happier workplace, I came across a word that I never heard before. I'm sure it's a made up word, but I liked it and it's, the word is phubber.

And so I ask people on my keynote, are you a, are you a Phubber? And it's the combination of the word phone and snubber. It's somebody who ignores a person they're with and gives attention to their cell phone. So we've all probably done it before. We've all probably had it done to us before. It doesn't feel very good.

I know I've done it. plenty of times. It's not something I'm proud of. I want to do it less, but just kind of just picture two people at a restaurant sitting down to a meal or having coffee together and one person's talking and the other person is on their phone. That person that's on their phone is a phubber. They're paying more attention to their cell phone and, and giving the impress.

that whatever's going on on their cell phone is more important than the person, the human being across from them. And the problem with that, the person that's being phubbed, that's being ignored, feels rejected. They feel excluded, and they feel not important. So I wanna encourage you to practice not being a phubber to put that phone away, or don't even bring it with you when.

Having a conversation with another person. When you're connecting with somebody, when you're listening, be present, show them that you care and create that connection. The relationship will deepen and that's a, a sign that you appreciate that person when you listen to what they have to say. So that's my tip for today.

Hope that helps. If you want more tips on how to use gratitude in your business, in your personal life, I've got a whole gratitude toolkit. You can go to gratitude. toolkit.com and download all my freebies. 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. I'm still in Spokane, Washington as I record this, but headed back, uh, to Tennessee. Uh, this afternoon I, I'll get in about midnight, but I was at a coffee shop here in Spokane that I've been to several times, and a gentleman walked in, um, and he was using a cane, uh, having trouble walking a little.

But he said hello to the baristas and they wished him a happy birthday. So he was obviously a regular there. They knew today was his birthday and I just, something little like that saying happy birthday to somebody can make their day. I'm sure it made him feel special. I actually struck up a conversation with him a little bit, uh, for about five minutes.

Um, just told him I was, you know, outta town. I wished him a happy birthday since I had over. That today was his special day and he was telling me, um, how he had suffered a stroke but having, having a little bit of trouble speaking and walking, but wished him a wonderful day and weekend. And, uh, I'm hoping he gets hundreds of messages today on his birthday.

But something simple that a company can do is wish their customers a happy birthday. I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute cheer.

Welcome back to the Daily Gratitude Minute. This is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. I recently finished a book called the Mr Thank You Project by John Israel. I've mentioned this book a couple times before and it details John's journey of writing five thank you cards a day for an entire year, and I'm blown away that he was so consistent and completed his mission.

And as you could imagine, it sometimes became difficult to think about who he should write the cards to. You know, that's a lot of cards, over a thousand cards to write. So he ended up starting to write some cards to some people he didn't know. And I want to share with you a great example. So John went to.

Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and I'm actually in Spokane right now. I just gave a keynote presentation this morning, so this reminded me of his story. John's a big Gonzaga basketball fan, and in 2017 they lost in the NCAA tournament in the finals. And as you can imagine, John and all Gonzaga fans were completely sad and depressed about the final result.

So he said the game ended at about 9:00 PM and he still had his five cards to write for that day. But the last thing he wanted to do, especially because he was feeling so low in the moment, was to write these cards. Well, as John was trying to figure out who to write the cards. , he suddenly had an idea.

You see, he thought about the Gonzaga basketball team that year, and yes, they did lose the championship game, but they also went further in the tournament than any other previous time. This was the furthest they had gone in the tournament. . And so in reality, it was a time for celebration, so John flipped his attitude and said, what if we celebrate the year that they had, forget about being depressed, that they lost a championship game?

Let's celebrate and give thanks. To going further than any other Gonzaga team had in history. So he, he ended up writing a thank you note to every single player on the team. He looked up their statistics, what were their best games, and he recalled those best games in his card. He wrote to the coaches and he said, Flipping that attitude changed his mood 180 degrees from one of being sad and depressed and down because of that heartbreaking defeat to now one of joy and celebration on what an incredible season the Gonzaga basketball players had given John and all the other fans.

So, great message on how you can take something negative and just by changing your. Looking for the good. Turn it, turning it in into something positive. 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 as I record this audio, I am in Spokane, Washington here to deliver a keynote talk on gratitude in the workplace at a conference. And I flew in, uh, to Spokane today, and there was a snowy day. And there were some delays not getting into the airport, but actually once we landed, we had to sit on the plane for an hour and 15 minutes because they weren't able to plow yet.

And there was another plane at our gate and they couldn't get out. They had to de-ice that plane. So we were delayed getting to the gate. Uh, and it was a little bit frustrating. I mean, I didn't make a big deal out. It, but Delta, the airline I was on sent an email a couple of hours later, which I loved. I was gonna read it to you.

