Ending your Day on a Positive Note

How do you end your day at work?

Do you rush out of the office to ensure you catch the train knowing there are still things to do and you’ll do them once you get home, feeling stressed?

Do you finish your task and then prepare for the next day carrying forward the things you didn’t get done today?

Do you finish what you are doing and then switch off to now focus on what needs to be done at home?

Or

Do you spend a few moments reviewing your day recognising what has been achieved and feeling good about it?

A lot has been written about positive emotions and how they enhance cognitive, affective, and physical resilience and broaden our repertoire of thoughts and behaviours.

Hundreds of studies have reported associations between positive emotion and tangible outcomes such as higher wages, customer satisfaction, and creativity, big picture thinking, physical health, quick cardiovascular recovery and work engagement.

So what can you do to begin to think in a more positive way?

As human beings we are all very good a identifying what is wrong, what hasn’t been done, what is unfinished, so you have to make a conscious effort to look at the positive and recognise it.

An end of day practice

To help you create a new habit, and to end the day on a positive note, here are some things you can do to establish an end of day practice:

1. Write down 3 things that went well about the day. This has been shown to increase happiness.
2. Write down everything that you have achieved today. We are all very good at thinking about all the things that didn’t get done rather than pat ourselves on the back for all the things that did get done.
3. Where did you perform at your best today? We often take these for granted and overlook them and yet they are the things that make our reputation – our brand.
4. If you are angry with someone and you feel the need to counterproductively chastise him or her – STOP! Identify things the employee has done to inspire you, that you are grateful for. Take a more balanced approach of the individual and then decide on the best course of action.
5. What did you really enjoy doing today? Savouring life’s pleasures both subtle and spectacular can enhance wellbeing.

You may choose to do all of these or just one and if every day is a step to far start with doing this at the end of the week and make it a regular practice.

Cultivate a ratio of positivity that will generate success.

“Don’t let people; places and things determine your moods. Take charge of how you feel each and every day.”

Michael Barbarulo

Are you Setting Yourself up for Success?

How would you describe your typical day at work?

You spend most of the day doing things you don’t really enjoy, going through the motions because that’s your job.

OR

You spend your day doing the things you love, being highly productive and feeling satisfied with your achievements?

If you answered yes to the second question than there is no need to read any further. You are probably setting goals based on your strengths and talents and building your personal and professional life on your assets. Congratulations!

You’ve learned to recognise and develop your talents and find roles that best suit you finding ways to apply them when necessary.

If you answered yes to the first question then here are some tips on turning this around so that you can enjoy the work you do even more by playing to your strengths.

What are your signature strengths?

The first step to making this happen is to identify your strengths.

Strength is something that you exercise frequently and with ease. You may not even recognise it as a strength because it is so easy.

There are a couple of ways to do this one way is to ask people for feedback: 

• What are you the go to person for?
• What adjectives would people use to describe you?
• If I were to ask someone who worked for you to describe you, what would they say?

Another is to take some simple on line questionnaires:

•  Values in Action (VIA)
•  StrengthsFinder           

You can use either of these approaches or a combination – the choice is yours. Whichever you choose I would recommend that you take some time to really get to know what they are and how you currently display them.

Then… ask yourself:

How can you apply your strengths more to achieve your outcomes?

How can you build a bridge using each of your signature strengths to develop your road map to get you where you want to?

This is not about ignoring weaknesses or development areas that warrant attention it’s just that the intention is not to dwell there.

Then…apply a strategy for one week:

Day one = Identify one of your strengths and notice where is this strength in action.

Day two = Brainstorm new ideas, novel approaches to applying this strength. How can you apply this to make the most of a situation?

Day three to five = Put this into practice and review your results.

Then…Review how things have gone and adapt as necessary making sure you play to your strengths.

Top performers have very specific goal setting habits. They know their capabilities and set goals slightly above their current levels, whereas low achievers are unaware of their ability levels and often set goals that are unrealistically ambitious.

Knowledge of your strengths can be used to re-craft jobs, negotiate development challenges, construct teams on the basis of complimentary strengths and build better relationships with colleagues and superiors.

So what is your next step in being seen and acknowledged as the talented individual that you are?

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Steve Jobs

Rules for Success – How to Identify Yours in 3 Simple Steps

It’s not uncommon for people at this time of year to talk about their New Year resolutions or the goals they have set. In fact this morning I had three people ask me this very question.

I am not against this. In fact I have my own process I go through at the end of each year, which involves me looking at every area of my life and setting clear goals for the year ahead. In the last 3 years I’ve also selected a word for the coming year. If you want to know more about this latter process find more information here.

What was really interesting this morning was that one person said they had the same resolution as previous years because they never stuck to it…

It is easy to give up when faced with the first, second, or third hurdle, so I thought I’d share part of the process I go through each year. It allows me to identify my own rules for success that help me stay on track, or at the very least identify what isn’t working.

Reflection on successes

The first step is to reflect over the past year and list, and by that I mean write them down, all the things you achieved. Consider every aspect of your life and everything that was an achievement for you no matter how large or small.

It’s easy for us to forget great things that have happened and put all our focus on what we didn’t do or should have done.

Take time to look at your list and feel good or even great about them and acknowledge all that you have achieved. I’ve known some people to then create their top 10 highlights for the year and use this instead of a Christmas card. It’s very impressive when you receive one of these too!

Reflection on what you didn’t achieve YET

This second step is important. The mindset you have when approaching this step is equally important. This isn’t about beating yourself up, criticising yourself, or getting into any analysis of what could, should or didn’t happen. It’s simply about recognising that some things, for all sorts of reasons, haven’t been achieved yet.

Again write this down – list them and then move onto the last, and for me the most important, step.

Identify YOUR Rules for Success

Now, with both lists in front of you ask yourself these two questions:

What was it I did that allowed me to succeed and achieve all that I did last year? What were the rules I had that when I follow them I succeeded?

Make a note of these.

Then, ask yourself:

What were the rules I wasn’t following, that if you had followed, would have allowed me to achieve all those things I haven’t yet?

Make a list of these.

This is about taking the learning from the previous year to ensure you make the best of the next 12 months.

From what you have written down you can now identify the important things for you to do consistently. This then gives you your own personal rules for success that you know if you follow them enable you to succeed.

Keep them somewhere accessible, so that you can refer to them if you need to. I find that if something isn’t quite working the way I’d hoped, it’s usually because one or more of my own rules are not being followed.

Here are mine for this year:

1. Stay connected – to the people I am working with, my own goals and what I care about.
2. Be consistent – in all that I do working on and in my business.
3. Believe and trust in myself – we all have times when we doubt ourselves and I am no exception.
4. Follow through on things I have committed to do for myself as well as my clients
5. Do the work required both professionally and personally – this is another way of saying practice what you preach…

I hope this has given you an approach to help keep yourself on track and it would be lovely to hear what your own rules for success are – do let me know at dawn@aurora4success.co.uk

“Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude than by mental capacities.”

Sir Walter Scott