Speaker 1: Practice gratitude. You've been told it a million times and
Speaker 1: you're probably starting to get sick of it, and fair enough,
Speaker 1: especially compared to some of the more concrete advice on
Speaker 1: shows like this one, gratitude can perhaps feel a bit
Speaker 1: airy fairy, But the science tells us another story. Practicing
Speaker 1: gratitude is one of the most effective ways to consistently
Speaker 1: improve your mood and well being. But how do you
Speaker 1: actually do it? If you're anything like me, you've got
Speaker 1: a neglected notebook stuffed in a drawer somewhere, languishing away
Speaker 1: with five or six days worth of entries from a
Speaker 1: gratitude journal, and not much really to show for the effort. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe it's time to simplify. Nod als, no systems, just
Speaker 1: a little reframe. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm
Speaker 1: an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy
Speaker 1: invent Him. And this is how I work a show
Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. Welcome
Speaker 1: to your favorite tips across ten bite size episodes. I'll
Speaker 1: be sharing tips from some of the world's best thinkers
Speaker 1: that you, the listeners, have found the most useful. We're
Speaker 1: covering everything from creating better to do lists, to setting
Speaker 1: more effective boundaries around your time, and you'll be hearing
Speaker 1: from people like best selling author Sally Hepworth, Corona Cast
Speaker 1: host and journalist Norman Swan, and Google's executive productivity advisor
Speaker 1: Laura May Martin. Today's favorite tip comes from Michael, and
Speaker 1: he writes, Turia Pitts way of reframing things has helped
Speaker 1: me immensely mood wise. I concur Michael, so here is
Speaker 1: Turia talking about how a simple change in ourselves talk
Speaker 1: can turbo charge motivation and gratitude.
Speaker 2: I learned this trick after I had my first son, Hukkabye,
Speaker 2: and it was because I was always telling myself that
Speaker 2: I had to do things. So I'd say, Oh, Huckebye's crying,
Speaker 2: I have to go pick him up. I'm sounding like
Speaker 2: a really bad mum. I promise, I promise. I'm not ah.
Speaker 2: I'd say, oh, I have to go clean his room,
Speaker 2: or I have to prepare his food, I have to
Speaker 2: wash his clothes. And when you tell yourself that you
Speaker 2: have to do things, it's really easy for you to
Speaker 2: resent them and for them to feel like it's an
Speaker 2: obligation and something that you don't actually want to do.
Speaker 2: So then I started saying, I get to I get
Speaker 2: to pick up Hakkabye, I get to play with Huckabye,
Speaker 2: and I get to be around and I get to
Speaker 2: watch him as he grows up. And for me just
Speaker 2: changing my language subtly, it reminded me that it was
Speaker 2: an opportunity, it was a choice, and it was something
Speaker 2: that I got to be really grateful for. So there
Speaker 2: it's like a super easy way for us to change
Speaker 2: how we feel about and experience. And I remember at
Speaker 2: the start of it that we were talking about when
Speaker 2: you know, when we said yes to a speaking gig,
Speaker 2: and then we were really dreading it. And often I
Speaker 2: get really nervous before I speech because I think I
Speaker 2: get stuck, really stuck in my head, and I work
Speaker 2: myself up into such a state. I think things like
Speaker 2: I'm going to make an idiot of myself, or maybe
Speaker 2: I won't articulate what I mean really clearly, or maybe
Speaker 2: I'm going to make a goose of myself, and I
Speaker 2: have to really stop and remind myself that it's not
Speaker 2: that I have to do a speech, but that I
Speaker 2: get to do a speech, Like it's a pretty awesome
Speaker 2: opportunity that, you know, a room full of people potentially
Speaker 2: want to listen to me and want to hear what
Speaker 2: I have to say. I don't have to do an interview.
Speaker 2: I get to do an interview again, Like, what an
Speaker 2: awesome opportunity that people all around the world want to
Speaker 2: listen to me and learn from me. And so I
Speaker 2: guess for me, that's probably been one of the biggest
Speaker 2: thing I've learned in maybe the past three years, is
Speaker 2: just changing that my language from I have to do
Speaker 2: I get to I think that's a really potent reminder
Speaker 2: for a lot of us, especially when we're talking about
Speaker 2: things like going to work, making dinner, things that potentially
Speaker 2: might not light us up and might not necessarily inspire us,
Speaker 2: to remind ourselves that it is a choice and it
Speaker 2: is an opportunity that we get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really like it, And it's almost like a
Speaker 1: form of gratitude because where I've been applying that is
Speaker 1: that some mornings I just don't feel like exercising, but
Speaker 1: I'm very conscientious, so I do. So I just force
Speaker 1: myself to do it, and I know that I'll feel
Speaker 1: better at the other end, and I'm getting stronger and
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff, and I started reframing my
Speaker 1: own self talk around exercise and rather than saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have to do this five mornings a week, it's
Speaker 1: like I get to exercise, and then where it really
Speaker 1: landed for me is I then injured myself. So I've
Speaker 1: been fighting this shoulder injury for about two weeks. I
Speaker 1: feel like my physio is my home away from home
Speaker 1: at the moment, although I'm literally kind of just back
Speaker 1: to one hundred percent at the gym. But yeah, now
Speaker 1: it's like I get to exercise and it's finally really
Speaker 1: landed for me. So I personally love that strategy. I
Speaker 1: find it very helpful, and then you appreciate it even
Speaker 1: more when things do go wrong and you don't get
Speaker 1: to do the thing that you had to do. I
Speaker 1: still come back to this tip at least once a month,
Speaker 1: if not more often, when I'm doing something it feels
Speaker 1: like a chore or that I'm not feeling grateful for
Speaker 1: changing my mindset and self talk always helps me reframe
Speaker 1: the activity and feel much more excited about doing it.
Speaker 1: As the listener of how I work, you've hopefully picked
Speaker 1: up a few tips on this show to help you
Speaker 1: work better, but do you want more? And maybe in
Speaker 1: a book form, because let's face it, books are the
Speaker 1: most awesome thing on the planet. Well, now you can.
Speaker 1: In my new book, time Wise, I uncover a wealth
Speaker 1: of proven strategies that anyone can use to improve their productivity, work,
Speaker 1: and lifestyle. Time Wise brings together all of the gems
Speaker 1: that I've learned from conversations with the world's greatest thinkers,
Speaker 1: including Adam Grant, Dan Pink, Mia Friedman, and Turia Pitt
Speaker 1: and many many others. Time Wise is launching on July five,
Speaker 1: but you can preorder it now from Amantha dot com.
Speaker 1: And if you pre order time Wise, I have a
Speaker 1: couple of bonuses view First, you'll receive an ebook that
Speaker 1: details my top twenty favorite apps and software for being
Speaker 1: time wise with email, calendar, passwords, reading, cooking ideas and more.
Speaker 1: You will also get a complementary spot in a webinar
Speaker 1: that I'm running on June twenty nine, where I will
Speaker 1: be sharing the tactics from time Wise that I use
Speaker 1: most often, and also some bonus ones that are not
Speaker 1: in the book that I use and love. Hop onto
Speaker 1: Amantha dot com to pre order now. How I Work
Speaker 1: is produced by in Benti and with production support from
Speaker 1: Dead Set Studios. And thank you to Matt Nimmer, who
Speaker 1: does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything
Speaker 1: sound so much better than it would have otherwise. See
Speaker 1: you next time.