A funny thing happened on my laptop the other day. My mood was trending down as I was focused on meeting a deadline and had taken a break to do my “five-minute-glance” at the news. The news is inevitably a mood killer, but I approach it like I’m touching a hot stove. Who can’t manage five minutes of insanity to stay current?
Then an email popped up on my screen from Grammarly, a software grammar tool, reporting that my writing tones emitted positivity and confidence. I use Grammarly to put my commas in the right place, but this was an additional feature I hadn’t expected.
When I read Grammarly’s email that I am trending “mood positive,” I wondered if it knew me better than I knew myself. Maybe I was fooling the software by unknowingly writing positive pieces. Just maybe Grammarly was unaware of work pressures or the dispiriting news.
What are the telltale signs we use to gauge our mood? Is it how easily we laugh? How well do we sleep? How often do we pick silly arguments because we are ready for a good fight? All are possibilities and legitimate indicators. Or, maybe, if you write, you just ask Grammarly.
Their report made me remember my favorite childhood character, Winnie the Pooh, who was famous for saying: “Think, think, think.” And so, I thought and came up with three reasons my mood was possibly trending positive. “Three” because my 11th commandment is to use the rule of three to explain things to myself. I decided:
The fall season is upon us. For me, it’s not only an uptick in the weather—crisp and cool—but fall speaks of new starts. School begins again. Clients wake up. The leaves are turning. It’s a celebration of renewal.
COVID has moved from front and center to beside us, or for some, behind us. It is no longer doing a “block and tackle” as we begin to reengage our world. Children can go to school without masks. Concertgoers are back. People are enjoying dinners with friends indoors. We are on the road to healing, albeit slowly.
On a personal level, I am closing in on a plan to bring my fictional series, created during COVID, to market. Hopefully, when it’s out we will understand why it’s bad to be a “know-betterer” and how we can train ourselves to hear those important and unspoken words as we get ourselves back into social shape. Thank you, COVID.
Grammarly’s report made me recall how I once used Winnie the Pooh and its characters to try and infuse positivity in the work setting. It was three decades ago when my boss at Hewlett Packard let me bring in my children’s stuffed animals, Tigger and Eeyore, to lighten the mood.
As a simple refresher, Tigger bounces around, singing the “Wonderful thing about Tiggers” song, and joyously proclaims, “fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.” Eeyore is a gloomy donkey who responds to Pooh’s good morning greeting with, “If it is a good morning, which I doubt.” A.A. Milne, Pooh’s author, created two ends of the mood spectrum.
Back at work, we decided to place the traveling Eeyore on the desk of a downtrodden employee—but for only one day before Eeyore got moved. Eeyore reminded us to reach out and help pick up the person’s mood. We also had a small Tigger on our desks as an aspirational symbol to find the “fun, fun, fun, fun, fun”—no bouncing required.
The experiment worked for a while, and then, like most good ideas, it ran its course.
But whether it’s wearing our Tigger face or proving a software tool right, what can we do during complicated, unhealthy times to truly stay positive? If only it were as simple as Winston Churchill once said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
Yes, that’s true, but neither Churchill nor Pooh tells us how. Finding our “attitude” can be very strenuous—like going to the gym, only harder.
My recommendation? Start a dinner conversation (assuming you are one of the 50 percent of American families eating dinner together) with the rule of three in mind. Identify simple reasons to feel positive. “The grocery store finally had chickpeas” is an example.
Sometimes, it’s through sheer will that we can become Tigger. And again, to quote Pooh,
“Rivers know this. There is no hurry. We shall get there someday.”
