We recently lost Prince Henrik of Denmark.
As long as I remember he has never been very popular with the Danish media, and every time he said anything it was used again him.
He got hated for speaking Danish with an accent, that he wanted to be the king (he was “whining again”), they wrote that he was pathetic or plain ungrateful.
He was the underdog of the Royal Family. Regardless of what he did, it just seemed like Danes wouldn’t accept him.

After his death, it seemed like everybody suddenly remembered how nice and a good person he was. How generous and helpful he was, how much happiness he actually spread around him and how much he had done for the Danish people and of course, the Queen.
When he died people stood in lines for hours to honour his death. Many of these people said they came to honour him after hearing what kind of nice person he actually was.

I have never had the chance of meeting Price Henrik. For me,  he was always the underdog of the Royal Family and I have often felt that the harassment from the Danish media was way out of proportion.

As I  watched the news about his funeral, I couldn’t help but think what a difference all this praise could’ve made for him when he was still alive. To know that he was loved and appreciated by the Danish people, I wonder if he has ever felt it.

This was just another affirmation for me on why it is so important to remember to praise people around you while they are still alive.

Read more about why gratitude should be a daily part of your life.

Has it always been hard to praise others?
It almost seems like praising others is the hardest things to do. You can think all kinds of thoughts about people, but saying it out loud seems too scary or make people feel uncomfortable. WHY is that?

I see it in people around me, it is really hard for them to praise others. Are we afraid that the person we are praising will become too smug, become too confident?
Do we feel vulnerable when we have to say nice things about others?
Or it is because we are expecting to be praised back, and when that doesn’t happen, we feel cheated and stop praising?

There are a lot of people who feel this way, who only want to say something nice if they get something in return because they want praise, to feel admired and when that doesn’t happen they stop praising.
It doesn’t work that way. If you want to praise someone, do it because you want to and not because you expect something in return.

Read more about the importance of showing appreciation.

3 quick reasons why praising should come naturally to you.

1. The impact of your act is tremendous when you praise somebody you might be the one that just made their day.
You might be the only good thing that happened to them that day and your words might be the thing that makes them believe in themselves and made a change. Who wouldn’t wanna be that person?

2. Appreciating and praising can save lives, sometimes a small gesture like a smile can make the whole difference.
A story comes to my mind, that of a man who committed suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. He had left a suicide note that read “I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I won’t jump.” He jumped.

3. When you praise someone, because you want to, it will make you feel good.
When you feel good your energy changes and other opportunities show up where other people start appreciating you and praising you, because that the energy you send out.

What goes around comes around, but not necessarily from where you expect it to come from.

Do good and good will be done to you.