I had a humbling moment the other day. I did something, expecting to get thanked. I wasn’t. I was cross for about ten seconds before I realized that I had been on the receiving end of that same thing multiple times myself, and had never even thought to thank the person that did it.
The small lesson, of course, is “Don’t do things because you want to be thanked. Do things because they’re the right things to do.” But the larger lesson is to look beyond the obvious. People are doing you favors all the time, every day. If ever there was a day to remember to say thank you for the non-obvious, this is it.
The Opportunity Machine 