I had no idea what Positive Psychology was until a few days ago when I watched Shawn Achor’s Ted talk on “The happy secret to better work.” His basic premise is that positive people do better work, not to mention, they are happier. He said that work performance is based on something like 35% intelligence and the rest is about attitude and how you perceive the world. If you think of stress as a negative as opposed to a challenge then you get tired and discouraged quicker. If you see the positive in situations instead of all the problems, you actually solve the problems more effectively.
Pretty cool stuff I thought. He does consulting (of course!) and says that he tells his clients to do the following every day for 21 days in a row: think about 3 different things daily to be grateful for, and those things can’t be repeated again. Keep a journal and every day write down a positive experience at work. Meditate, it calms the chaos. Practice random acts of kindness (can be really simple things). After 21 days I guess these things become more of a habit in life and began to really shift people’s thinking to more of a positive outlook. I’m going to try it.
Things I’m thankful for:
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have energy to get things done
I am thankful that I have a class to teach from the beginning of the semester this time
I am thankful that there have been great improvements in my work environment
...feeling better already!
When we first moved to Tennessee, my brothers were both quite miserable having left behind deeply rooted friendships and feeling like they'd been plunked down in po-dunk. My mom started asking Matt to tell her 3 good things in his day every day when he got home from school (he was a sophomore). To this day, he tells the story of having to think hard at first, but within a few weeks he volunteered 4 then 5 then 6, etc. until his attitude and outlook about life in TN completely changed. :)
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