Close your eyes. Call up the face of someone still alive who years ago did something or said something that changed your life for the better. Someone who you never properly thanked; someone you could meet face-to-face next week. Got a face?
Gratitude can make your life happier and more satisfying. When we feel gratitude, we benefit from the pleasant memory of a positive event in our life. Also, when we express our gratitude to others, we strengthen our relationship with them. But sometimes our thank you is said so casually or quickly that it is nearly meaningless. In this exercise … you will have the opportunity to experience what it is like to express your gratitude in a thoughtful, purposeful manner.
Your task is to write a letter of gratitude to this individual and deliver it in person.
The letter should be concrete and about three hundred words: be specific about what she did for you and how it affected your life. Let her know what you are doing now, and mention how you often remember what she did. Make it sing! Once you have written the testimonial, call the person and tell her you’d like to visit her, but be vague about the purpose of the meeting; this exercise is much more fun when it is a surprise. When you meet her, take your time reading your letter.
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Martin Seligman
It’s easy to forget that in general here in Germany, people think of Amazon primarily as an online bookseller.
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| Amazon Homepage 1995 |
Today, as it nears its 20th anniversary, it’s the Everything Store, a company with around $75 billion in annual revenue, a $140 billion market value, and few discernible limits to its growth.
In the past few months alone, it launched a marketplace in India, opened a website to sell high-end art, introduced another Kindle reading device and three tablet computers, made plans to announce a set-top box for televisions, and funded the pilot episodes of more than a dozen TV shows. Amazon’s marketplace hosts the storefronts of countless smaller retailers.
Amazon Web Services handles the computer infrastructure of thousands of technology companies, universities, and government agencies.
When you get older, you slow down. That’s not good, and it’s not something you want to encourage; at least that is my experience. It’s easy enough to convince yourself that you ought to take it easy, but that is not a good strategy. Push yourself to your present limit, and then a bit further next time, and keep that up. The result is good.
So, Mr. Jeff Bezos, my main wish for 2014 is that you don't slow down yet!
