Giving Thanks: From "I" to "You"

It’s Thanksgiving month, which means this is the perfect time to reach out and express your gratitude to the people who have made an impact on you this year.

When you write your first draft of a gratitude letter or a thank you note, it is very normal for many of the sentences to begin with “I”.

That is great for a first draft. Give yourself the space to brain dump all of the things you felt, the new ideas you had, the ways in which you changed thanks to this person’s contribution.

And then, go back and revise your writing. Change “I” to “you”. Speak about the person you are writing to rather than only speaking about yourself.

“I” to “you”.

There is a big difference from the reader’s perspective. When every idea starts with “I”, the reader might wonder what this has to do with them. When you start with “you”, the reader knows that this gratitude is meant specifically for them.

It is such a simple shift. But it really matters.