Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Excellence becomes contagious when admired

When you genuinely admire someone's skill, kindness, or talent, something strange happens—you don't just feel good about them, you feel a little bit better yourself. It's like their excellence becomes part of your own experience. You start noticing how a friend handles conflict with grace, and suddenly you're more patient in your own arguments. You read something brilliant and the clarity stays with you, reshaping how you think. Appreciation isn't just politeness; it's a form of internal expansion.

The flip side most of us don't consider: this only works if the appreciation is real. Forced compliments or hollow praise leave you empty. But when you actually stop and recognize what's genuinely good in someone else, you're training your mind to spot excellence everywhere. You become less cynical, more observant, more capable. In a world that constantly asks us to compete and compare, real appreciation is almost subversive—it suggests we don't have to diminish others to grow ourselves. Their win can genuinely become part of ours, if we let it.