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This has been a tough year for everyone. And the recent presidential election stress has not made things any easier. Any normal person is likely to look around and find a pretty stressful world, filled with anxiety, tension and more.
But even though it’s incredibly tough out there, there is a psychological skill that helps people (weirdly) find some benefits amidst all the stress.
The skill is called benefit finding, and it’s when people can actually find some benefits amidst tough situations. Technically, benefit finding means that we derive positive growth from adversity or tough times.
In a powerful study on benefit finding, early-stage breast cancer patients who went through training on benefit finding experienced increased optimism and came to see that cancer had made positive contributions in their lives. These included improvements in personal resources and skills, enhanced sense of purpose, greater spirituality, closer relationships with spouses and family members, and more.
It’s incredibly counterintuitive to think that a horrible situation could deliver something good, but that’s the essence of benefit finding.
Benefit finding is one of the 18 Outlooks that drive employee engagement. People with high levels of benefit finding believe that the tough times they've had in their career have actually helped them to improve and grow. And it’s not hard to imagine how finding some positives amongst tough times might lead an employee to be more inspired and motivated at work.
We also know from the study Employee Engagement Is Less Dependent On Managers Than You Think that psychological factors like benefit finding are better statistical predictors of employee engagement than having a great manager. So benefit finding is absolutely worth developing.
Here’s an exercise that, if you assign this to yourself and your employees, will immediately increase your ability to find something good amidst all the bad.
Imagine that a Hollywood screenwriter is writing the story of your life. You don’t want your life story to be butterflies and honey from the day you were born (that’s a really boring story). You actually want to have some challenges to overcome, some tough times that toughened you, and some roadblocks that would have stalled a lesser person.
Think about those tough times (take your present tough time as a starting point), and ask yourself as a Hollywood screenwriter, “how would that situation help you transform into an even more appealing and heroic character at the end of the movie?”
Think about Harry Potter as an example. There isn't an initial Harry Potter movie if his parents aren't murdered by the most evil wizard ever. If this most evil wizard isn't trying to kill him constantly, there isn't the Harry Potter series. In each of the individual books or movies, there’s a seemingly unending string of challenges that help Harry grow and develop. Every time he defeats a three-headed giant dog guarding a secret entrance, he learns something. As a result of his challenges, he grows, he develops, he becomes tougher, he becomes bigger, and he becomes smarter. All of these challenges are essential to the development of Harry Potter the character.
Iron Man follows a similar path. There is no Iron Man unless Tony Stark starts out as a selfish jerk who suffers a near-fatal injury requiring him to build new technology. James Bond isn’t a super-spy without first being orphaned.
The point here is simply that in the eyes of a Hollywood screenwriter, challenges make the main character far more interesting and heroic. And that’s how I want you to see your own challenges.
Think about how, through the perspective of a Hollywood screenwriter, your current challenges would help you to grow and develop into someone even more heroic. Think about your character arc (the transformation the protagonist undergoes during the movie or book). Think about how you were a bit flawed at the start of your journey and how these tough times pushed you to become a more well-rounded and wise person by the end of the story.
Every great story involves a character overcoming a challenge (or many challenges). You just need to envision yourself as the heroic figure at the center of one of those stories. By viewing whatever challenges you’re facing as an integral stage of your heroic journey, it’s far easier to keep your chin up and plow through whatever lies in your path.
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November 10, 2020 at 07:40PM
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Build Your Mental Toughness Instantly By Imagining A Hollywood Screenwriter Telling Your Life Story - Forbes
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