It says, hello Scott. We know spending additional time on board your flight after arriving wasn't what you planned today. We encountered a delay getting the aircraft into the gate after landing. This wasn't the experience you wanted to have. We wanted you to have with us, and I'm truly sorry for any inconvenience this may have.

I've deposited 5,000 bonus miles into your account. We appreciate your business and this is not intended to put a value on your experience, but as part of our apology for the inconvenience, so I actually love that it was Delta owning up to something they couldn't control cuz it was weather related, but they were just doing something.

Treating us passengers as rural human beings and not transactional. So something I talk about a lot and it was really cool for Delta to put that into action. 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. My name is Scott Colby from Say It With Gratitude. You know, one of the things I talk about in my keynote is how human connection has gone down quite a bit over the last 10, 20 years. And an example I'll give is the way we used to get music back in like the eighties and the nineties versus the way we get our music now.

So let me give an example. When I was growing up again in the eighties and nineties, there was a record store called Tower Records. It was all over the country. They sold CDs, DVDs, videos, and my mom would drop my brother and off there, my brother and I off at the record store for a couple of hours. I would get the latest classic rock CDs that I wanted.

My brother would take a few hours to go through every classical music. CD that there was looking for a rare recording of something and it got me thinking. How we used to get music back then is radically different from how we get music now, and we used to have to interact with human beings back then when we were looking for music.

So listen to this example, we might ask a friend for an album recommendation. That's human connection point number one. Then we would drive to the record store, like Tower Records where our mom would drive us there. We would ask a store employee if they have it. So that's human connection. Point number two, we would grab the album stand in the checkout line.

We might talk to another customer next to us in line about their music taste. That's human connection point number. We'd purchased the album from the store clerk, human connection point number four, and we'd head to a friend's house to enjoy the album. Human connection, point number five. That rarely happens anymore nowadays.

How do we get our music? We get our music digitally. We don't have to leave our home. We don't even have to leave our sofa. In fact, we can just say, you know, Alexa, play this song, and our AI device will play whatever song we want them to. Or we go to a Spotify, Pandora, whatever that looks like for you. So in this day and age, human connection has really decreased.

Um, and we really have to be conscious about that and be proactive in finding ways, touchpoints, where we can connect to other human beings because that's only going to help us. Cuz as we connect to more humans and have these deep, meaningful relationships, our happiness increase. Hope this helps you. If you have any comments, please don't hesitate to email [email protected].

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. When I work with organizations on gratitude in the workplace and developing more meaningful connections, one activity I have. The groups do is to break up in pairs. So you're with a partner and you're thinking about the one word that describes how you're feeling about life right now, and you're sharing that word with your partner.

Then to take it a little bit further, you're thinking about why you chose that. and share that with your partner. So imagine you're in a group of two. You're telling your partner, what word describes how you feel about life right now? It could be anything. It could be a negative word, a positive word. Be truthful and honest and open.

So it could be overwhelming or stressed or joyful or anxious or cheerful, whatever word that is. And then open up and explain to your partner why you chose that word. Then your partner does the same. , we do this unplug. So we leave our phones behind or we turn them off so we can give our partner our undivided attention.

Imagine what type of connection this brings to you and one of your coworker. You're giving them full attention, so you're very present in the moment. That is a sign of gratitude. Listening shows your partner that you care about them. It deepens a relationship. It shows you that you value what they have to.

Many times at work, and this is why we do this activity many times at work, we leave our emotions at the door. We check our emotions at the door. When we step into our office, whether it's a virtual office or a physical building, The problem with that is many times we have things going on in our lives, right?

And our coworkers never know how we're feeling, and this can affect our work. If we're dealing with things at home, it can affect our work, but even more so, With our coworkers not even knowing how we're feeling, because we don't bring it into the workplace. We have a sense of loneliness. When we're lonely at work, we're underperforming.

We're not in as engaged and think of loneliness as a, a lack of connection. So how do you create more meaningful, deeper connections at work? You do activities like this, you partner. And you share. How are you feeling about life right now, and why do you feel that way? That goes much further than just asking a coworker, how are you today?

Fine. How are you? Fine. That doesn't get you anywhere. So start asking these meaningful questions to create deeper connections at work. You'll create. Deeper bonds, a sense of belonging, and you'll actually create some friendships at work. This will lead to a happier, more productive workplace that's going to contain people, employees that want to stick around a lot longer.

I'm Scott Colby with Say It With Gratitude, and this has been the Daily Gratitude Minute. Cheers.