Let me just say right off that I am far from being some kind of smooth lady on the relationship front. But I’ve recently did something where I accidentally encouraged my new boyfriend to do something nice for me, and then it kept happening.
Dan likes to cook. The second meal he made me, I decided to take out my digital camera and record him on video.
The next day, I watched it. What surprised me was that the video was actually good. I asked if I could post it on Facebook, thinking his friends would get a kick out of it. Almost immediately, he got phone calls, emails, and comments, mostly asking when the next video was coming out.
Next video?
I created the Chef Dan Youtube channel because I got tired of trying to load video on Facebook, and also because I wanted an excuse to learn more about Youtube and customizing channels. I’ve told next to no one about this, yet his channel seems to be getting hits.
The moral of the story seems to be that publicly recognizing someone doing something nice for you might motivate them to get more excited about it, and do it more often. In my case, posting Dan’s videos seems to make him want to cook for me more, and my investment (heckling him behind the camera and uploading the video) seems minimal. Sure, Dan would probably cook for me anyway but having a fan base certainly isn’t hurting his enthusiasm to try new recipes.
So catch someone you care about doing something great, and publicly recognize their efforts. Who knows, you might get baked scallops out of it.