Positive well-being may help with your productivity and performance.
Human well-being can be a fascinating topic. Furthermore, what makes up positive well-being is a subsidiary direction. As scientific findings continue to emerge around human health and happiness, determining how people can thrive in the world also sparks interest.
There is some support to suggest that a positive state of well-being can boost human productivity and performance. Furthermore, people who feel a sense of positivity around productivity and performance may be more resilient, experience less of the negative effects of stress, and maintain a more positive outlook.
Supporting positive well-being may help you access peak performance.
Peak performance may sound cliché. Yet, it has an empirical basis rooted in science, including human psychology. Typically, peak performance includes self-awareness and other areas of emotional intelligence, self-care, productivity, relationships, and your value system. Human performance may be enhanced by engaging in healthy activities.
Within the scope of self-awareness, concepts like your explanatory style, emotional regulation, and intrinsic motivators play a role.
An explanatory style is how someone explains events or things that happen in their life. In a very primed-down description, a person’s explanatory style sums up their outlook on life. It can also allude to how the person experiences optimism or pessimism and how much so for each area.
Furthermore, a person’s explanatory style may reflect how they emotionally and mentally process external events or specific life circumstances. The slant of someone’s explanatory style is a primary facet of well-being science.
Explanatory styles have been associated with outcomes related to health and happiness. Positive attributes within someone’s explanatory style may reduce the severity of mental-emotional effects from stressors (and physiological effects of stress!). Also, positive explanatory stories may support healthy emotional resilience.
The slant of someone’s explanatory style may also influence how they perform, which skills they excel at, and the nature of their achievements in life.
There are ways to assess your own explanatory style. Some will be more scientific-like, such as assessments, while other approaches could be more informal. As an introductory “DIY” assessment, you may begin by thinking about what you attach meaning to, what you identify as threats, whether or not you see both positive and negative events as opportunities, and so forth.
Emotional regulation is a facet of self-regulation and is also considered within the scope of emotional intelligence. Demands, expectations, and responsibilities represent relevant components within the overarching concept of emotional self-regulation.
Emotional regulation involves responding to demands and challenges intentionally. It also includes expressing yourself in appropriate ways. One example of positive emotional regulation would be managing feelings like anger or fear in productive ways. Emotional regulation may also incorporate pepping yourself up when duty calls or calming yourself when necessary.
Finding a healthy balance within emotional regulation may contribute to more positive well-being, enhanced performance, and stronger relationships.
Cultivating positive emotional regulation may include identifying potential triggers and having strategies to respond to them. Also, practicing self-compassion and positive self-talk and engaging in things that help with mindfulness may boost healthy emotional regulation.
Boosting your awareness of how feelings, mood, energy levels, and physical sensations influence you throughout your day-to-day can help you develop self-mastery routines or activities best for you.
Furthermore, personal and professional skills areas, such as distraction management, may help support healthy emotional regulation (and productivity for that matter).
Intrinsic motivators are based on an internal sense of reward. A foundational facet of intrinsic motivation is something someone does because they want or feel drawn to.
Furthermore, intrinsic motivators may bring about joy or align with someone’s value system. It may also involve factors such as falling within a person’s sense of autonomy, something they strive to get better at, or a connection to their inner purpose.
Intrinsic motivation does not come from external factors, such as exterior rewards or punishments.
Values, character traits, and skills are some of the primary attributes defining who a person is. These factors correlate to a person’s intrinsic motivators. They may also serve as primary indicators of what makes someone their best, a primary facet of positive well-being.
Awareness of your personal intrinsic motivators is something that can fall within self-awareness. Identifying these things about yourself can help point to your core drivers.
Paired with your explanatory style, personal intrinsic motivators can help paint a character portrait of your inner coach (i.e. a portrayal of your specific intrinsic motivation system). Garnering this aspect of self-awareness can also be leveraged in goal setting, personal & leisure activities, professional priorities, and day-to-day performance routines.
Characterizing your inner coach may lead to determining significant words and mantras you identify with that serve as further motivation or help with personal focus. These pieces can also serve as nice stepping stones to a personal vision plan.
