Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to create a praise file. This is
Speaker 1: a list of testimonials about your good work that you
Speaker 1: can look at whenever you're feeling down when it comes
Speaker 1: to life. Sometimes you're on top of the world. Sometimes, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: life can kick you in the teeth. Nothing is going
Speaker 1: right at work or at home. Other people might be
Speaker 1: disappointed in you. Even worse, you might be disappointed in yourself.
Speaker 1: This is inevitable because we're all human. But the good
Speaker 1: news is you can prepare yourself for such mental thunderstorms.
Speaker 1: My favorite way to do this is to create what
Speaker 1: I call a praise file. When someone sends you an
Speaker 1: email that makes you smile, don't just thank the person,
Speaker 1: copy the nice part of the note and pay stit
Speaker 1: into a document that you can keep on your phone
Speaker 1: or laptop. You can also print the note if you're
Speaker 1: the sort of person who likes hard copies of things.
Speaker 1: A colleague thanks you for covering when she was in
Speaker 1: a jam that goes into the file. Your kids teacher
Speaker 1: shares an example of how kind he is to other children,
Speaker 1: that one definitely goes in there. Then when you start
Speaker 1: to wonder what on earth you're doing with yourself and
Speaker 1: whether you're having any impact at all, you can pull
Speaker 1: out the file. You can read that, yes, your work,
Speaker 1: your professional work, and your personal work has made the
Speaker 1: world a better place. It's hard to keep feeling unhappy
Speaker 1: after that. So that's pretty straightforward. But here's what I
Speaker 1: really love about the idea of a praise file. Once
Speaker 1: you start creating one for yourself, you can't help but
Speaker 1: think about how you could contribute to other people's praise files,
Speaker 1: and so that nudges you to send those emails that
Speaker 1: thank other people for their contributions to the world. You
Speaker 1: thank your kids teacher for convincing him he could try
Speaker 1: out for the school play. You thank your colleague for
Speaker 1: standing up for you in that difficult meeting. This practice
Speaker 1: of gratitude can only come from a sense of abundance.
Speaker 1: You feel the well enough that you might not even
Speaker 1: need to look at the praise file quite so much. So,
Speaker 1: my challenge for today create a praise file for yourself
Speaker 1: that's ready to be filled up with examples of how
Speaker 1: amazing you are, and then send notes to two people
Speaker 1: that they could put in their own praise files if
Speaker 1: they had them. They probably don't, but it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: whether this idea catches on or not. Thanking people is
Speaker 1: never a waste of time. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast to
Speaker 1: pod that's b E the number four, then breakfast p
Speaker 1: o D. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com that
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For more
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