It’s only two small words but they make a world of difference. In fact, they can change people’s lives and change the world in which we live. However more often than not we haven’t time to say them. Of course, I’m talking about those two words – “Thank You”.

We live our lives on a frantic freeway, always racing, never time to stop. It’s a 7 day working week nowadays. Most of us are in two adult families where both of us are working out of the house full-time. Those who have families live a second full-on life with their kids after work because they are involved in many activities outside their school day as well. The parents race them around until 8 p.m. at night to all those activities. We are preparing them well for the rat race of life today.

With all this rush and tear of modern life, we do not have time anymore for some of the most important things in life – to value and appreciate one another, to show gratitude, to acknowledge the goodness of people, to give one another the positive feedback that makes us feel valuable, important and worthwhile – and to say “thank you”.

After we’ve lived a bit of life in this world, we realise that what makes life most meaningful and purposeful is other people, not money, not status and prestige, not the high-powered job or the overseas holidays, but people – family, friends and colleagues.

Of course, we value and appreciate them. It’s just that we forget to let them know. We don’t have time to call and tell them, to make the phone call, or to send the card in our own handwriting that lets them know they are very important to us. We just don’t focus on saying “thank you” for what they contribute to our lives.

It’s the same at work. We are so busy we overlook the importance of positive feedback and so we don’t recognise how motivating and empowering it can be for people, how it inspires commitment, loyalty and engagement to the organisation and its senior management. All of that creates a culture that gives meaning and purpose to people’s work lives.

My Motivational Challenge for this Week.

After you have finished reading this, take action, and let someone who is important to you know just how important they are and how much you value their presence in your life.

Say “thank you” to them for what they have contributed to making your life meaningful and successful.

Don’t send an email. It will get lost with the 200-300 others they receive each day.

Do it differently. Write a hand-written card. Take them a small gift. Invite them to have a meal with you. Organise an event for them with a few others who’d also like to say “thank you” to them.

If everyone who receives this were to say “thank you” to just one other person today, there would be 912 people who would feel empowered in their lives and who would see their world differently. And that’s only today! Repeat it again tomorrow and the next day and…..what a difference that would make!