The Hygge Manifesto meets Working Out Loud Circles: 5 - Gratitude: Take it in. This might be as good as it gets.

This is the sixth post in a series of posts looking at hygge and working out loud circles using Meik Wiking’s The Hygge Manifesto from his book “The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well” as a framework for discussion.

Hygge encourages you to be grateful for what you do have and not to hanker after what you do not have or what you have lost. It also emphasises the happiness that can be had in the simple things that we all too often take for granted.

One of the powerful elements of working out loud circles is its emphasis on and the centrality of gratitude in the circle guides.

As a person that says “thank you” more than a lot of people do, it amazes me in some cases the shocked response that I get or comments like “I was only doing my job”!

I love how John (Stepper) has included and how he has worded the “gratitude” paragraph in his list of 10 contribution types in the circle guides:-

2. Show appreciation: Gratitude is perhaps the most underutilized resource we have. It feels good to give it and receive it. Saying “thank you” to someone or giving them credit for their work can deepen the relationship. Offering public appreciation is a different but related gift, one that’s less personal but reaches more people. Try both.

I am aware as I create this post that I still need to get back into the habit of doing Twitter #ff’s. Doing this on a regular basis in the past, certainly helped make me an even more grateful person. I have some fixed views on how these need to be done “properly” – this does not include just tweeting “#ff” with a large number of Twitter users with no explanation of why I should consider following any of them!

What would you add to the hygge part and/or the working out loud circle part of this post?

Resources

For a full list of posts in this series see the index post

My Top Ten Resources for Encouraging People To Actually Work Out Loud (as at 6 November 2017) (this post includes links to Working Out Loud resources)

Author Info

Simon Fogg is an IT professional who has worked in IT for all bar 8 months of his 34 year career to date. He delivers business consultancy, project management and service management services as part of the Claritas Solutions team in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. Claritas deliver solutions to clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors across the UK. He was first introduced to Working Out Loud Circles in 2016 and has since led 2 x 12-week global/virtual circles (using Slack and Zoom) and is currently recruiting and setting up for launching an “out-of-the-ordinary” (more than 5 people) 3rd circle on a trial Workplace by Facebook community in January 2018 with members already using the platform.