Post by GJEC on Jun 12, 2016 3:34:58 GMT -5
I study coaching etc and I'm rarely inspired. Touchy feely stuff written by people who've never struggled in their lives are sometimes 'laugh out loud' funny.
But occasionally I learn something that hits the spot and I'd like to share one such idea here.
Some time ago I attended a course on positive psychology. While traditional psychology was used to treat people who were struggling and restore them to wellness, positive psychology seeks to take people who function normally and make them happier. Sounds different to coaching, but bear with me ...
One exercise we were given was 'Three good things'. Every night for a week we sat and wrote down three things that had gone well or pleased us that day, with a fuller explanation of why we found them gratifying. It took about ten minutes, so 70 minutes total time.
Why? We are hard wired to notice bad things. In pre history it didn't matter if we saw a lovely fruit tree if we failed to notice the lion lying underneath. Noticing bad or dangerous things kept us safe so it took pre eminence. Even today people come home and moan about the bad things that happened at work or school. I'd argue that the elf n safety culture makes this even worse. Three good things restores the balance. A lot of good things happen every day but as we rush about from drama to drama they get ignored. To be honest, I get bored listening to other people's problems and day to day trivia. I'm not unsympathetic, just bemused as to why they choose to re live it.
So how does this have relevance to karate?
I often help people via email with their training issues. Some emails moan about how shit things are at their dojo, how they can't do this and that, how they'll never kick high / spar hard / get a black belt yada yada ...
So a while ago I started advising people to write up their training sessions in the style of 'three good things'.
It's so simple people assume it won't work, but I'm convinced it does. Within a short time the emails changed tone and the senders found a new pleasure in training. The brain re writes sessions to look at what went WELL, instead of dwelling on what went WRONG. (Although 'wrong' is a poor concept in training as it merely indicates you're not there yet)
So it works in life and it works for training logs. I advise simply writing down three things that felt good after every session. Those of you who post training logs here might feel a bit awkward doing this in public as what feels good might be a fairly minor thing, but I can assure you pb's come rarely so minor feelings of competency over the long term are more important.
I do both. On my training diary I record three things that go well after a training or coaching session. (Note: If a student does well that counts too!)
In my personal diary I record three good things about my day.
I'm a bit cynical, so if something works for me I believe it will work for the majority. Try it for a month and see if it helps.
Gary
But occasionally I learn something that hits the spot and I'd like to share one such idea here.
Some time ago I attended a course on positive psychology. While traditional psychology was used to treat people who were struggling and restore them to wellness, positive psychology seeks to take people who function normally and make them happier. Sounds different to coaching, but bear with me ...
One exercise we were given was 'Three good things'. Every night for a week we sat and wrote down three things that had gone well or pleased us that day, with a fuller explanation of why we found them gratifying. It took about ten minutes, so 70 minutes total time.
Why? We are hard wired to notice bad things. In pre history it didn't matter if we saw a lovely fruit tree if we failed to notice the lion lying underneath. Noticing bad or dangerous things kept us safe so it took pre eminence. Even today people come home and moan about the bad things that happened at work or school. I'd argue that the elf n safety culture makes this even worse. Three good things restores the balance. A lot of good things happen every day but as we rush about from drama to drama they get ignored. To be honest, I get bored listening to other people's problems and day to day trivia. I'm not unsympathetic, just bemused as to why they choose to re live it.
So how does this have relevance to karate?
I often help people via email with their training issues. Some emails moan about how shit things are at their dojo, how they can't do this and that, how they'll never kick high / spar hard / get a black belt yada yada ...
So a while ago I started advising people to write up their training sessions in the style of 'three good things'.
It's so simple people assume it won't work, but I'm convinced it does. Within a short time the emails changed tone and the senders found a new pleasure in training. The brain re writes sessions to look at what went WELL, instead of dwelling on what went WRONG. (Although 'wrong' is a poor concept in training as it merely indicates you're not there yet)
So it works in life and it works for training logs. I advise simply writing down three things that felt good after every session. Those of you who post training logs here might feel a bit awkward doing this in public as what feels good might be a fairly minor thing, but I can assure you pb's come rarely so minor feelings of competency over the long term are more important.
I do both. On my training diary I record three things that go well after a training or coaching session. (Note: If a student does well that counts too!)
In my personal diary I record three good things about my day.
I'm a bit cynical, so if something works for me I believe it will work for the majority. Try it for a month and see if it helps.
Gary
Cue that tune from the Life of Brian.
