Hi there,

Last week was all about superpowers. No, not the magical abilities you see in the movies (like flying, strength, or invisibility) but the real skills that make positivity possible (like attention, mindfulness, and gratitude).

How do we develop these superpowers? It comes down to what I like to call the “5 Steps of Becoming.” 

  1. Intention: Identify who it is you want to become (“Hmm, I want to be a more mindful person”)

  2. Action: Sit down and put your intention into action (“I’m going to practice being mindful today for 15 minutes”)

  3. Practice: Practice this action regularly (“How can I incorporate mindfulness into my morning routine?”)

  4. Habit: Notice your practice becoming second nature (“Wow, I was mindful during my commute without even meaning to be”)

  5. Superpower: Intentionally leverage your habit as your strength  (“I am going to solve this problem by approaching it mindfully”)

I challenge you to think of one superpower you want to develop and follow these steps to make it happen – both inside of 15 Minutes of Positivity and out.

Need some inspiration? Take a look at the superpowers we practiced last week.

 

⏳ Remembrance Monday

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we honored possibly one of the greatest positivity superheroes of all time. MLK told us to judge people not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”  – or not by their superficials, but by their superpowers. Let this be our inspiration as we decide who we want to become, both for ourselves and for the world around us.

 

🔍 Attention Training Tuesday

Attention is a superpower any of us can cultivate – just like London cab drivers, who used to memorize a complex labyrinth of over 25,000 streets to transport customers safely. Research reveals that these drivers had enlarged hippocampi: the part of our brain responsible for transferring memories from short to long-term storage. This is an important reminder that through sustained practice, we can change both the structure and function of our brains!

 

🧠 Mindfulness Wednesday

Mindfulness is the ultimate form of perseverance to simply exist in the present moment – not by controlling our thoughts, feelings, and observations, but by relinquishing control of our thoughts, feelings, and observations. Instead, we must learn to let these things pass, without passing judgment ourselves. This is a much more admirable form of resilience than trying to micromanage our minds.

 

🙏 Thankfulness Thursday

Gratitude is our embodied experience of having benefited from someone or something not through our own doing. Just like mindfulness, this is not a superpower we achieve by actually increasing the good things in our lives, but by increasing our appreciation of the good things in our lives! By shaping our perception of the world, we eventually shape the world itself through our extra dose of positivity, helping the gratitude cycle keep turning.

 

🏆 Practical Friday

To wrap up this week on positivity superpowers, I wanted to share the “4 Stages of Competence” that happen while we develop a skill (hint: our goal is to hit at least stage three!).

  1. Unconscious incompetence: The brash, loud amateur who doesn’t know what they don’t know

  2. Conscious incompetence: The attentive novice who knows what they need to do to get better

  3. Conscious competence: The alert expert who can easily explain how to develop their skills to someone else

  4. Unconscious competence: The oblivious prodigy who is too adept to be able to put into words why

 

Join 15 Minutes of Positivity Today!

To learn more about positivity superpowers, be sure to join our 15 Minutes of Positivity sessions every Monday - Friday at 12:00 PST. The best part is: it’s free! For more information or to sign up, click here. And as always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Thank you for sticking around. Stay tuned for more!

Oli

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