Planning with Positivity

Yesterday we held our annual review and planning meeting which we call visioning. The article below was shared as inspiration. It may help your perspective as a team or individually moving forward.

At the start of the year, there is often a focus on setting goals, making changes and doing better. While this can be motivating for a time, often it is short lived and defeating when things slip, go sideways or fail. Rather making drastic changes, what if we focused on things in our life that are already going well or that happen in our day that are positive? Or what if our goals were less about productivity and results and more about hope, joy, connection and service as a motivator for sustainable success?

Visioning/goal setting is often about looking to the future, but if we look to our past to see how we have overcome, persevered and succeeded we can have confidence and hope that our future will work out. Joy is happiness of heart because of good received and good expected. Being hopeful is a matter of imagination – can we allow ourselves to imagine what the best outcome might be, and as positive things happen can notice them and celebrate them? We all need hope to give us something to look forward to and work towards. “Joy”, according to Gary Haugen who works with International Justice Mission, rescuing kids from human slavery around the world, “is the oxygen for doing hard things.” He advocates for being intentional about cultivating joy in your life. Listen to Audio Clip

Joy often shows up uninvited and unexpected, even in the most unlikely of situations. You might not be able to force joy or even choose joy, but you can make plans to cross paths with joy and be ready to embrace it when it finds you. Catherine Price, an award-winning health and science journalist advises, when in a moment of delight to take note of it. “Delights are small and simple pleasures you can identify throughout your ever changing day.”  Some examples to inspire you might be a gorgeous sunset on your way home from work, a joke that made you crack up, a catch-up with an old friend where you felt known, a delicious meal, or clean sheets. She has also found in her research that true fun, which she defines as a combination of playfulness, connection and flow, is essential for a joy filled life. Again, this is about making room in your life to let joy in. Watch Video Clip

Life is made up of millions of moments. Yes, there will be big, exciting moments and devastating, hard moments, but mostly life is mundane and ordinary. Capturing small delights, being hopeful and grateful is a lens through which we can view life; we can be deliberate to have the eyes to see. English poet, William Blake (1757-1827) is attributed with the phrase, "we become what we behold". Science has shown that as thoughts travel along specific pathways to various destinations in our brains, when we consider the same thought frequently, the pathway for that thought becomes more deeply entrenched. The final result is that the more often we contemplate something, the more it will affect our thought patterns, how we feel, and how we behave. Source

Something we have actively tried to do as a staff is to share something positive every day. Focusing on the positive doesn’t deny reality, that there are challenges or hardships, or try to stifle other emotions by putting a glossy coating on, but it gives perspective and reframes circumstances. It acknowledges that in life a dichotomy of feelings can happen simultaneously and allows for laughter amidst grief, hope when things aren’t going your way and resilience to keep moving forward. “It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” Epictetus
 
Not only does sharing our positives help us as individuals, but it also helps us as a staff to feel connected and cared about. Even if we struggle to come up with something or we're feeling kinda bleh, it helps us to identify something good in our lives and to share in each other’s joy. Having a positive outlook and attitude is contagious and becomes the way we do things around here – it is culture forming. Having connection, relationships, and community is a powerful way to overcome hardships and encourage productivity and retention. In the book, "Why Motivating People Doesn't Work ... and What Does" Susan Fowler claims that, building strong relationships, celebrating progress, and leading by example are key to unlocking the full potential of teams and organizations. Meaningful connections, belonging, collaboration and celebrating shared successes are crucial for motivation. This clip shows just how impactful encouragement and support can be.

When we get too focused or controlling about our goals, plans and routines we can miss opportunities for connection, joy and unexpected but happy twists and turns. It’s in the challenging, unplanned and self-sacrifice that we see the most growth and meaning. When we are too narrow or self-focused we can miss the needs of those around us and fail to respond with compassion and grace. When you serve others, give of your time, talents and resources, and think of yourself less, you inevitably experience fulfillment and happiness. When setting goals and looking for motivation and results, it is wise to include ways to give, serve and focus on others. 

Wishing you a positive 2024!