It’s true, enjoying a cup of well-brewed coffee and the birth of a child have something in common. Both are worth recording as Three Good Things. I started to write down three positive experiences in my daily life, from minor to major, nearly ten years ago. That’s when I learned about this practice from Jean Moroney, creator of Thinking Directions, and there’s no end in sight to my consistency.
As Moroney explains, the range of good things you can document can vary widely, from simple pleasures to major achievements. What’s the use? Moroney writes:
“As you can guess, the purpose of this practice is to reinforce a positive outlook and avoid feeling overwhelmed by negativity. Even on the worst of days there are a few bright spots, and bringing them to mind helps you maintain perspective.”
Consistently recording three positives (as I like to call them), every day, year in and year out, helps to reinforce what you believe is good and important. More deeply, it helps you to understand what you value, as Moroney notes in Getting More Emotional Impact from Good Things that Happen in Life, an expansion on her original post.
Here’s an example of three positive things I recently wrote down in my documents:
Thur July 16 2020
1. I finished creating and posted Faces of the Ponte Vecchio, my first photoblog based on my travels in Italy.
2. Later, I drew my first picture in many, many, many years, a lake scene, as I relaxed on a lawn chair at Eisenhower Park at sundown.
3 After watching a tutorial, I created my first meme in Canva, a program I plan to make good use of going forward.
Looking back nearly a decade now, this practice has positively helped me gain a more objective perspective on my life, while also motivating me to make the most of each day. Above all, it reinforces my fundamental belief that what is most worthy of focusing on and remembering in life, to borrow a phrase from my favorite philosopher, are the uplifting values, especially the beauty, heroism, joy and the like, not the ugliness, pain and suffering one may experience.
Toward these ends, I sometimes reread my entries from months or years past to gain perspective on where I’ve been and where I’m at now in pursuing what makes me happy.
If you have questions about documenting three good things, ask them in the comments (wherever I’ve posted this blog on social media,) or directly message me. I’d be happy to try to provide some guidance, so much so that our exchange may even be included in my Three Good Things.