This week in our Winning Futures classrooms, our mentors and mentees are exploring the benefits of having a positive attitude. Here at Winning Futures, we believe a positive attitude is the foundation to an individual’s success and we kicked-off our first workbook session talking about how our minds shape our outcomes. The research is clear, helping our youth be optimistic can improve their scores on achievement tests and starting these practices now can last a lifetime (Goleman, 1987). Although explanatory style can be learned, most people have similar dispositions throughout adulthood.
Our mentors agree, this reminder is for everyone, not just our youth! Did you know, positive emotions can lead to:
- Better evaluations and higher pay in the workplace (Staw, Sutton & Pelled, 1994)
- Decreased illness symptoms (some studies show up to half as many reported colds and doctors’ visits) (Goleman, 1987)
- Reduced depressive symptoms
- Increased life satisfaction (Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek & Finkel, 2008)
- Resilience to stress (Goleman, 1987)
- Overall improvement in health even including Coronary Heart Disease (Tindle et. al, 2009)?
So what do we tell our mentees, and what can YOU do today?
Smile! Approach challenges that come your way positively and productively.
Sources:
http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.5.1.51?journalCode=orsc
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18954193
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19667234