My birthday was last Wednesday. When I got home from work, I had over 100 messages on my Facebook wall, from family, friends, acquaintances, and a few people I had to look up to remember.
And I loved every one of them.
I felt like Scrooge, at the end of the story, sitting there reading all those birthday wishes. I hadn’t been sending them out, but here I was, receiving them, feeling great. I needed to give back!
Which is when it dawned on me that there is zero difference—zero—between praying for someone and simply thinking about them in a positive light. On August 10th, I was the recipient of peoples’ prayers all day, and I could feel it and it felt great.
We may not understand the mechanics of it yet, but science is starting to figure out how to measure the power of intentional thought. Which is good. But for now, all I know is, wasting a little time on Facebook now and then—by sending a virtual birthday present or clicking “like” or commenting “c’mon, really?” on a photo—means that I got to receive all that back in return 10-fold.
Sign me up all day long.
It took me over two hours to respond to all the tweets, facebook messages, and emails I got Wednesday. I never could have spoken to all those people over the phone. It was a great two hours. I was glad to lose the sleep.
Now stop wasting your time and get active on social media.
Jason Seiden is CEO of Ajax Workforce Marketing. Ajax amplifies brands by aligning employees' online messaging.
I'm Jason. I run a brand agency with a specialization in workforce marketing.
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It does feel great to get all those well wishes. So much so, I decided to do something about it that can hopefully get everybody to feel just the way you did.
Strangely enough, my blog post ( first) of today:http://startuplive.posterous.com/#!/a-bit-about-birthday-slam-august-12-2011
I hope you enjoy it Jason,
Jeff
@Jeff—Thanks! I’m slammer 1,022.
I was really hoping this article was written by a high schooler needing the constant praise and approval of his peers. As a 28 year old adult I could not relate to this.
EGR–Appreciating praise and needing it are two totally different things. I think I learned that between my 28th and 38th birthdays…