Forever Grateful-- U-M Law School alum pens '365 Thank Yous'

By Kurt Anthony Krug Legal News By the end of 2007, John Kralik was at the low point in his life: he was in the wake of a second divorce; he was on the brink of bankruptcy; his law firm's bottom line was colored in red; the woman he was seeing broke up with him; his relationships with his children were fractured; and he was living in a small apartment that he could barely afford. Kralik, 56, of Los Angeles, had good reason to be depressed and to be filled with despair. He ached for stability and financial security, desires that were becoming more and more elusive. Yet, Kralik had an epiphany of sorts on Jan. 1, 2008. He went for a walk in the mountains above Pasadena and returned a changed man - for the better. "Things were really at a frustrating point," Kralik said. "As I was walking in the mountains, I heard a voice. What does that mean? It was an inner voice; it didn't seem to come from me because it was not a thought I'd really have. It certainly wasn't a thought that flowed logically from the way I was feeling. It said to me: 'Until you learn to be grateful for the things that you have, you will not receive the things that you want.' This really puzzled me, so I needed to figure that out," recalled Kralik, a 1979 University of Michigan Law School alumnus who is a judge in Los Angeles Superior County Court, appointed in 2009 by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. At his law firm, Kralik & Jacobs in Pasadena, he found some unused note cards that were about to be thrown away. He decided to put them to good use by writing one thank you note per day for a year. "For some reason, the inspiration was very specific: It would need to be 365 thank you notes," explained Kralik. "At various points along the way when I felt sad, this was a difficult task to complete. Since things were getting better, I felt I should declare victory and move on. But I didn't because I felt the inspiration was not to write 30 to 40 thank you notes, but to write 365." This became the impetus for his book, "365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life" (Hyperion $22.99), which eventually landed Kralik on ABC's "Good Morning America" and "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric." At first, Kralik didn't have anyone to write to and was about to abandon this New Year's resolution on Jan. 3, 2008. Determined to stick it out, Kralik wrote his first note to his eldest son to thank him for the gift of a coffee maker for Christmas. "I realized then I didn't have his address," Kralik said. "Feeling very embarrassed about that, I called him to get his address. He said to me that he needed to come over and take me to lunch, so he did. In the course of that, he repaid a loan to me of $4,000, which I had completely forgotten about. Two things (dawned on me). One was, 'Yikes! This thank you note thing really worked. I write one and get $4,000.' The second thing was to write another thank you note to him because he paid off the loan and showed me he could be true to his word After Kralik wrote thank you notes to his closest friends, his colleagues, and his family, he then sent letters to his clients, thanking them for paying their bills on time. He also wrote to a Starbucks barista named Scott. "When I got there in the morning, Scott was there to greet me and said, 'The usual, John?' I realized that I'd never taken the time to get to know his name... I sent a note to Scott the next day. He told he had saved that note all this time, along with other remembrances of his Starbucks career. He's now directing plays in Seattle," Kralik said. Slowly but surely, Kralik's life started to get better. At times, the improvement was almost imperceptible, but he stood the test of time and gutted it out. "Objectively, my life really has changed. I think I have a better relationship with almost everyone close to me. I certainly have a much more positive outlook on my life because this project reminded what tremendous friends I have because I went back and thanked them. Many of those relationships were renewed," he said. In addition, Kralik is now on solid financial ground. As a judge, his salary is a matter of public record - he makes about $174,000 annually. He moved out of his rundown apartment that he shared with his 11-year-old daughter and moved into a house near the mountains above Pasadena. Kralik still writes thank you notes and he encourages people to write thank you notes, which he believes have become a lost art. When people do write thank you notes, it's either through e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. He believes it should be of the handwritten variety. "I do believe this is a very simple thing you can do. Go buy a bunch of thank you notes and reach out to that person, great or small. If you can sincerely appreciate them, it will help you and help them," he explained. Letting people know they made a difference in his life only served to sharpen Kralik's perspective. "I was privileged to be appointed as a judge, which was a lifelong dream to me. I was privileged to be able to write a book, and that's been a great experience," he said. "Every aspect of my life seems to have changed for the better. Even those aspects that are pretty much the same, I appreciate my life better. By viewing my whole life in perspective through this thank you note project, I think that despite having difficult times, it has been a good life." Published: Mon, Sep 12, 2011

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