Starbucks coffee, gratitude, and GREAT-itude

“Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.” — Edwin Arlington Robinson

This morning, something happened that never happened to me before.  I stopped by a Starbucks prior to a training I was conducting, and when I got to the window to pay and pick up my drink, the clerk said, “The woman in front of you paid for your coffee and said that you should have a good day.”  Stunned, I grabbed the coffee, said, “Oh wow…How nice…” and drove off.

It was a great way to start the day.  I started thinking about how that made me feel.  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward this stranger who was so gracious as to pay for my coffee, and I felt almost this sense of urgency to do the same thing for someone else down the road.  If I would have had my head on straight I could have just said that I would pay for the coffee for the person behind me.  By the time that occurred to me it was too late, but I’ll do it again.

When someone does something out of the goodness of their heart, you feel a sense of gratitude.  But, what’s more, the good feelings you get from it are contagious, and you want to make someone else feel good too.  It feels good to give, and that feeling of warm generosity just feels great — so I’ll call that GREAT-itude.

What ways can you give someone else a sense of GREAT-itude in simple ways?  I would love to hear your suggestions!

Have a great day!

-Victor

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