Do you fill that extra 5 minutes you have before phone calls or appointments with checking your email or facebook page one more time? Keep reading for a much more productive way to put your spare 5 minutes to use!
While in the US, we often think of our annual Thanksgiving holiday dinner as the perfect time to practice gratitude. The reality for most of us though, is that by the time the holiday dinner leftovers have been consumed, we quickly return not just to home, but to our status quo of feeling lucky mostly in fleeting thoughts, before we resume tackling our to-do list.
The truth, however, is that to be a successful entrepreneur, gratitude needs to be at the heart of your business every day.
Why should you be grateful, anyways? While there are wonderful spiritual reasons, I’m a business coach so let’s focus on the pragmatic side; science points us to the fact that a regular gratitude practice is one very simple way to become happier. And oodles of very respected studies proves that happier entrepreneurs are more successful, creative, insightful and better problem solvers in their businesses.
So, why is it hard to be consistently grateful?
The reason turns out to hinge on our basic biology. When we were cavemen trying to avoid the woolly mammoths (or some other scary species), we had to be ever vigilant and on the alert. Survival of the fittest ensured our current tendency to regularly scan our environments for any possible negative consequences and dangers. And despite the fact that in our world, getting eaten by wild animals is a freak occurrence, we soldier on, still trolling for the bad.
Think about it, if your computer (like mine) has an unfortunate occasional tendency to bomb just as you’re about to hit send on a long, detailed email – you’ll curse with frustration and spend the next 20 minutes fretting about rewriting it. However, let’s say your emails all send easily, will you sit back and reflect on your good fortune? Not likely! You’ll likely move to agonizing about your web designer’s latest missed deadline and worrying whether he’ll ever finish it.
Even the optimists among us are more likely to fixate on what didn’t work out rather than what did. The problem with this is that, as Professor Martin Seligman (founder of positive psychology) points out, we actually need a ratio of 5 times more positive than negative thoughts to flourish in our life and our work. Translation? You need to find ways to amplify the positive that you see around you if you want to be at your full potential building your business.
So I know you’re thinking, “Is there an easy way to be more positive, ’cause I’m pretty busy here!” The answer is “Yes!”
Ample research shows gratitude practices, or simply a daily accounting of “What Went Well” (see below), can shift things up so successfully that it’s been used to effectively treat depression.
So to aid you in successfully building your business, I’m providing a couple of wildly easy gratitude practices. I’ve used them with great success both personally and in in my leadership coaching work with entrepreneurs so I can guarantee that you and your business can reap the psychological benefits of gratitude with very little effort.
EXERCISE ONE: WRITE GRATITUDE NOTES
When was the last time you received and unexpected thank you note in the mail? Not often for me, but each time I have, it’s made my day!
Sitting down and writing a one Thank You note (or email if you must) weekly is a great way to practice gratitude. You benefit from thinking over all your positive interactions during your week in general to decide who to write, and then in more detail as you pick one person to single out. To top it off, consider how you are making someone else’s day with your positivity and action.
(Side Note: One unplanned benefit you might find is that people like to be around and work with people who are grateful and appreciative – how’s that for a nice business boost?)
EXERCISE TWO: “What Went Well” or Three Blessings Exercise
What Went Well: (adapted from Seligman)
This exercise should take 5 minutes or less and going with your first response is just right. I recommend finding one notebook or opening a computer file where you can keep writing everyday so there is a visual record of your efforts.
Record three things EACH DAY that went well (The What) and why they went well (The Why).
(Ex: What? I got through 90% of my to-do list. Why? I followed the directions from Jo’s blog on how to get more flow in my work life.
Or What? I had time to make all my marketing calls. Why? My 2pm meeting had the flu so I got unanticipated work time).
The key with either of the above exercises, or any gratitude practice you undertake, is to keep it simple enough that you’ll actually do it. The cool part about the Seligman exercise is that research showed that even people who did it daily for just 2 weeks, still reaped measurable happiness gains 6 months later.
So try one out, commit to it daily for a few weeks, and watch how you and your business can benefit from these happiness boosters.
Jo specializes in transforming overwhelmed entrepreneurs into powerful leaders. After graduating from Yale College, Jo got her PhD in Business from UC Berkeley and then put her business know-how into action; a former struggling business owner herself, Jo was able to turn a hobby into a million dollar business. By pairing her exclusive systems and powerful coaching style, she has helped propel dozens of businesses to new echelons of success. Her expertise lies in helping clients find their optimal work style to take charge of their to-do lists and their business, while finding quality time to enjoy the rest of their lives.