Did You Bother To Say Thank You?

THANK YOU. Two simple words that total up to all of eight letters. There are 26 letters in the alphabet. There are 1,025,109.8 words in The English Language as of June 2009. Out of over 1 million words and twenty six letters in the alphabet writing or saying these too simple but powerful words is often too difficult.

Why has saying or writing thank you become so seemingly difficult that countless number of people do not do it for one reason or another? Is it possible that we as a society have come to expect everything that everything is owed to us therefore negating the need to thank whomever for whatever?

Let’s just say for example your car breaks down on a remote stretch of highway with no gas station for miles when all of a sudden a complete stranger pulls up alongside of you and manages to fix your car to the point where you can get to a repair shop. Automatically without hesitation the words thank you should flow from your mouth with all due sincerity.

Assume for a moment you had provided a service for somebody. No matter what the service was you would expect that person to express their gratitude to you. Should they fail to do so chances are you would feel not only unappreciated but form an opinion that the party you provided the service to where classless ungrateful people. Please correct me on this one if you think I am wrong.

Saying thank you is a polite expression that is used when you acknowledge a gift, service or compliment or to accept an offer or to say no thank you to reject an offer. Certainly if you keep using these words over and over again to the same person for every little thing they do for you in a short span of time can become ad nauseam. These instances are few and far between.

When it comes to this obligation many people will unintentionally forget. Some may intentionally forget which is inexcusable. Carrying yourself in that manner not only reflects poorly on you but it can also result in a plethora of negative consequences. The person you felt was not worthy of your thanks will likely not want to help you again. If you leave a job interview without expressing appreciation to your interviewer verbally and following up with a written thank you letter is cutting your nose off to spite your face as the saying goes. Imagine losing a job offer because you forgot to say two simple words.

Focusing on our attention back to you should the person from whom gratitude was not expressed we know how you would likely feel in the short term but what about the long term especially if this happens to you on a repeated basis. You may develop a bitterness that you carry around with you as you begin to feel that nobody cares about your feelings. There is another old saying that if I am correct came Luke 6:31 NIV ( I apologize if I did not get the correct source of this quote or did not write it properly) that says “do to others that as you would have them do to you.” This sounds pretty fair and reasonable if you think about it.

Going back to the beginning there are 1,025,109.8 words in the English Dictionary. The two words that are the focal point of this article contain 8 letters out of a total of 26 letters in the alphabet. Two words and eight letters. Stop for a moment and think about this fact. Now after ask yourself did you bother to say thank you? If you did not you need to ask yourself why. You need to remember how you felt or were made to feel when somebody did not say thank you to you.

With that I would like to heartily say THANK YOU to all of you who have read my Articles. Thanks also must go out to Dennis J. Pitocco for all of his support and assistance no matter how times I bugged him about the most mundane things that I did not know how to do. To all of those who posted comments in the various LinkedIn Groups where you have seen my articles let me extend my gratitude (aka Thank You) for being a part of this.