Last year I went to see Martin Seligman speak about his book Flourish and his research into positivity. One of the things he suggested people did to try and focus themselves on the positives in their lives was write down three positive things that happened during the day, every day. Of course, life and everything else stopped me from actually getting on with trying it, but today I got some bad news - not terrible news in the grand scheme of things - but very disappointing news. The kind of news that generally undermines my fragile self-confidence and makes me doubt my abilities and likelihood to succeed in a very competitive profession. So, I thought today would be a really good day to start. Plus, I know I'm as much a victim as anyone else of documenting the negatives in my life and simply letting the positives be forgotten. In the face of the likelihood of even more disappointing news over the next few days and months I thought starting to try and build some resilience against it might be a very good idea!
1. A little girl spontaneously took my hand. It felt amazing to have that little hand in mine and know that she trusted me, a complete stranger, like that. (Nothing creepy, honest, I work with children they just almost never take my hand!)
2. I got to enjoy one of my simple pleasures - a Starbuck Chai Tea Latte.
3. I only had to wait 5 minutes for the 171 bus. Might not sound like a big positive to you, but I've spent more evenings than I can count, after evening lectures, in the freezing cold waiting over 40 minutes for that damned bus.
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