Do You Need Acknowledgement?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself if you need acknowledgement? And if so, why?

Our Search for Meaning

We may not know exactly WHY we exist, but we know that we DO exist. So, it’s been one of the biggest questions that mankind has sought to answer since we first evolved into beings who could think.

I like the answer that I read somewhere recently, probably in a Ryan Holiday book, that it is up to each of us to create and define our own meaning. In other words, the meaning of your life is what you choose to make of it through your words, deeds and character.

When You Need Acknowledgement, Is That Part of Your Search for Meaning?

If someone tells a joke that you told them, and you hear them repeating it as if it was their own original thought, does it irritate you and make you want to be acknowledged as the original teller of the joke?

If you have a great idea for how your team could improve and you hear a colleague you had talked with about it presenting it to the group as if it was their idea, does that trigger you?

If you write something witty and clever on social media and a friend likes it, then shares it without acknowledging that they got it from you, would that spark a sense of injustice in you?

These reactions, or similar ones to similar situations might pop into your mind and you might just as quickly dismiss them as being overly sensitive, but why do we react when we feel a lack of acknowledgement?

Acknowledgement Means that Someone Noticed Our Value

As individuals we are human beings whose soul is trapped inside this physical container that we call our body. We are part of the human race, part of a community, hopefully part of a friendship group, and part of a family, even if it has fragmented. We have a sense of our individual identity – who we are and what we stand for, along with how we fit into the world.

We might think that we can do everything alone. After all, we are born into the world as a separate individual life form, and we will depart our mortal body alone. Yet somehow, we derive our sense of individual value from the feedback we receive from others. That feedback arrives at your door whether you want it or not, whether you asked for it or not and whether it really matters or not.

Ultimately, we want to love and be loved, initially by our family, then our friends, then the community we belong to. We want to feel that our very existence matters to more than just us.

What Does All This Mean?

If we agree that acknowledgement matters to us all because it reinforces some kind of viewpoint that we do exist and that our very existence matters and means something, then what is the significance of that?

I would suggest that knowing how it matters to you, we can realise that it also matters to everyone else with whom you come in contact.

That’s why you can easily make a difference to the lives of the people around you by being of good character and by being a good, kind and compassionate person. When you pass a stranger on your morning walk, it’s easy to smile at them and say ‘G’day.’

It’s easy to help an old lady reach something off the top shelf of a supermarket. It’s easy to pay a random stranger a genuine compliment, like ‘I love those shoes that you’re wearing’, or ‘that’s a beautiful dress’. It’s easy to thank someone who has given you good service. It’s easy to pick something up off the floor that someone has dropped and give it back to them. It’s easy to call a friend to check in with them.

As the late, great speaker, Jim Rohn used to say, ‘The things that are easy to do, are also easy NOT to do!’

It costs you nothing to be a nice person, but it may just make a huge difference to the recipient of your kindness. My father, Bill Inman used to say that everyohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effectne you meet has something to teach you.

In these days of political division and social media trolling, fake news, media-driven narrative spins and nefarious agendas, we can all remember that acknowledging someone in some small way for some small thing might just make a huge difference to that person.

The ‘butterfly effect’ can kick in, wherein the recipient of your kindness is then reminded how that feels, enough so, that they are then the doer of good deeds or the payer of compliments to the next person they encounter, and so, like a Mexican wave at a sporting event, the goodness ripples on across the globe.

You might be tough and self-sufficient, a no-need-for-acknowledgement-island, but I’d still like to acknowledge you for taking a moment to read this and reflect on it. Today, you could make a big difference to someone’s life and you may not even know that it mattered. They might not acknowledge your effort or report back to you on the consequences of your good deed, but you will know in your heart that you made the simple effort, and I have no doubt that karma will return the favour.

Have a great day!