Share some praise today

Drew’s Reminder,

Share some praise today. 

      I just finished reading the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.  It’s an excellent book that I will re-read over and over again.  There are too many great points that stood out in the book to tell you about so I’ve chosen one for this week.  In one section of the book Dale says praise is like water to a plant.  Here’s my interpretation of that statement.  Water makes a plant grow.  Along with good sunshine and soil it makes a plant vibrant and flourishing.  Praise along with other aspects in life will do the same for us human beings.  We all know this because we all love to be praised.  However, many of us have a hard time doing it. 

      There are many of us who un-proportionately gravitate to the negative.  The unfortunate part is we don’t even recognize the effect our words have on others and the potential effect they could have had if said differently.  I will give you an example from my own life.  I graduated high school almost 30 years ago and I still strongly remember the pain associated with a comment my mother made when she read my last report card.  I was always a good student.  I was even placed in gifted classes in elementary school.  Because I was smart many things came easy to me so I will admit I didn’t work hard in high school.  With that said I still always got mostly A’s and a few B’s.  I graduated with a 3.65. 

       However, my senior year I did get a 4.0.  This was after having to move from Kansas, where I had been since I was a freshman, to Louisiana in October of my senior year.  Despite all of that change I still was able to get a 4.0.  Great achievement wasn’t it?  I surely thought so.  However that’s not how I felt after my mother said “straight A’s, wow, why didn’t you do this all 4 years?”  Just to give you some further context, I already had been awarded a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship and was headed to college.  I was really hurt by that comment because I was admittedly looking for some praise at that time.  

     Now let’s talk about today.  Today I’m a parent.  I believe I’m a great parent.  I get praise from my younger sister all the time about how great parents my wife and I are to our kids.  I always thank her for the compliments and I remain humble.  But what she doesn’t know is that her praise motivates me.  It motivates me to be an even better parent.  My Dad gives me the same praise and it motivates me even more.  Could I continue to be a good parent without their praise?  Yes of course.  That praise is fuel for me to be an even better parent.  They have done my family a great favor by merely sharing some praise.  Think about how much better we all could be if we all took some time to focus on giving some praise.  Next time you are interacting with someone and want to share your thoughts think about how effective it could be if you shared some praise as well.

With gratitude,

Drew