Celebrate Others

I was reading the blog of a friend this week and I was reminded how important it is to "celebrate" the people in our lives. Chris Hyde is a pastor at a church near Portland, Oregon. Last week he turned forty years old (seems like an epidemic...as I did turned forty five days after he did) and he felt extremely blessed.....he felt "celebrated" by those around him.

Growing up Chris had good parents, but he states in his post that they never made him feel special for who he was as a person. On this birthday his family and friends honored him in countless ways (including another friend, Anne, who wrote a blog post titled "Crazy Pastor Chris" on her blog). You should read his blog post about the importance of making others feel appreciated, as it it thought provoking.

His words got me thinking, in our business networking efforts do we honor others enough? Do we "celebrate" them? I do not just mean saying "thank you" to those who give us referrals or invite us to an event. I am talking about reaching out to our friends and letting them know that we are deeply grateful to have them as part of our lives.

I challenge all the readers of this blog (that means YOU!) to think of three people in your network of professional contacts and reach out to them. Celebrate them for making your career...your life...better. Make sure that you do this with no expectations of them recipricating with praise toward you (although if they do, accept it)... make your celebration all about the other person.

Imagine if everyone did this regularly....the world would be a much better place!!!

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com