30 Days of Positivity – It Begins (Day 1)

I coach leaders and executives for a living. They are smart, saavy, and busy. They really care about being better leaders, but they also  want more juice and joy in their lives.

I love them, but I don’t let them whine much.  Although I recently wrote a blog post on giving employees “whine time,” I bring my clients back to being positive about  any issue and setting a good example.

Sometimes they remind me that I’ve been coaching and haven’t  been in the pressure-cooker, get-out-in-the-traffic, difficult-boss or  customers business environment every day for a while.

So I found myself on Friday the 13^th, lamenting  with my husband that I hadn’t started off the year exercising as I should…hey, the weather was cold and I had clients (by the way, he was kind enough not to  remind me that it had not been cold every day in January!).  He said he just read an article….that it only  takes 5 weeks to develop a habit.

It occurred to me: what if I actually practiced,  consciously, doing what I tell my clients to do: find the positive in every  situation?

Could I commit to that for 30 days? And if I cannot, am I  being authentic by recommending it to my clients? I’d finish on Valentine’s  Day…how cool is that?

Then I realized this would mean more than just “putting on a happy face.”

This would mean:

–Setting a positive intention every morning on what I will accomplish, cleaning up any negative thoughts, and focusing on gratitude (not “OK God, why haven’t you answered  this prayer I’ve been praying for two months?”)

–Saying only positive things about my physical body (in January?????)

–Saying only positive things about the weather (in January?????)

–Saying and doing positive things about my business (really  planning for 2012, not discounting a new business idea before I explore the possibilities…my coaching buddy Connie  calls it my “yeah but..”)

–Engaging in positive communications:  Just delete those emails without reading them (you know the ones: telling you how bad the world is, why “those” people don’t think right, do right, etc. ). Instead of looking up facts or telling them you don’t agree….just delete.  (Ought to save some time to work on those business ideas!!)

30 Days should give me time to really try it.

I’ll let you know how it goes. And if I can be as authentic as I coach others to be.