Plenty of us experience a day or week when things feel like they’re breaking up, down and apart all at the same time. Those of us working in our ’15 Cohort have felt a confluence of good things in the last week, so I want to share it.
As you know, we’re exploring Signature Strengths and setting goals by delving into who we really are. We’re using evidence-based principles and resonating experiences in our lives to make connections and set those goals. The categories for our goal-setting—connect, stay active, take notice, keep learning, give—come from tried-and-true science, too.
Two members who’d never met before, Becca and Dina*, have found a way to bring strengths and goals together, stay more active and begin a new friendship all at once. They both have strengths in the virtues of Wisdom and Humanity, but have demanding work schedules and family responsibilities and even had some serious reservations about joining our cohort because they work long days every week. Most of their personal time during evenings and weekends is reserved for errands and extra sleep. What they both realized they were missing was time to explore the creativity and social connection that play to their strengths. So they’ve set new goals to Connect, Stay Active, and Keep Learning while enhancing their virtues of Wisdom and Humanity: Becca and Dina are leaving work a little early every Thursday afternoon to attend a yoga class together.
Now, you might say to yourself, So what? People exercise with friends; what’s the special deal? It IS a big deal because lots of people don’t change their work schedules and make themselves a priority, commit to more physical activity and reach out to start new friendships. Lots of people stay in their confluence of work, work, work and never make changes.
We think they’re great. They’re embracing their personal strengths and focusing on making life more creative, rewarding and fun. They’ve discovering ways to create confluences of good things, and the whole world needs more of that.
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*names changed for privacy
