Practicing Gratitude as a Virtual Assistant
Practicing gratitude as a virtual assistant benefits your business. Earlier this month on the AVA blog we shared, Creating a Virtual Assistant Vision Board in Canva. We were inspired by the training offered by AVA Member, Nhien Dinh. Nhien had members exciting a new kind of vision board in a new kind of way that made the process fun and easy.
This month, we also welcome Chris Palmore, author of Dear Gratitude. Chris shared with AVA members non-traditional ways to practice gratitude, the different levels of gratitude, and how to use gratitude in conjunction with a vision board.
Gratitude journals are a great way to practice gratitude, but certainly not the only way. Plus, what if journaling is not for you? With Positive Psychology, listing 28 benefits of gratitude, we don’t want you to miss out on this important practice. Here are a few ways you can practice gratitude to benefit your virtual assistant business.
1. Create a gratitude reel. The AVA knows how tech savvy and innovative VAs are and creating a gratitude reel is not only fun to create but also makes a great client appreciation gift. Bonus points for being able to show off your skills and trying something new! Sharing what you are grateful for creates a ripple effect. You never know who is going to watch your gratitude reel and decide to do one of their own to share.
2. Share a positive memory. Research has shown recalling positive memories creates positive emotions. Expressing gratitude for what has already happened is just as impactful as expressing gratitude for what you want to happen. When you are grateful for something that has already taken place, it lets us be positive that the future will provide us with more positive memories and emotions. This is particularly beneficial when you are practicing gratitude looking at your vision board. It’s one thing to recall a positive memory and another to share it. When we share a memory, we are more likely to go into more detail which increases our positive emotions. When we say that sharing is caring, we mean it. VAs like to receive feedback from clients. Clients like the same. Sharing and expressing gratitude for a time when the client empowered you, trusted you, and/or took a chance on you is powerful.
3. Provide gratitude accountability. Being an accountability partner is a gift in and of itself. However, you can take it a step further by creating a gratitude challenge and then offering to keep the person(s) accountable. It is rare to meet someone who doesn’t desire to be more mindful when it comes to gratitude. Often what is lacking is simply the right prompt and the knowledge that practicing gratitude is simple. Being genuinely grateful for things we can often take for granted is practicing gratitude.
As November comes to end, practicing gratitude as a virtual assistant doesn’t have to. If practicing gratitude for a month is game changing, think about how your business could be transformed by practicing gratitude all year round!
Want to be valued as a VA? Join our waiting list to be notified when membership reopens and receive valuable information.
