Daniel Pink explains mental subtraction of positive events: list what's good in your life, then imagine it never happened. Visualizing how different things would be without your spouse or children deepens gratitude and satisfaction more than simply counting your blessings.
Hi everyone. Welcome to another PinkCast. I'm joined today by my wonderful wife of almost 24 years, Jessica, also known as Mrs. PinkCast. Hello everyone. We are here with a tip on how to deepen your sense of satisfaction. It's a scientific principle called mental subtraction of positive events. It's a little bit like that movie It's a Wonderful Life, and here's how it works. You think about the positives in your life. Maybe your family, maybe your community, your career, your health, whatever. And then you begin thinking about all the small events that had to take place for you to get to this point. And then you remove those small events. So I do this all the time. I imagine, what would my life be like if I had never met Jessica? It would be terrible. I wouldn't have these 3 great kids. I wouldn't live in this wonderful community with all of our friends. Maybe I wouldn't have become a writer. Maybe, God forbid, there might not be any Pinkcasts. And what this does is that it deepens your appreciation for what's happening in your life at this moment. It allows you to count your blessings. We all know that gratitude improves our well-being, but sometimes the best way to understand gratitude is not through addition, but through subtraction. Thanks for watching The Pinkcast.
