Living Thankfully Tip #3:
living thankfully is yummy-good for you
because it causes others to want
to do even more good things for you.

Whoa. Hold it right there. I know what you’re thinking. I’m not saying that’s why we practice gratitude – to manipulate others into doing good things for us, as that would be just plain wrong.

I’m simply pointing out that this is one of the happy by-products of living thankfully. Most of us, except for the aberrant bunch, are hard-wired to want to do good for those who are grateful when we do good things for them. In fact, most of us can’t find a way fast enough to thank others for their thoughtfulness.

A couple of years ago, I made a repeating event in iCal to send someone a thank-you every Monday morning. Apparently, I wasn’t paying attention because it was a rather short list during the first few months.

But after a few more months, Monday mornings found me with a long list of people I wanted to thank. I kept paying attention: the list got longer and longer. There seemed to be no end of people I wanted to thank. See how this works? Thankfulness begets more events prompting thankfulness.

But we’re not quite ready to stick a fork in it and call it done. Pay attention: the fourth and final post in this Living Thankfully series is now out of the oven. And in my humble opinion, it’s the whole point of the series – The Gratitude Grand Finale, if you will. But then, I would say that, wouldn’t I?

© 2014, Teresa Bennett

Wisdom from “The Daily Motivator”