I'd like to thank the academy...

This is it, the moment is here. They’re calling out your category and it happens. You hear your name. A moment passes, and the world around you seems to stop. You can’t breathe. You can’t believe it. You’re filled with gratitude and overcome with emotion. You muster the strength and coordination to move towards the podium, taking in the thundering refrain of applause, whistles and cheers. All that love and appreciation, it's what you've been working towards all this time. It's a truly surreal moment, a feeling you’ll never forget.

You accept the golden statue with your name inscribed at the base, and you’re all at once a rush of memories and all the accompanying emotions floods your system. The early failures, the stumbles and successes. The road to this very moment, the excitement, the doubts, the wins and losses. You know you finally did it.

It’s your moment. What do you say? Most of the actors and actresses we're imagining, that have had this incredible moment of their own, begin with "thank you".

While some days in the shower I take the shampoo bottle and pretend, I won’t be winning an award any time soon. I’ll certainly not win an Oscar for keeping food on the table and my family members alive, and the only recognition I’ve ever gotten for getting our appointment on time with a clean, happy toddler, is a speeding ticket. But there are moments in my mind that I have determined to be the next best thing.

You can pick any goal or triumph that you desire and picture it in your mind. It might be graduation day, being the valedictorian at the top of your class, or might be graduating at all. It might be making six figures or buying your first home. Maybe it’s the day your children are born, or when they graduate and begin successful lives of their own. It could be making partner at your firm or finding your partner in life.

There are so many deeply impactful moments in the journey of our lives, and I hope you recognize which ones have the potential to make you feel like you were just handed a golden statue. It’s my next hope, that you remember who to thank.

If there’s anything I will continue to say in as many ways as I can, it’s to recognize those who helped you. The people who kept you fed while you studied. The family who believed in you, the friends who listened to your ideas, the boss who gave you a bigger challenge than you thought you could handle and even the people who doubted you and drove you to work harder. Be thankful for the circumstances that conspired in your favor, and the challenges that demanded you become better, so you could overcome them.

Don’t wait until someone puts a golden statue in your hand. It may never happen. But that shouldn’t be the only time you feel like you’ve reached the pinnacle of success, and it certainly shouldn’t be the only time you feel the overwhelming need to thank others.  Thanking others isn’t just for their benefit. It’s perhaps even more for you.

Try out our game!

Big Questions, Little Questions.

It's a low pressure, fun way to understand those you care about more deeply.

You'll learn things about people you've known all your life, and have a few good laughs too!

When you’re grateful, it puts you in a mindset that’s far more productive and helps you to see the support framework in your life. It’s also a fantastic happiness fix, that can help push you on when the going gets tough.

I can promise you, that no matter how much you did on your own, you’ve had help along the way. Online entrepreneurs might have gotten their sales up and running themselves, but they didn’t invent the internet. They likely didn’t code the platform they’re selling on. They didn’t invent or even build their own computer either.

There’s no one out there, who has made their way, completely on their own. That’s not how humanity rose up to become the planet’s dominant species. We formed language so that we could coordinate and cooperate. We invented the written word so that our knowledge could outlive us. We've become so adept at helping each other, we've forgotten it's our ultimate super power.

If you’re under no delusions about the fact that you indeed are NOT the sole source of your success, now you can turn your thoughts and efforts outward. You can see the framework of people, technology and circumstances that have contributed to where you are today, and you can strengthen that support. You can grow that super power of cooperation.

That’s why thanking others benefits YOU the most. Recognizing the people who have helped you and you showing them gratitude, usually results in their desire help you more. If you see what technology, luck and circumstances have helped you most, whether it was the hardest times in your life that forced you to rise to the occasion, or the lucky breaks that sent you on the path to success, if you see them for what they gave you, you’re likely to find more.

The alternative is to go through life either accepting or fighting what happens to you, as it comes. Living life this way, we can instead be resentful of those who wronged us, instead of seeing the lesson; and we'll forget to see the lucky breaks we’ve been given and fail to see the next lucky break coming our way.

Try out this simple 2 step exercise.

1.     Think about a specific achievement you want to reach. It can be anything at all. It could be getting that promotion, or finally getting to the Doctor’s office on time with all the kids in clean clothes. That moment is your Oscar winning moment. Feel the excitement, the emotion, the feeling of standing on top of the mountain. Make this a mental milestone, so that when it happens, you know this is your real life Oscar moment, and you can enjoy it as deeply as you can when you're there.  

2.     Now, think of your speech. Who will you thank? Who and what helped you get there? Think of the people and circumstances you’ll thank ahead of time, and you might have just figured out the circumstances and teamwork you need, to make that success a reality.

And don't forget to thank the academy.

#business #teambuilding #cooperation #gratitude #personalgrowth