Hello, welcome to the Excel Stillmore podcast.

I am your host, Chris Emerson, and we are here to talk about tips and strategies that you can employ to deepen your faith, improve your relationships, and just get the most out of your life.

Thank you for joining. Let's get started.

I'd like to begin this episode by saying thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for

supporting the program. Thank you for all that you've said and done to make

this work. It means a lot. In fact, that phrase, thank you, is the theme for our episode today.

I am committed personally to saying it much more often. There are sometimes words we say in its place

like thanks or I appreciate it,

or even when someone's in front of me, a shrug or a smile. But in the English language,

it doesn't get any clearer or more potent than saying thank you. It's an opportunity to do two things, two very important things.

Number one, express genuine appreciation. You have done something that is valuable to me,

and I appreciate you for that. Also, usually, by the same token, it makes the other person feel appreciated.

For that moment, when they hear those words spoken to them and respond with something kind,

like maybe you're welcome, it just makes them feel good and useful and makes the relationship

a little bit better. And anything that makes relationships better that communicates value for another person,

well, we ought to be doing a lot more of that.

In fact, I'll go ahead and tell you the big challenge at the end of the episode is to see

how many times throughout the rest of today you can say thank you to someone.

In how many situations can you find a way to use those words?

It would be great if you would take that challenge for the rest of this week.

Try to remember every day this accomplishes two incredibly important things. On the one

side of it, I make sure the conversation is not about me, and on the other side of it, they get to

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