Posts Tagged ‘appreciation’

Appreciation in 2010

Posted on: by Jeremiah Tolbert

Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appre­ci­ate most in the past year? How do you express grat­i­tude for it?

I don’t know how quite to express the gratitude—I’m still sort­ing that out—but I am most grate­ful for the clients who give me their busi­ness.  I am not employed by any one per­son.  Dozens of amaz­ing peo­ple take a chance with me and their money to pro­vide them with what I hope is a very valu­able ser­vice.  There are so many peo­ple they could choose, but they’ve cho­sen me.  It really means every­thing to me. Without them, I have no idea where I would be.

I’m deeply appre­cia­tive in today’s world that I have a sal­able skill on the cur­rent job mar­ket.  This won’t last for­ever, and I will need to work hard to stay ahead of the curve, but my life could have gone very dif­fer­ently.  I feel so much sym­pa­thy for the folks out of work around the coun­try.  But for this one lit­tle skill set, I would be on per­pet­ual unem­ploy­ment, won­der­ing what the hell to do with my life.

I don’t know how long this ride can last, but I’m excited to see what twists and turns it takes in 2011.  And I’m so grate­ful for the oppor­tu­nity to be along.

Write a Complimentary Note to a Writer or Editor Day

Posted on: by Jeremiah Tolbert

I am declar­ing today one of those non-​​holiday hol­i­day days.  You must all put this day in your cal­en­dar, and spread the word far and wide.

We all con­sume a tremen­dous amount of media these days, whether it be books, tv, mag­a­zines, or blogs.  But how often do we really express our grat­i­tude and appre­ci­a­tion to the cre­ators of these things?

I’ve long tried to make a point of writ­ing notes to writ­ers in my own field when I read a piece of work that I really enjoy.  I know how great it feels to receive such notes.  When you don’t make a lot of money in your cre­ative pur­suits, the appre­ci­a­tion from other human beings can really make it all worthwhile.

So, I declare today “Write a Complimentary Note to a Writer or Editor” Day.  Has some­one done a won­der­ful job with a story, or putting together an issue of a zine?  Tell them.  You’ll feel good, they will feel good, and a lit­tle more hap­pi­ness in these dark times can only be a good thing.

So how often should “Write a Complimentary Note to a Writer or Editor” day come about?  I’m think­ing weekly…  Hey, it’s not like Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day where you have to buy gifts.  This is just a few min­utes of your time to dig up an e-​​mail address and send a mes­sage to it.

The peo­ples of the inter­nets are so quick to say when we don’t like some­thing.  Let’s try to bal­ance that out a lit­tle bit.  Who’s with me?