How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

1. THREE GOOD THINGS
One of the easiest ways to lift your spirits is to think about things you’re glad
about. Psychologists often call this the “gratitude exercise”; I refer to it as the
“three good things,” since that’s a good description of how it actually works.
Which is simply this: take a moment to think about three positive things that
have happened to you. And yes, you will feel better as a result, even if the good
things aren’t very big. In fact, several studies found that doing this each day for
just one week left people saying they still felt happier months later.
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It’s not hard to imagine why a little repetition makes the effects of the “three
good things” exercise endure. Remember how in 
Chapter 3
 we learned that each
of our thoughts corresponds to a network of neurons connecting with each other,
and that those neural connections get stronger the more often they’re called on.
So the more we focus on negative things, the more readily we spot the bad stuff
in our days. Conversely, we each have a neural network responsible for the
thought that begins “Well, the good thing about this is that…,” and if that

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network gets activated a lot, we strengthen the pathways in our brain that are
associated with that perspective on life. And that makes it easier and easier to
boot up the “glass half full” version of ourselves over time.
So whenever you need a burst of energy, think of three things that have gone
well today, things you’re grateful for, or simply moments that made you smile.
(Some German researchers found that asking people to think of three 
funny
things was as effective as thinking of three good things.)
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 On so-so days, I find
my list can include tiny wins such as “remembering my umbrella.” But it still
works. And once you start thinking of good things, even if it feels hard initially,
your associative brain will often trigger a cascade of other positive memories
from the day—things that you might otherwise have all but forgotten about.
Here are some ideas to help you get the most out of this technique:
Schedule a daily calendar reminder to prompt you to review your good things
each day.
Keep a notebook where you can write down your good things.
Try it with your partner or your children as an upbeat way of ending the day,
or when you’re lying in bed and ready to fall asleep.
Use a short version at the beginning of meetings, to help put everyone in a
good mood (and create a discovery-mode thinking environment, as I said in
Chapter 10
).