Why Appreciation Matters?

Especially when it comes from close quarters.

Everyone appreciates being appreciated. We can even say most people long for it. But hardly a few people will people confess how much they like being appreciated.

I’m not talking about false praise in the face. Like when a bad and corrupt politician for almost his entire life becomes President and suddenly everyone is saying how good he is and how he is the best. Seriously people? Get a life.

The kind of appreciation you get from the people who are close to you and are part of your every day life for very simple things. Your family appreciating you for getting the groceries or doing the laundry. Your manager or colleagues appreciating you for doing what you get paid to do. Your friends in class appreciating you for explaining a simple concept to them.

These are very small things and, in most cultures, nowadays they are taken for granted. You don’t expect your manager to appreciate you for doing what you are paid to do. And your manager feels no need for it, most likely does not even think about. Same inside the family or among the friends. Over time, you even stop expecting them to appreciate you for the petty things.

So, the situation is, everyone likes it, no one does it and to top it all, no one even expects it.

Where has this gone wrong? I think we lack gratitude. We will never appreciate things that we are not grateful for. We will not understand the value of such things while we take them for granted.

We have to be grateful. Someone might ask “to who?”. That is for every single person to figure out. Someone might also ask “for what?”. I think there is no point in trying to convince such a person, who might think that luxuries of life are his/her birth right. They’ll understand when they lose some.

But guess what, the other question is not so complicated. Who you should appreciate? The answer is simple. Everyone around you. Everyone you interact with often. What should you appreciate them for? For whatever good they do.

Just let people know, that you appreciate what they do and maybe even how they do. I’m sure they’ll like it and do it better next time. But don’t make a big fuss out of it. If it is dramatic, it will not be real and won’t cause any good. Just casually let them know.

To change the world for better, you can start with appreciating people. Whatever good they are doing, they’ll try to make it better.