A personal vision may have a relevant alignment with positive well-being.
A life vision plan is a structured approach to imagining your best and future self. It helps illustrate the big picture of where you are now and would like to go next.
Identifying a personal vision and aligning goals, priorities, and commitments with it can be critical to peak performance. A structure that someone develops for themself to focus on a peak performance plan will also involve honing their sense of purpose. The vision plan is a bit of a companion to the structures that lead to personal peak performance.
The factors mentioned above reflect how a person works and functions well. It could be said that components like explanatory style, emotional regulation, and intrinsic motivation contribute to how someone ticks. While a vision plan is indicative of what someone ultimately wants.
A strong vision plan also reflects a person’s sense of purpose, (and is another partner in crime to the inner coach!) It piggybacks on strengths, drives, and motivations, which makes it a great tool to leverage in self-mastery. A vision plan can also be designed with primary dimensions of well-being across life areas in mind.
There are all kinds of formats that help portray someone’s vision, including the use of visual elements. Whatever the specific design of a vision plan, the point is it remains structured and allows for a focus on realistic, forward motion in a person’s life.
A vision plan may serve as a roadmap for someone wishing to maintain a sense of balance and positivity across life endeavors. Furthermore, referencing the vision plan may help reduce decision fatigue regarding personal and professional choices.
How can a coach help you with your well-being, productivity & performance?
Coaching is a critical tool for personal development, growth, and well-being. Coaches can help you clarify what you want to complete and by when (leading into an action plan). They can also help you think, reflect, and process ideas (which can lead to the formation of goals in the first place). Then, they can help you structure goals and action plans that are realistic and in meaningful alignment with your values, vision, and purpose.
Furthermore, coaches are a little like toolboxes. They come to you armed with tools, frameworks, and structures to help pull the various pieces of your life together in meaningful and relevant ways.
Coaches may also recognize when you are getting drained and need to switch gears for a bit. They can help you stay on track, provide encouragement and motivation, serve as a sounding board, and pass along relevant resources.
Ultimately, coaches enable the time and space for you to shine!
Of course, you can learn a little more about our lead coach Ashley on the About page.
Resources & References:
Fredrickson, B.L. (2000, Mar 7). Cultivating Positive Emotions to Optimize Health and Well-being. Prevention & Treatment, 3(0001a). Retrieved from http://media.rickhanson.net/home/files/papers/CultPosEmot.pdf.
Houston, E. (2019, Mar 11). What are Attributional and Explanatory Styles in Psychology? PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/explanatory-styles-optimism/.
Institute of Coaching (n.d.). Benefits of Coaching. McLean, Affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Retrieved from https://instituteofcoaching.org/coaching-overview/coaching-benefits.
Juby, B. (2022, Sep 30). What Is Emotional Self-regulation and How Do You Develop It? Healthline Media. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-self-regulation.
Krause, W. (2017, May 7). Wellbeing is Correlated to Higher Performance. Thrive Global (Medium). Retrieved from https://medium.com/thrive-global/why-well-being-has-everything-to-do-with-productivity-bc89ecc09959.
Miles, M. (2022, Jun 13). 6 Surefire Ways to Reach Optimal Peak Performance. BetterUp. Retrieved from https://www.betterup.com/blog/peak-performance.
Santos-Longhurst, A. (2019, Feb 11). Intrinsic Motivation: How to Pick Up Healthy Motivation Techniques. Healthline Media. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/intrinsic-motivation.
Scott, E. (2020, Apr 28). Why Emotional Resilience is a Trait You Can Develop. Verywell Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/emotional-resilience-is-a-trait-you-can-develop-3145235.
Scudari, R. (2021, Apr 19). The Best Way to Create a Vision for the Life You Want. LifeHack. Retrieved from https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/create-a-vision-for-the-life-you-want.html.
Tugade, M.M. & Fredrickson, B.L. (2007). Regulation of Positive Emotions: Emotion Regulation Strategies that Promote Resilience. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 311-333.