TFTD “Start your day with a positive thought.” Happy day.

 The above caption may seem familiar to many of you, who receive my daily SMS TFTD, acronym for “Thought for the day”. I don't remember the exact date, when I started this daily ritual, but I recall that it was sometime in the later months of 2003, that I started to send out a daily quote of inspiration or a nice thought to a handful number of my close set of friends. It is now 10 years, since then and with time, the number of people to whom I send out this daily TFTD has grown to about 200. It does not stop there. This SMS gets forwarded by a number of my friends to their own circle of contacts and hence reaches out to a far greater number of people. By my conservative estimate, I think it reaches out to atleast 5000 people a day. Adding to this, thanks to FACEBOOK. I also post this message daily, in my face book page, where another 300 friends have the opportunity to see, tag and forward.

Sending out this TFTD SMS every morning, is something I love to do. The thought of being able to reach out to my friends and relatives with a nice thought, early in the morning, truly excites me. It is my way of saying, “Good morning” to my little world. Quite a number of days, I get some quick response such as “You are right! Very true, Nice! Super! Apt for the day! I agree! I don't agree!” or something like this. But, there are also many days, when I receive no response at all. But this has never deterred me

from following this daily routine. It is a commitment, I have made to myself, and I do my best to send it every day.

So what keeps me motivated to do this, is the simple fact, that there has been a few sharing's of my friends, which made me realize that my TFTD has made a far greater impact in their lives than I could ever imagine. Many of them find my TFTD as a coincidence to what they are going through in life, at that point of time. Some even call me and ask, “Did you have me in mind, while sending today's TFTD?.

Here are a few nice sharing's of my friends, about the

TFTD.

One of my very close friends, once called and said, “Sen, the TFTD you sent me today, is a real eye opener. I encountered a close to death accident yesterday and your TFTD said, 'Life is short, make the best use of it.' It really made me think”.

Another good friend called up one day and said, “Senthil, your TFTD today made me cry. Thank you, very much”. I was puzzled and asked why. She said, “I was holding a lot of grief in my heart and was finding it difficult to let out. Your TFTD today, said, 'It is OK to cry, ….' and it triggered me to cry out and I feel a lot better now.”

One person in Mumbai, who receives my TFTD as a forward, specifically back tracked my number, to call and thank me. He said, “Every morning, as soon as I receive your TFTD, I forward it to my customers. This has made my customers feel friendlier with me and so they prefer doing business with me. My business has increased”.

There are many such incidents, and every time I hear such a thing, I feel so glad. Some feel motivated, some feel solace and some just feel connected. In some way or other, it is a joy for me to know that my TFTD is making a positive impact in their life. I feel so grateful to God, for making me an instrument in reaching out with a right message at the right time, to the right people.

Some ask me, from where do I get this unlimited stock of nice thoughts? With all humbleness, I accept that I am not the author of all these quotes. Though, some of them are self created, most of them are from the books I read, the quotes I see somewhere or hear somewhere, some forwarded messages, some taken from internet, so on and so forth. The sources are many. The only

criteria for its selection is I should personally like it and to some extent be agreeable with the thought. For me, sending this daily TFTD has been a pleasure and will always continue to be. It serves as an reassurance to my belief, “Small effort … Big impact….”

Happy Reading,

D. SenthilKannan

Article Dated Nov'12