Remember that time you landed your friend a great job interview? Or when you cooked a five-course meal for your entire family?
Did they say thank you?
They probably did, but let’s imagine that they didn’t. How would that make you feel?
Most people find ingratitude irritating and might even grow to resent the thankless friend or family member. But, of course, this will only make you feel worse. So, how do you cope when there aren’t any thanks in sight?
That’s right. Face the simple fact that ingrates abound. Case in point: Samuel Liebowitz, a lawyer, saved 78 people from the electric chair over the course of his career. How many people said thank you? Zero.
The only thing you can control is how you feel. So, instead of making yourself suffer, why not concentrate on the joy of giving without expecting gratitude?
Being at peace with this is one of the secrets to a greater sense of calm in your life. And that’s something your mind will definitely thank you for.
For more on worry-free living – including why Leo Tolstoy should have left his wife – check out the book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, by Dale Carnegie.
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Clare Wieck is Content Quality Lead and the Blinkist Minute minder at Blinkist. She sometimes misses the days when people hacked into the mainframe and rapped about sucker-MCs. She’s also a musician, holds a degree in psychology and identifies as either a New Zealander or Englander, depending on the occasion.
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