National High Five Day

All of you who were in my Strategies for Success classes know that we started each class with a high five. It was fun, it cheered us up, it help us feel connected, it put our bodies into a positive physiology, and it general it just made us feel good. Not a bad way to start a class every day to be sure. A simple high five can be used to congratulate someone, to show enthusiasm, to celebrate success.

It actually is National High Five Day today. Take a moment today and high five someone to tell them how great they're doing. If high-fiving is a bit to energetic, just share with someone that they're doing a great job. Your words will mean a great deal.

This email is my high five to you...to wish you a great day, to thank you for being part of my life, to celebrate that although there will always be challenges in our lives, there are many successes that we deserve to pay attention to.

So consider yourself high-fived. And pass it on!

My favorite strategy

I'm going to share one of my favorite strategies first. I'm going to guess that you like the rest of us have found yourself complaining about things you don't like in your life. It's human nature to do so but it sure doesn't make any of us feel too great. I used to teach in a classroom that was used by everyone (detention, driver's ed, night school) and all the shelves in the room were full of stuff that didn't belong to me or my students.

Every day I'd walk in, look at the shelf and say something like, "What a mess!" Then there was the day that instead of my usual comment, I asked myself a question. "What could I do to improve that way that looks?" All of a sudden my brain was flooded with possibilities. And I was able to change those shelves so that they were much improved.

Is it that easy? Instead of making a negative statement about something, turn it into a question. Statements are dead ends. Negative dead ends feel lousy. Questions are possibilities and the amazing thing is that when you ask yourself a good question, your brain comes up with all sorts of answers!

More on this next time....