Walter Green: The Power Of Gratitude

It happens all too often — we postpone personal to-do lists, put off long-overdue correspondence, and fail to make time for the things that really matter. We blame our never-ending deadlines, chores, the daily grind, you name it. Then, tragically, the unthinkable happens, and we’re faced with the gut-wrenching reality that a loved one has passed, and we never got the chance to take that trip together, have that final conversation, tell them what they really meant to us.

For Rancho Santa Fe-based retired corporate CEO Walter Green, author of This is the Moment! How One Man’s Yearlong Journey Captured the Power of Extraordinary Gratitude, the time had come to seize the moment and reach out to those who had left an indelible mark upon his life. But he didn’t initially set out to write a book — it all started as a very private, personal journey. In the process, as Green discovered how expressing deep gratitude had enriched his life and the relationships that were important to him, he found that he had struck gold, and that the message needed to be shared.

Ken Blanchard, #1 New York Times best-selling author, explains in the book’s forward: “Over the course of a year, Walter Green traveled throughout the United States (and even abroad) to visit 44 of the people who have significantly impacted his life at various stages — be it as a young man trying to find his way in the world, a businessman building his career and family, or a man who sold his company and found new meaning in mentoring and philanthropy. During these visits, Walter conveyed his profound gratitude in a purposeful and explicit way. He wanted to tell these men and women how much they mattered to him before anyone’s health or life was compromised and the opportunity was missed.”

Green never had a specific number of people in mind — it could have just been a few. “The process of selection was simple but powerful and highly effective,” Green points out. “I took out a pad of paper and thought of people who had impacted my life. I put that person’s name at the top of the sheet and then asked the question ‘What difference did this person really make in my life?’ I then put bullet points of his/her specific contributions. These responses were clear indicators of why that particular person should be included on my journey of gratitude and became the essence of what I communicated to each of them.”

Green met the selected 44 individually in a quiet place, and recorded the conversations. He then summarized his thoughts about each in a 120-word letter, and sent the framed letter, along with the recording on CD and a photo of the two of them.

In just the last few months since the book’s release, Green has been “deeply touched by the number of people, from eighth grade students to retired people, whose lives have been enriched and their important relationships enhanced.”

In the book, the reader is given all the tools they need to experience the joy of giving the extraordinary gift of gratitude. Green hopes to awaken people to the logic of expressing feelings to others while they’re still alive and well, so they won’t have any regrets in the future for things left unsaid to people who they hold dear.

One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of the books at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe will be donated to the Rancho Santa Fe Foundation. This Is the Moment is also available at local leading bookstores, as well as online at Amazon.

As we embark upon a new year, may we all resolve to make this the moment.