For Day 14, we have another thank-you note activity. Gestures of appreciation. The most positive feedback I’ve gotten about the Happiness Challenge so far is about giving the thank you notes. And I got to thinking why that might be. Gazing out my office window yesterday afternoon, the reason struck me. I noticed the row of cards on my window sill. Each were cards given to me over the last two years at the job.

I’m sure you know the kinds of cards I’m talking about. Typically these include birthday cards, holiday cards, and even some condolence cards. All nice gestures. All signed by a group. Usually they get passed around ‘secretly’ in file folders from office to office until all the signatures are collected. They inevitably include generic messages like, “Hope it’s a great day!” Or, “Wishing you another great year!”

So when you think about personal thank you notes given to someone, you realize just how unique they are. And that…is why they seem so well received. And if you still don’t take my word for it, check out this Huffington Post article. It offers 7 reasons we should bring the thank-you note back. My favorite reason they is that it counteracts the annoyingly rude things others have said to them that day. They don’t mention that thank you notes are also a great excuse to buy fun stationary too.

Seeing as how we’re into the third week of this challenge, I assume you’ve purchased a small pack of cards. So take a couple minutes and write out that thank you note to someone that’s in another office. For myself, I plan to find out who worked out the technology issue in one of our classrooms yesterday. Aside from gestures of appreciation…it never hurts to have friends in the IT department.

Now, the hardest part of keeping on track with a challenge is the accountability and support to keep on going. I hope you’ll follow along with me and the other Fed Fans that are participating. I also hope that you’ll share your successes with us either on twitter #happieratwork or on the Fedability facebook page. You can find me on twitter @danaesims_iopsy. Or, you can leave a comment in the space below.

I look forward to hearing how today’s challenge goes!

Did you miss yesterday’s post? That’s ok. You can read about giving meaningful positive feedback for day 13.