Following up on the previous post on Tomorrowmind, here are several concrete actionable advice, exercises and methods to increase thriving at work and in our private life, as described in the book. WARNING: these are easy to say, but hard to do:
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Optimism is an important component of resilience which in turn contributes to our thriving. A simple exercise to improve optimism is called “Best possible self” and it consists of the following steps: imagine yourself in a future time frame where everything has gone right and spend ten minutes writing about it. Research shows that this exercise is strengthening our capacity for optimism.
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Another exercise to help us be optimistic in face of challenge is called “Putting it in perspective”. Whenever we are tempted to jump to negative conclusions about the outcome of a challenging situation, we should do the following steps: a. draw a horizontal axis on a piece of paper which has on the left “worst possible” and on the right “best possible”. Write the worst possible outcome that you already thought of on the left side. b. Try to think of the best possible outcome and put it on the right. c. Think of and write down 3 “most likely” explanations in the middle of the axis. There are usually more of these than the ones at the extremes of the axis. Purpose of this exercise is to make us see that there are more possible outcomes to a situation than the darkest ones. Bonus points: it helps us improve our cognitive agility, the “ability to mentally move back and forth among many possible scenarios before focusing in and then acting on the most promising one”.
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To boost our feeling of personal growth, one of the most common driver of workplace meaning, we should reflect regularly on our personal achievements. Just take a piece of pen and paper and look back at your day or week. What have you achieved? Anything worthy of praise? Anything to learn?
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Emotional regulation is a key element of resilience, because it helps us not be flooded by emotion and take reckless action. Here’s a 2-step method to apply when we feel we are getting carried away: a. Slow down: don’t act right away on your emotions, try to name them, ask yourself what triggered them, notice your physical reactions b. Reappraise: challenge your initial reactions. What are your emotions trying to tell you? What parts are helpful and which are not? What options are there for action? What information you need to decide?
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When dreaming about the future (prospection), use professor Gabrielle Oettingen’s “WOOP” framework: “identify the Wish, consider the Outcome, focus on Obstacles and determine your Plan”.
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Social connection is important for thriving. This is hard to happen when words like “Us” and “Them” are common. A simple “perspective-taking” exercise is to imagine “Them”s perspective of the world. It is easier to think of the perspective “Us”, but takes a lot of effort to see things through the eyes of “Them”.
Originally posted on LinkedIn.