We can all contribute to building a culture of gratitude and positivity, in our homes, our workplaces, and within our social circles. It’s not hard, and it can help to make the world—or at least our small part of it—a better place.
You’re not responsible for and have no direct control over how other people think or feel. But you can have an impact on their attitude. Your actions, however small, can make a difference.
You can help create a culture of gratitude and positivity by being grateful and positive yourself, and by taking steps that might help others join you in feeling grateful and positive. I’ve done some research on the topic, and found the tips below from a variety of sources.
Gratitude and positivity at home
Trying to create a culture of gratitude and positivity at home can be a fulfilling and enjoyable exercise—or a disaster—depending on how you handle it or your family dynamic. Some tactics might be embraced by young children but disdained by teenagers.
Your spouse, partner, or roommate might find one type of gratitude practice appealing while ignoring another. It might take a few attempts to get it right, and not all these suggestions apply to every situation. Anyway, here you go:
- Set aside a time once a week when family members gather around to share any good things they experienced that week. Make a game out of it. Whoever mentions the most things gets a small token of appreciation.
- Get a small bulletin board and put it in a place in your home where family members can pin thank you notes to each other or anything they are grateful for, or notes about something that is positive and uplifting.
- Encourage everyone in your home to keep a gratitude and positivity journal on a regular basis. Whoever wishes to share their entries should be made to feel welcome doing so.
- Create good examples for others. Get in the habit of saying thank you on a regular basis, even for small gestures of kind words.
Gratitude and positivity at work
As with building a culture of gratitude and positivity at home, how you do this successfully in your workplace can depend on varying factors. For example, the size of the company, its existing corporate culture, how cooperative management is with different ideas, etc.
But even one of these tactics is likely to make at least a small difference. Maybe start with your department and if that works, then try to expand to other areas. Think of how great it will feel if your ideas are adopted throughout the organization!
- Ask management to start a program to recognize and reward employees for their efforts. This can go a long way in boosting morale and fostering a sense of gratefulness. It might be something like employee of the week or month awards or some other form of recognition.
- As in your home, put up bulletin boards in appropriate places where employees can place notes to acknowledge good deeds by coworkers, managers, and customers. This should encourage employees to recognize and show appreciation for their colleagues’ efforts.
- Create a peer-to-peer recognition program in which employees can nominate their coworkers for outstanding accomplishments.
- Give thanks to others freely and frequently, either verbally or through written communications such as texts or emails. Who knows, showing your appreciation sincerely and on a regular basis might catch on. At the very least, you will have done your part to illustrate the importance of gratitude and positivity.
“Gratitude is one of the most powerful human emotions. Once expressed, it changes attitude, brightens outlook, and broadens our perspective.”—Germany Kent
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