Don’t let your last words in a conversation be “Thank you”.Wait! What? We are taught right through our lives to say thank you. We heard these words said to us as small children when we were given something “and what do you say?“. It’s the polite thing to do, it shows that you appreciate what you’ve been given. It does exactly that, and is often met with a dismissal as a reply. Something along the lines of “oh that’s okay” or “It was nothing really”. This interaction makes both our own gratitude and the receivers it diminish.When you receive something that you are grateful for and value surely you must want the person who gave it to you to be aware of just how much you appreciate it. This is where specific thanks becomes very important, rather than it being a general term that is often taken without its true intent. Tell the person why you are thanking them, what they did that warranted your thanks.Been to a friends place for dinner? Instead of replying with “thank you that was wonderful” try “thank you for that wonderful dinner, you must’ve put so much effort into it, it was delicious” or someone gives you a hand doing filing at work, elevate your thanks from the generic term to things like “thank you so much for helping with my filing you’ve saved me so much time”What this does is personalises the thanks, it makes the impact of genuine gratitude. You are not only acknowledging that the person helped you but you are thanking them personally for exactly what they did. This shows that you recognise the individual efforts and their value.We all want to feel appreciated for what we do, so when it comes to you showing your appreciation be specific, get personal with your compliments and gratitude.