Savoring…Those small daily moments that focus on the positive emotions created by a good experience.
Savoring…the quick and conscious effort that you can make, right now, to help broaden and build job and life satisfaction.
Savoring…that little easy peasy activity that can be crafted into your daily routine to benefit both you and your team.
Savoring…you remember. Right? Hopefully, you’ve had the chance to practice some of the activities I suggested in our last conversation. If not, no worries! I have a whole slew of new ideas to help you savor positivity and in turn increase motivation, creativity, and engagement.
Charlotte Fritz and Morgan Taylor’s article “Taking in the Good: How to Facilitate Savoring in Work Organizations”, outlines 10 tactics to consider when promoting savoring in the workplace. We have already discussed one of them, Sharing.
Another strategy that might help you shine in your work as a veterinary professional, is what the authors call temporal awareness. In other words, understanding that the good in a situation may be fleeting and allowing this awareness to accentuate positive emotions surrounding it.
Consider how you feel when Lucy starts to improve after starting antibiotics. Sure, you hope she continues to feel better…but things can change - so focusing on the good in how Lucy is feeling right now will help to build positive emotions.
Another very different way to elevate savoring using temporal awareness is to really embrace fleeting situations. View them as a favorable opportunity for growth within your hospital. Do this by creating ‘celebration milestones’ that can be set at work. They can be fun goals that everyone gets involved with and celebrates once they have been reached. For example, each time your team spays 25 cats you celebrate with a “food Friday”.
Or…what about this silly one? For every 5th new patient named ‘Bella’ your team wears a fun scrub top the next day. This celebration game can encourage everyone to look forward to the unknown and savor the positive emotions of a 'celebration milestone'.
Positive mental time travel is another savoring strategy that Fritz, and Taylor discuss. This one could actually build upon the temporal awareness strategy in a really cool way! Positive mental travel is the excitement felt from anticipation. The hype of looking forward to something; a jammin’ concert, a London vacation or a birthday celebration.
It’s Monday morning and you see that there is a new patient named ‘Bella’ on the schedule later this week!
Take a moment to focus on the positive emotions surrounding the excitement for the newness and change that comes with a new patient/client relationship AND savor in the anticipation of the joy will experience while wearing your crazy taco cat scrub top - because this will be Bella #5!!
There is no shame in stacking savoring tactics…in fact, I strongly encourage it!
Remember, these strategies are meant to be quick, fun, and simple. I am certainly not asking you to add “one more thing” to your already full day! So, trust me when I say that this next one is by far the quickest and easiest suggestion, I will have for you.
Plus, I can almost guarantee that it will provide you and everyone around you with a cheerful deposit for the wellbeing piggy bank.
Behavioral expression is the strategy I am referring to. Basically, it is the use of a sign, a physical manifestation, to bring about upbeat feelings between the giver and the receiver.
Something as simple as a genuine smile exchanged between colleagues has been scientifically proven to enhance the positive experience of any situation.
What did I tell you?!? A SMILE! Something I know that you can all do!!
Of course, feel free to elaborate on this concept and consider developing additional gestures.
At a hospital I recently was a part of, one of the technicians had a cute little gesture that we all grew to adopt. She would bend her elbows, flatten her hands towards her body and while smiling she would lift her hands up and down. It was silly, sure…but it meant “you’ve got this” and “I believe in you”. At first, she was the only one using the unique expression. However, it didn’t take long for the whole technician crew to pick up on it. Soon it would be followed by smiles, grins and giggles - all signs that positive emotions were flowing.
There you have it…savoring. Simple, quick and the source of some serious positive boosts that you can start using today, heck…you can start right now!
So, I say…in the name of science, put this blog down and extend a smile to the next person you see. Notice the boost you feel, take one extra second to really appreciate the positive lift and focus of the good that just happened. Think of what American author Wayne Dryer meant when he said “Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments".