When someone does a good deed, we do either or both of these: praise and thank. Praise is saying, "You did a good job!" Thanks is saying, "Thank you for doing the good job." Often we confuse acknowledgment with these two.
Here's a view of looking at what acknowledgment is: Acknowledgment is expressing gratitude for what what the other person did do to you! That's a confusing mouthful? Let me deconstruct this.
Here's the twist: what you are grateful for is not for the person doing the good deed, but to the impact that this good deed had on you.
While acknowledging, you express your gratitude to the person for causing the positive impact on you through the good deed she/he did.
An important aspect of this view of acknowledgment is for you to be conscious of the positive impact it had on you. The critical dimension of the positive impact is on your emotions. Usually, we don't attend to this dimension of impact. For, I suspect, our emotion-vocabulary is quite limited. And we are socialised into keeping a check on our emotions right from our childhood, thereby blunting our awareness of, nay even feeling, emotions.
The other two aspects of acknowledgment are (a) being authentic about the gratitude you express and (b) explicitly stating the impact (including the impact on your emotions) the good deed had on you. When you do that, I assure you, not only will you be moved, but you will leave the other person also moved - with probably a drop of tear at the corner of her eye...What more can you ask for to strengthen your bonding with people!
So, thank you so much for reading this post - your reading made my day! I am left fulfilled. I will be moved when you practise ackowledgment as I have presented and share your experience through comments to this blogpost!
Be happy, move and get moved, deepen relationships with acknowledging!
Here's a view of looking at what acknowledgment is: Acknowledgment is expressing gratitude for what what the other person did do to you! That's a confusing mouthful? Let me deconstruct this.
- Assume that someone did something good.
- This good deed impacted you in a positive way.
- You are grateful to this person.
- And you express your gratitude.
Here's the twist: what you are grateful for is not for the person doing the good deed, but to the impact that this good deed had on you.
While acknowledging, you express your gratitude to the person for causing the positive impact on you through the good deed she/he did.
An important aspect of this view of acknowledgment is for you to be conscious of the positive impact it had on you. The critical dimension of the positive impact is on your emotions. Usually, we don't attend to this dimension of impact. For, I suspect, our emotion-vocabulary is quite limited. And we are socialised into keeping a check on our emotions right from our childhood, thereby blunting our awareness of, nay even feeling, emotions.
The other two aspects of acknowledgment are (a) being authentic about the gratitude you express and (b) explicitly stating the impact (including the impact on your emotions) the good deed had on you. When you do that, I assure you, not only will you be moved, but you will leave the other person also moved - with probably a drop of tear at the corner of her eye...What more can you ask for to strengthen your bonding with people!
So, thank you so much for reading this post - your reading made my day! I am left fulfilled. I will be moved when you practise ackowledgment as I have presented and share your experience through comments to this blogpost!
Be happy, move and get moved, deepen relationships with acknowledging!
Prof,
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see you back in action. Thanks for bringing out the subtle difference. I am more alert with my responses now.
cheers,
Vinay