Day 11: Daily Positives

Coach Mickey Anderson Podcast · Daily Positives

As a leader it’s important to be able to find and celebrate wins, even in times of uncertainty and stress we must be able to rally and motivate those around us and one of the most effective ways to do so is to start by celebrating wins. Celebrating small positive events and victories is a way of creating positive momentum. 

“The capacity for thriving, resilience, or stress-related growth has been associated with improved health outcomes. For example, building on Carver’s work on dispositional optimism and thriving, Shepperd, Maroto, and Pbert (1996) found, in their longitudinal study of cardiac patients, that optimism predicts success in making health changes associated with lower risk of cardiac disease. Optimism was significantly and directly correlated with improved health outcomes, including lower levels of saturated fat, body fat, and global coronary risk, and positively associated with success in increasing aerobic capacity. Billings and colleagues (2000) showed that coping affected positive and negative affect among men who were caregiving for AIDS patients. Social support coping predicted increases in positive affect, which in turn were related to fewer physical symptoms. Avoidant coping, however, was related to increases in negative affect, which were related to more physical symptoms.” (Stangor & Walinga, 2014)

Task: Think of three positive events or small wins from the day. Take some time to reflect on them, write them down, or share them with a friend, family member or coworker.
Why: We often run from one day into another, and never stop to reflect on what went well. From the little things like the friendly barista or the great Netflix episode all the way up to the big things like purchasing a house, people tend to not take any time to savor them.
It’s OK if you struggle here at first or if on some days it’s hard to find the wins. Once again, it’s especially important on the crummy days to find some victories. This increases your motivation and builds your resilience.



References: 
Stangor, C. and Walinga, J. (2014). Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition. Victoria, B.C.: BCcampus. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/introductionto