Strands of Genius: How Gratitude Rewrites Your Brain, Gratitude in the Workplace, A Heartwarming Thanksgiving Tradition
Plus: help us spread the word...
WRITING FROM | Mexico City, MX
WORKING ON | planning our 8th Annual Whiskey Weekend!
LOOKING AHEAD
Nov 19-26 | Mexico City, MX
Nov 26-7 | Nashville, TN
Dec 7-15 | Beersheba Springs, TN
Dec 15-19 | Atlanta, GA
Dec 19-21 | Athens, GA
Dec 21-Dec 31 | Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
This week we find ourselves back in Mexico City, and damn it feels good to be back in this gorgeous city! Every time we’re here, I find myself thinking that someday we’ll live here, and yet that desire to travel is still there. So, not yet. But maybe someday ;)
We’ll host a Friendsgiving on Thursday, with a colorful cast of characters.
our friends Alex & Collin, who used to live in NYC but are visiting from Atlanta, GA (Funny enough, we all went to UGA but ended up meeting through mutual friends years later)
Matt, the voice of the 30 Rock Tree on Twitter, (who also used to live in NYC) is visiting from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Rafa, our friend in CDMX who is the founder of Seenapse, which is a ridiculously cool inspiration engine (and yes you should def it out!) and his lovely wife Ingrid
Steve, one of Faris’ first friends in NYC, who he met when they were both on a panel at a PSFK event, who now lives in Mexico City, MX with his girlfriend Maru (By the way, Steve also has a newsletter, called Delightful, and we can confirm that it is, indeed, delightful, and you should absolutely subscribe)
And a couple of Steve & Maru’s friends :)
One of my all time favorite things is getting to introduce friends to each other over food (and/or making new friends over food!), and so this Thanksgiving I’m feeling especially thankful! Our Thanksgiving theme is comfort food, so while it’s a pot luck, we won’t have a turkey or cranberry dressing ;)
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
turning on our out of office / email autoresponder, our Kindles, micheladas, friends getting together, tacos al pastor, walking tours, Ricardo, all the nature we got to see in Isla Mujeres, street art, Mexican tiles, dogs that are well behaved enough to just walk around on the street, all of the beautiful tropical foliage, mariposas, our super sweet Airbnb host Celine, coffee with Max & YOU!
FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND
and cc Ashley@GeniusSteals.co for additional entries into this month’s giveaway for products from our guest curators this month <3
:: THE LINKS ::
HOW GRATITUDE REWRITES YOUR BRAIN
A psychology instructor and researcher who studies well-being ended up with a brain tumor… So she started practicing the principles that she’d learned in her studies. Namely, gratitude. She found ‘the fighter’ narrative wasn’t helpful for her, and she wanted another way to live with her diagnosis. The more gratitude she practiced, the more at peace she felt. And like most things in life, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Neuroplasticity means we can rewire our brains over time, and the more we activate these ‘gratitude circuits’, the stronger they become — which increases happiness, decreases depression, and helps us maintain strong relationships. (TED)
WHY GRATITUDE IS IMPORTANT IN BUSINESS
Typically gratitude is thought about in terms of personal development, or amongst personal relationships — but gratitude has a place in the workplace environment, too. And yet for Americans, “recent research conducted by the John Templeton Foundation revealed that the workplace is the least likely place to express gratitude.” Only 10% of individuals said they expressed gratefulness at work, but nearly all of them said a thank you would make them feel respected and valued. And consider your own customers or clients or colleagues - Have you expressed gratefulness for them lately? (I’m a huge fan of thank you notes, but hadn’t really considered doing the same with our own clients!) (Intelligent Change)
Oh and, via Forbes:
“One of the coolest aspects of gratitude is that there is what has been called a spillover effect: “Individuals become more trusting with each other, and more likely to help each other out.” But there are more benefits than even an enhanced “sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and trust between employees.” Gratitude in the workplace also leads to “significantly increased happiness, greater satisfaction with life, and higher resilience to stress [… and even] fewer headaches and illnesses.”
A TABLECLOTH WITH YEARS OF SIGNATURES
Deb Mills wanted to create her own Thanksgiving tradition, so more than 20 years ago she asked all of her guests to sign the tablecloth. After they left, she embroidered their names into the tablecloth, which got put away until the following year. While I’m not a good with a needle and thread myself, I just love this idea. Even if it wasn’t a tradition, but as a way to celebrate any special event! (ABC News)
Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 13,000 subscribers. Support us by becoming a member of The School of Stolen Genius, or encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe. If you’re interested in sponsoring this newsletter, hit reply and let’s chat!
:: HELP US SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS LIL NEWSLETTER, PRETTY PLEASE ::
Just by being a subscriber, you’ll already be entered to win items featured from our guest curators, along with 1:1 consulting hours. However, we’ve also got a few ways for you to earn some extra entries, capped at 100 entries per person.
All you have to do is share a link to the newsletter in some capacity, and send an email to ashley@geniussteals.co on or before November 30th.
Here’s the scoop:
Sharing on social media = 5 extra entries, per platform. You’ll send a link to your post(s) to Ashley.
Sending an email to your team/department = 25 extra entries. We hope your team will thank you! Forward your email to Ashley for your extra entries.
Sending an email to your whole company = 50 entries. Damn, look at you willing to use that all-agency list serv. Thanks, we appreciate that! Forward your email to Ashley for extra entries.
We would like to grow our subscribers so obviously this is helpful for us and we are incentivizing that a little bit but we also believe that sharing is caring, that people we meet always tell us they find this newsletter unique and useful amongst the advertising industry, both broad and personal, and if you like it, wouldn’t people you like enjoy it too?
We’ll select winners on December 1st, and announce the winners on December 5th.
:: WHAT TO SHARE ::
We’re leaving that up to you. We’d love for you to share what you love about the newsletter, or why you read it, or what you appreciate about it — but just sharing a link will still get you extra entries.
We’ve flagged some of the more popular editions of Strands of Genius here, in case you want to share a past edition:
There was that edition where we explored grief, which included links about overcoming productivity dysmorphia, when a major life change upends your sense of self, and 3 questions to ask about trends.
Or the edition where we highlighted social media bans around the world, which included links about why community matters so much, retouching and influencer marketing, and shrinking The Gap (how the clothing brand lost its way.)
We covered the tough topic of abortions in May, and included links on big ideas in advertising, why Marvel is the most important cinematic innovation of the 21st Century, and why analogies are superpowers.
The newsletter we received the most responses to was when Rosie wrote about what it’s like working with a spouse, and included her favorite writings from Faris, including a post about America, Freedom & The High Cost of Healthcare, toxic nostalgia, how to get lucky, and Stone Junction.
And then there was a follow-up from Ashley, our Director of Operations, who wrote about what it was like working with a married couple, and included links on the nature of fame and attention, Italy’s B Corps, and the gay history of camels.
Or the time when Faris wrote about constraints, and included links on playing with brands, how tenderness and attention are related, and why we love the word ‘smooth.’
Rosie was a little nervous to send the newsletter where she talked about waning ambition, but it turned out many of you shared the same perspective. That edition also included links on why the return to the office isn’t working, the six forces that fuel friendship, and the first edition of the Warc Attention Economy podcast.
And there was the edition where we shared our favorite questions to ask, which also included links on being wrong, the insane cost of cars, and nine ways to channel stoicism to help your anxiety.
You can find and search the entire archive of Strands of Genius here, if there was an edition we didn’t spotlight that you loved and wanted to share :)
Join a community of people looking to work smarter, not harder.
Enroll today >
http://schoolofstolengeni.us
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox?
Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.
It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)