This is so surreal. Today I am writing a blog post about a national day that was actually founded by me! Last year was the very first year that we celebrated National Thoughtful Day and this Saturday, August 28th, we will be celebrating Thoughtful Day again. Pinch me. Am I dreaming or is this really going to happen every year?

The resource that I use when I am considering and researching all national days is Nationaldaycalendar.com. And thanks to them, my dream of having this national day came true! Every year, on the 28th day of August, I hope that many will feel compelled to be thoughtful. In a past post, I listed some examples of what I would do if Thoughtful Day became a national day. I wrote that post when I was still trying to woo Nationaldaycalendar.com into accepting my plea to recognize the day by making it an official national day.

Since the concept of thoughtfulness is so vast - there are many styles of being thoughtful - the sky is the limit on how one can celebrate this national day. Every week for the last six years, I continue to write posts about thoughtfulness. I am constantly finding another way to share something thoughtful. For this particular national day, I don’t think we could ever run out of ways to celebrate it.

I get a lot of compliments whenever I post about my family receiving a thoughtful pinch on Instagram. Whether it’s ice cream pints from our new neighbors or a giant chocolate chip cookie from a close family friend, I inevitably get a comment or two about how deserving we are to receive the gift because we’re so nice or thoughtful. In hopes of creating awareness about thoughtfulness for National Thoughtful Day, I wanted to share with you an epiphany that I had last week:

Posting that my family received a thoughtful pinch on social media, whatever the gift, is like receiving an Emmy, Tony, ESPY Award etc. - I’m that athlete or actor who thanks God for my talent in beating out my competitors to win an award or trophy. However, even though I really do believe God is the main part of the journey, I don’t think he favors me over others no matter how thoughtful I try to be. I don’t think that is how this works.

This is where my epiphany comes in: If someone goes thru the trouble to be thoughtful, the least we can do is to be grateful for it. And that is what my family does - we openly share that we are grateful. Mathematically we have more blessings but that is only because we are saying what we received out loud. Naturally, if we keep our gratefulness to ourselves, then no one knows that we received anything. Comparatively, it may seem like I have more than others but it is only because I named each gift that I am grateful for. We didn’t receive gifts based on our ability to be more thoughtful than others.

I just wanted to be clear on that so that whenever we compare ourselves to others based on a thoughtfulness barometer, we must ask ourselves, what are we trying to accomplish for others and more importantly for ourselves? Most people believe that in giving time, talent, gifts, money etc. it makes us feel good for giving; it brings us happiness to see others happy. However, in my (unprofessional) opinion, the real reason why anyone gives is because it encourages gratitude. Without purposely meaning to we want to witness gratefulness so we give gifts or time because it means that we have a little bit of control over something positive happening in someone’s life.

My thoughts lead to this: The key to being thoughtful has everything to do with wanting to contribute to someone else’s gratitude. It’s not an ego trip or a competition. But rather, it’s selflessly trying to promote others to give thanks via the simple act of being thoughtful.

Deep. I know.

Happy 2nd annual Thoughtful Day!

Pinches,

Barb