Glad to Have Met You

Transcript

And I’d like to talk to you about the phrase Glad to Have Met You. So a few weeks back I was taking an uber home sharing a cab with my buddy. He was a little bid desperate or lacking in hope that night, perhaps a little embittered because of some recent experiences he had with women, potential romantic partners.

In that moment he asked me “when has it ever been worth it for you? When has it been worth it to pursue women, meet new people or this kind of thing?” Of course he was asking the question rhetorically trying to find a fault with the world in some sense.

I thought about this and I took this question very seriously even though it was obviously the reflection of his current state.

I thought this is actually a great question. I started to think about that and I started to think about certain women I met over the years, some of them I am still friends with. I actually am grateful for having the experience in whatever form that we knew it whether it ended up just being friendship, relationship or whatever.

So many of these people in my life in one form or another. And I started sending a message to a young lady I met in Thailand, and I sent a message to another friend here in Mexico.

I said: You know I value you your opinion. I value hearing what you have to say on things, your professional knowledge is interesting to me. I am glad to have met you.

It was interesting because a couple of weeks later she sent a message back and said “I was thinking about what you said”.

And I said “Something good I hope”

And she said “Yeah absolutely something good. Nobody has ever said that to me before, no one has ever made a point of saying glad to have met you so she was very grateful and in fact if you go to the course The Science of Wellbeing by Laurie Santos at Yale, this is one of the things that she lists as being key to improving well being and boosting happiness.

Sometimes with the effects lasting months especially in the way she advocates of course. She talks about writing someone a letter to tell them how appreciative you are of having them in your life. You write out the whole letter, it doesn’t matter how long it is but when you start writing a letter like that you will come up with more and more reasons why you appreciate someone.

And at best, again professor Laurie Santos advocates that you bring the letter to them to read to them in person. You might also wanna bring some Kleenex because it can get pretty intense. This is something that deserves emphasis because it will boost your wellbeing. According to the science, this boosts your happiness and will have an extended effect for up to 3 months after for both you and the person who receives it.

So this is something really potent that we all have the power to do. Just about everyone has something special in their lives. Regardless of what capacity they fill in your life there’s probably something to find to be grateful for for that person.

I sent another message like this to another friend just the other day and she was like “Im going to be smiling for the rest of the day now.”

I have mentioned this before but I have sent one of these messages to my friend Chris to thank him for all the help an encouragement he has given me for working on my health, doing weight lifting and encouraging me to get into yoga and other aspects of health which are really beneficial and have really improved my quality of life.

Yes he loved that message and you know so many times, maybe we do things for others because we are passionate about them. We think its important they receive some knowledge, perspective or vital questions.

And you know in my experience, occasionally these people would make a point of showing their appreciation for it. That’s why it’s so very potent when we do make a point of saying how much those things matter.

As I wrote in that letter to Chris I said to him “You don’t ever have to doubt. If you ever doubt that your life has some meaning or purpose, or that your life is worth anything. That anything is worth anything at all. Please remember this letter. You made a difference. This is your success and it’s already been proved. How wonderful that opportunity that we have, that power, that vital loving power we have in appreciation.

So to all my listeners, all my clients, all my friends listening to this podcast. Its a pleasure to have met and interacted with you and I enjoy your input and enjoy interacting with you and thank you for showing your appreciation for others.