A few years ago, my wife and I had our bathroom retiled. We hired someone to come in, design a tiling pattern, and to install it.
The handyman showed up at our house, dresses as any workman might be: dusty, worn jeans and a dingy t-shirt. His hair was unkempt, his fingernails dirty from his work, and his face looked like it hadn’t seen a smile in a while.
We welcomed him into our home and showed him the area, giving him some general directions of what we were looking for in the new tile. Without saying much, he set to work, so my wife and I left him alone as we went about our days.
Later in the day, my wife Elle went to check on his progress. When she poked her head in the door, she was amazed at what she saw. The tiling that the handyman had done so far was impeccable, perfectly and beautifully designed to our space.
“You are an artist,” she said.
He turned and looked at her, his face lit up and his mouth spreading into the first smile we’d seen on him all day.
Elle went on to compliment his design choice, his care in aligning every tile, and his overall craftsmanship.
The rest of the afternoon passed with the man working cheerfully, happily creating his art on our walls. If I hadn’t known better, I would think he was an entirely different person than the man who had slouched through our front door that morning.
When you take the time to appreciate another person’s good work as their craft, their art, their passion, it’s amazing to see how their mood brightens and their attitude shifts. I have no doubt that this handyman often went unappreciated in his work – even though his work requires a skill that most of us do not possess.
Who in your life isn’t being properly appreciated? Whose day could you brighten just by noticing the care they put into their work? It’s amazing what a little bit of encouragement can do to someone’s morale and energy for the task at hand.
Today, I want you to experiment — look for someone who needs your words of appreciation, the person with their head down, who is disengaged with the world. Find at least one good thing to say about their work, and watch to see how it changes their whole attitude. Then, do it again tomorrow, and every day for the rest of your life.
Comment below or hit reply to tell me the results of your experiment.
As a speaker and author, Curtis Zimmerman has impacted over one million people with his life-changing messages and award-winning programs. Curtis is an expert at transforming organizations by inspiring individuals to live their lives at performance level.
Want to be inspired? Check out his podcast The Next 24 Hours.