Who’s Changed Your Life?


Now is the perfect time for you to begin a healthy habit that’s good for you and others and doesn’t involve washing your hands or even breaking a sweat.

It’s Easter this weekend, and it’s a great time to consider showing gratitude for people who have had a huge impact in our lives.

Our son is having his twenty-fifth birthday, and instead of sending us a birthday wish list this year, he’s asked us to write letters of neat encounters that we remember sharing together with him – experiences that have really helped shape his life and have been super-memorable for us. It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity to express how grateful we are for what he brings to our lives, as a family.

This month is National Letter Writing Month, so that, again, is a great reason to be mindful of people who have had an impact on your life. Send them a brief note thanking them, letting them know how appreciative you are of them, especially with all we have going on right now. Now is a wonderful time to take a few minutes, sit down, write a note, and then mail it off.

Kaleb Paddock, a friend of mine, is a financial advisor who owns Ten Talents Financial Planning. [He] put out a great post this week talking about the growth of one-on-one dialogue shows. He mentioned Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and David Letterman’s show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, pointing out the fact that these are two people, and two people only, dialoguing. They’re growing in numbers and popularity because people are understanding the value of relationship, and they’re dialing in to see two people do just that: interact in the form of a relationship. This is what we’ve got to realize.

This is the perfect month to be [communicating to deepen relationships]. If ever there was a time, given the circumstances we’re in right now, it’s right now that you need to be connecting with people.

So,

1. Make a short list of people who have had a positive influence in your life.

2. Take the time to write them a note. Tell them one point that you most appreciate about them.

3. Put it in an envelope, address it and mail it off to them, and don’t expect anything back. Just take comfort in the fact that you’ve taken this opportunity to show appreciation for them.

Especially in this time we’re in right now, we don’t know what can happen and how quickly lives can be changed. Now is the ideal time to set aside a few minutes each day to write a brief note and send it off to the people you care about most and let them know how they’ve had a formative impact on your life.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor idea next week.

Related: How Advisors Can Recalibrate Now for Future Success