What’s the big deal with Positive Psychology? Part Three
The next few weeks, I’m writing about Positive Psychology – a large contributing factor to our coaching practice here at LIV.
Today’s topic – Small Changes.
Small and simple changes can indeed have a significant impact on creating a fulfilling and meaningful life. Often, people tend to think that they need to make big and drastic changes in their lives to experience happiness and fulfillment. However, small changes that can be easily integrated into one's daily routine can have a profound impact over time.
People often come to LIV to work on their “confidence.” It’d be great if a magic wand was waved and poof – your confidence improves. That’s not how it works. Confidence is gained with successes. How do you attain success? Small, behavioral shifts and then evaluate the outcome. With every success with the shift(s) increases confidence.
One client wanted to increase her “confidence.” An issue she identified was she was given tasks to complete by the CEO. Instead of delegating them, she hoarded them. It would go into an abyss and then she’d be behind and down on herself for not completing the task in a timely manner. The thinking was, “I need to do the task to make sure it’s done right.” After exploring thoroughly, it became clear that her mindset and values were in conflict. Her mindset was wrapped up in the myth of perfection. But she did trust her staff. In fact, she became very clear that members of her staff could do the task(s) better than her AND she believed in delegating and growing her staff. This polarity was illuminated, and a third way was hatched.
We co-created mindset shifts that were better aligned with her values and small behavioral changes she could practice such as delegating smaller tasks first. Step by step, she felt increased confidence and the delegating increased, including larger tasks. She saw her staff grow, she experienced the CEO praising the work, she noticed relief and pride in herself. Now she’s working on larger projects of her own design to improve the overall functioning of her department. Step by step, small changes led to a positive impact, not only for her, but for her staff, department, and organization.
Small changes lead to big impact.
