If you ask lousy questions, you will get lousy answers. This is why I wrote my second book, What’s Going Well?.
The benefits of asking yourself, “What’s Going Well?” are too numerous to list here. The question and the practice gets you to focus on the positive things in your life even the things and people that you may be taking for granted. It may seem like things aren’t going well for you, but by intentionally focusing on What’s Going Well the things going well in your life will “magically” emerge from the background. The practice of focusing on What’s Going Well retrains your ‘stone-aged’ brain from its ‘negativity bias’ to focus on the good rather than the bad.
Too often people start their day loading up on negativity–by reading or watching the news, which is full of stabbings, shootings, fires, wrecks, and the latest challenges with COVID–and yet they wonder why they are in a bad mood. You wouldn't eat a bunch of junk food and then wonder why you don’t feel good. Filling your mind with negative thoughts and images unnecessarily compounds the challenges of life.
Refuse to casually give your attention to negativity. Instead, intentionally focus on What’s Going Well in your life. When you focus on What’s Going Well, the positive thoughts can create positive momentum while you are watering your bamboo. There’s a serious battle for your attention, and an intentional focus on What’s Going Well can help you deal with the challenges in your life.
“The question What’s Going Well? interrupts the ‘negative bias’ of our 2 million-year-old brains. It can get you to see the solutions where others only see problems and get you on a path to well-being.”
I start my day by writing at least three things that are going well in my life in my What’s Going Well Journal and end the day writing three things that went well. Asking What’s Going Well gives me better days; asking What Went Well gives me better dreams. It’s impossible to be talking and thinking about What’s Going Well and seeing What’s Going Wrong at the same time.
Here are a few tips to start you on your What’s Going Well journey:
Write down three things going well in the morning.
Write down three things that went well during the day at night before bed.
Start your meetings with What’s Going Well? and go around the room sharing.
Ask a friend “What’s Going Well”?
Get the book, What’s Going Well?
This question is a game-changer. It can literally change your life for the better and help you see the good all around you. I hope you’ll join me on this journey.
Start your What’s Going Well journey by signing up for the weekly What's Going Well journey emails. You’ll get weekly emails over a 90-day period–and it’s free!
This post is based on a podcast episode by Greg Bell.
Listen below for the full episode: