The Power of Gratitude

Don’t worry—this is a scheduled newsletter. Hopefully, you slept in and are reading this with a warm cup of Thanksgiving coffee.

I’m preparing to fry a turkey as I host my entire family for Thanksgiving (I’d share if I could). I hope you and your loved ones have a special and relaxing day together. In between arguments about whether Dr. Oz, Linda McMahon, or RFK was the right pick, ease the tensions by sharing The Clear-Eyed View!

Career talk is better than political talk, right?!

In This Week’s Newsletter (3 min read):

• Clear-Eyed Perspective: The Connection Between Gratitude and Happiness

Clear-Eyed Perspective

Want to Be Happy? Give Gratitude

A few weeks ago, I was in Greensboro, North Carolina, for a work offsite. At the end of the trip, I rushed to catch a flight back to Boston. I was excited to go home and hug my family.

I stepped outside the office in downtown Greensboro with my suitcase in one hand. In the other hand I was furiously responding to a Slack thread while flipping back and forth to the Uber app. I was oblivious to my surroundings.

When I picked up my head to look for the Uber, an older man slowly walked by. We caught eyes and exchanged a polite hello.

It stopped him in his tracks.

“Woah, it’s not often people say hi to strangers. With these phones, everyone always seems too preoccupied to say hello”, he said in a slow, southern drawl.

“I’m George; what’s your name, young man?” he continued.

“I’m Winston; nice to meet you,” I responded.

We continued to have a short conversation before George went on his way. He thanked me again for acknowledging him, and then I hopped in my Uber and buried my head back into my phone, this time for a Zoom call.

I’ve been thinking a lot about George. He extended a simple yet powerful moment of gratitude. For the rest of the day, I felt great about the small impact I could have on his day. And I suspect he felt equally great expressing gratitude to a random stranger.

Why am I writing this in a newsletter about navigating your career?

Sometimes, the smallest things can have a significant impact.

Thanksgiving is all about gratitude, but gratitude shouldn’t be exclusively for when we are with our families eating turkey. Gratitude should extend to the workplace.

Harvard has done extensive research on how gratitude improves well-being, reduces stress, and builds resilience.

Unfortunately, only 15% of people regularly say thank you at work, and only 35% of people say their manager has ever thanked them. That’s wild! That needs to change.

The Takeaway

Let’s aim to be more like George. Gratitude doesn’t have to be a big, flashy display. It can be a small acknowledgment of the impact someone else had on us. It can simply be saying the words “Thank you.”

When you get back to work, send someone a quick message to say thank you. It will kick start your day and help make someone feel great like George did for me.

Need more convincing?

If you have a few minutes to spare between family conversations, football, and cooking, check out this 7-minute video on how expressing gratitude can impact your well-being.

I promise it’s worth the watch and will start your day on the right foot.

P.S. Looking for the Clear-Eyed Journey? I’ll be back next week trialing a new format intertwining someone’s journey into the perspective. I’ll share the story of my incredible sister-in-law, Erica Tuggle, who left a successful corporate career to start her own company. We’ll also dig into her and my thoughts about if an MBA is worth it.