EYN #004 - Improve your happiness, health and performance.
Sep 26, 2023
Read time: 3 mins
So, are you a glass half empty or glass half full type of person?
Because if your glass is too empty, you're selling yourself short, affecting your happiness, affecting your health and limiting your potential.
Now I`m not talking about My Little Pony Optimism - all rainbows and sparkles. I`m not talking about denying the problems and challenges that lie in front of us. I`m talking about rational optimism. Rational Optimism is hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something.
The great thing is that optimism is a skill you can develop. So here's some practical ways you can develop it:
- Positive Psychology
- Practical Visualisation
- Gratitude
- Your Relationship With Failure
- Laughing
Positive Psychology
Understand that you can synthesize happiness and positivity. It's not exclusively influenced by external factors that happen to you, but by you. You can build your rational optimism skills. Here's 2 great Ted Talks that provide a great background to this topic:
You are in charge of your Optimism. You can develop this skill.
Practical Visualisation
The idea is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones and use Cognitive Displacement.
So when, you've got an important presentation or difficult meeting, in the run up, visualise how it will go. Visualise how you will succeed. But visualise it practically. Specifically, visualise what will you do and how will you do it.
Be positive, replace your negative thoughts with conscious positive ones. Visualise the practical details of your perfect performance. Walk through in your mind what you can control. It will make you feel more positive.
Chris Hoy talks this through brilliantly in his podcast Practical Visualisation - E16 - Sir Chris Hoy: The importance.
Gratitude
Gratitude is another tool for helping you be optimistic.
- It helps remind you of the great things that you have in your life.
- It helps reduce physical and mental symptoms of distress.
- It helps create physical positive changes in your brain.
- And it helps us regulate the stress hormone cortisol.
Everyday say out loud, or write down 5 things you’re grateful for. And use, a bit of creativity from your mind. Don’t name the same things every day, think creatively about all the wonderful things in your life to be grateful for.
Your Relationship With Failure
My son has a poster in his classroom that says that.
"FAIL: First Attempt In Learning."
But so often as adults, that mindset has been beaten out of us. We see failure as a bad thing. We don’t see challenges as a chance to try our best, learn something and move forward – but a chance to fail and look bad.
- Accept failure, in fact embrace failure as a sign of progress.
- Accept failure as inevitable in your journey through life, and a great learning tool.
- Accept failure, and it’s consequence is part of a life well lived.
Laughing
When things get a bit dark, a bit difficult, a bit pokey, having a good laugh helps takes the sting away. If you can laugh at something it reduces it’s power.
If you can’t laugh at the situation, then a good chuckle at your favourite comedy show or comedian is awesome. A good laugh helps you take in more air, which stimulates your internal organs ad helps your body. It also releases endorphins that help relax your mind, reduce stress and reduce tension. A good laugh can really help you get in a more positive frame of mind.
Hope this helps
BenP
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