Have you ever wondered what truly drives extraordinary growth and success? It's not a secret formula or a stroke of luck—it's the power of daily discipline. Like a bamboo farmer who waters the seed diligently without seeing immediate results, consistent, everyday actions lead to remarkable transformations.
When I first wrote Water the Bamboo, the original title was actually Bring Your Spirit to Work. While the final title shifted, I've always believed that bringing your spirit to work is at the heart of personal and professional growth. It's a mindset that can transform your career and the lives of those you interact with daily.
The global pandemic has taken a toll on our mental health, and many of us are feeling overwhelmed with our efforts. It's important that we find ways to lighten up so that we can take care of ourselves and support each other.
We all have an impact on each other, and when I think about lightening up, I think of it like a candle. When your candle is lit, you have a lightness about you. And best of all, a lit candle can light an unlit candle, and can continue lighting other unlit candles.
In 1939, there was a student by the name of George Dantzig running late for a statistics class at Cal Berkeley. He was about 20 minutes late and slipped into class unnoticed. He saw there were some problems on the board, so he wrote them down, assuming it was homework, then he continued to listen to the lecture. When he got home, he realized the homework problems were pretty challenging. Nevertheless, he took a few days and finished the problems and turned them in to his professor.
Something most people do is pursue happiness. For many of us, being happy is the ultimate goal of life, and we want to find this in our careers, family, and friends.
But I believe that pursuing happiness is precisely the problem with being happy. We treat happiness like some distant destination we have to reach. So in this post, I’m going to share six tools for you to be happy right now.
We all have an inner dialogue, and for many of us, it’s continually spewing negative thoughts. Your inner dialogue wants you to find the issues and problems in everything. Our brains have a negativity bias. For thousands of years, humans have been scanning the world for danger, and it’s wired into us as human beings.
What we focus on and the questions we ask casts a spotlight. This spotlight sets our mindset and determines how we see the world. Remember when you bought your first car, and then you began to see others like-it—the same make, model, and color everywhere? It’s like they magically appeared. But they didn’t. They were always there; you merely weren’t casting your spotlight in that direction until you had one, and then you began to see them.
The What’s Going Well mindset movement needs you. Look around, and you must admit the world needs positivity right now. The What’s Going Well mindset is not one of those movements or ideas where you’ll want to sit on the sidelines. If you do, the “Negaholics” will win—in your communities and workplaces.
This year I have noticed an interesting pattern. When clients request a keynote presentation, I ask which speech they want me to deliver--one focused on Water The Bamboo, Unleashing the Potential of Teams and Individuals or What’s Going Well? The Question that Changes Everything?
It’s been about a 50–50 split.
I developed a keynote and a half day workshop around the What’s Going Well mindset. Below is a short video that gives you a flavor of the new book and keynote.
Watch the What's Going Well Video
And if you are not familiar with the Water The Bamboo keynote and workshop here is a video to help you gain an understanding.
Humanity on the whole has never been better off than we are now. The world is safer, we live longer, we are healthier, and many people are wealthier.
But as humans, our brains are naturally wired to cynicism. We’re more likely to focus on the negatives of a situation and not even notice the positives.
