“You have done a fantastic job for the company.” – how do these words feel when someone quotes them to you? Perhaps, you may find yourself to be “on cloud 9”, don’t you? And why not, you have really worked hard, maybe you went sleepless to hear these sterling words. But what if you don’t get to hear these words. Will you be able to put in the same efforts that you did just a few days back?
Most people do have effects of being praised by someone. Their efficiency eventually goes high and they tend to work harder. With each step of success and admiration they receive, they toil more and more. Irrespective of whether the person is genuinely appreciating them or not, they take it with gratitude. They start valuing the feeling that it gives and when they reach that position they pass on this to their juniors and continuing the cycle. The emotions that it contains cannot be expressed. Sometimes people don’t show it and sometimes they are so happy that they celebrate it with their loved ones.
“Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated” – H. Jackson Brown just sums it up.
From feeling appreciated as a student to making someone feel appreciated as a teacher, a person throughout his/her life learns the value of appreciation. A child always feels thankful to his parents for the efforts they have made for his/her upbringing and generally returns it back by supporting them in the later years of their life. An employer always feels thankful for the efforts of its employees and returns it back by giving them bonuses, compensations and other possible ways as a form of appreciation. A patient always remains grateful to the doctor throughout his life and respects the doctor like a God. A relationship gets stronger when both mutually appreciate each other for all the efforts they make to whether earning money or maintaining the house or taking care of minute details for the other person. A country always remains indebted to the civilians who spend their youthful days securing the border. All human beings are indebted to the scientists and researchers who brought clarity about the creation of nature and aided them to become a superpower. And lastly, all the living beings are grateful to Mother Earth for providing them the environment to survive with all the necessities.
The learning curve of a person, described above, is still missing a very important entity – SELF- APPRECIATION. Self-appreciation, in simple terms, means appreciating oneself. Most people fail to learn this very important entity. Remember signing a document stating, “I hereby declare that the details furnished above are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief”; self-appreciation is an acknowledgment of the details of the efforts that you are making. The importance of this type of appreciation is most felt when there is no one to appreciate your efforts and hard work, when you still want to endeavor with full efficiency but no one is ready to accept it, when people around you continuously discourage you that whatever you are doing is not worth it but you still want to prove yourself.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, a reputed sportsperson as we all know, worked very hard and achieved great success in his domain. In his successful career, he achieved a lot of trophies and awards, what if there was no provision of trophies and awards as an act of appreciation for his efforts. Maybe he may have continued with his efforts. A doctor who gives up his/her life by continuously working hard day and night just to make sure that everyone is fit and fine, what if all the patients don’t feel the gratitude towards him/her and stop thanking them. Will he/she stop his practice? Of course, not. But, will there be a dip in his/her enthusiasm to serve the patients? Maybe not. It is all because these people have a sense of self-appreciation. They themselves feel grateful and appreciate that what they are doing is worth it.
Lack of self-appreciation can bring many emotional challenges in one’s life. One can go through the phase of inferiority. It is important to learn that your efforts and choice don’t require acknowledgment of others. It is good to have strong support, but your own support should have the highest weightage. Some individuals do a job just for doing it which leads to stress, loneliness, depression and various health problems. This can be so severe that it may lead to suicide. It is really very easy to say that “one should pursue one’s dreams” but is very difficult to do in practice just because of a lack of appreciation from one’s loved ones. Just imagine a software engineer quitting his job to become a delivery boy. Society will go crazy on him. He will be given funny names. His passion will be challenged every day by the bitter words of society and at times by his own dear and near ones. It’s then when he needs self-appreciation to sustain his dream and prove himself. These few words by Amit Abraham perfectly describes it.
“The art of appreciation begins with SELF APPRECIATION”
And in a true sense, this type of APPRECIATION is worth it!
