Hunt the Good

Hunt the Good

Find a vantage point
to start looking.

I've had a handful of folks in my circle talk about "how the grass is greener over there" as an attitude recently.  Several have switched jobs, another switched spouses, and one had a bit of a mid-life meltdown.  Another friend told me, and I've tried to repeat it, "The grass is greener where you water it."  In other words, when we look for the negative we find it...the same is true when we look for the good.  Part of our "hunting the good" becomes habitual looking for it as an attitude throughout the day and throughout the facets of our lives.  

Sometimes 
you've got to 
dig for it.

In my mind, much of "the good" that we're looking for overlaps with what we're thankful for or the blessings in our lives.  This can be both the subtle things we take for granted - clean water, health, a job that pays our bills, and so forth.  Too often we miss the forest for the trees in our life and end up dwelling on the bumpy parts of those parts of life - coffee not the right temperature, ache in your knee, or grouch boss.  The point here is, that when we "hunt the good" instead of seeking out or allowing the negative to seep in, it changes our perspective and our outlook.  

Building a treehouse
wasn't about the 
treehouse.

Think for a minute about the old "you are what you eat" or in simplified terms, "you are what you consume."  Count up in your head the amount of "good and beautiful" that comes into your life through your consumption vs the darker or seedier parts of life.  How many violent action movies do you watch compared to the Hallmark Channel feel-good stories?  In your podcasts or fiction reading do you wallow in true crime or Chicken Soup For the Soul?  I'm the proverbial pot-calling-the-kettle-black-here with much of the fiction I tend to enjoy...but I'll also be the first to get out into the beautiful nature that surrounds us and embrace it.  The point here is, have a balance and seek out the "good and beautiful" things around you...not just sit in the darkness.  

Maybe the Pony
Express can deliver
the good.

To give this habit some staying power, put 10 small items (coins, pebbles, something) into your left pocket, and when you see/hear/do/touch/taste/smell something you're thankful for, physically move one item to your right pocket.  Strive to get all the objects moved by the end of the day.  This simple gesture helps us focus on the things that are going right around us.  Too often, we're consumed by the things going wrong - problems we have to deal with and we miss all that this going right.  

We have also tried to instill some of this thought process around the dinner table by asking questions about each other's days.  In the fall, leading up to Thanksgiving, we've done a "thankful pumpkin" where we have a sharpie and each writes things we're thankful for until the pumpkin is full.  It's been surprising how many things we come up with when we verbalize it and document it.  On what might otherwise feel like a crummy day or week, changing our paradigm helps us realize how truly blessed we are as individuals and as a family.  

Sometimes
you just have
to reach a little
more.

Similarly to the above, I've tried to make it a habit of "thank you God for this" mini-prayers throughout the course of a day.  In stopping to think about and give thanks I'm amazed how many more times this pops into my head now than when I got started.  Blessings or "good" lives all around us, we just often fail to recognize or notice them.  By taking intentionality and time to celebrate the wins in our lives, we start to see more wins in our lives...and consequently, start to live our better or best lives.  

In other facets of our lives, our roles as parents, employers, supervisors, leaders, and so forth, we hopefully hunt and call out the good that we see in the circles around us.  This isn't the Pollyanna or bouncy cheerleader bravado or falsetto.  This, when done right is a proactive, habitual seeking out of the good that is occurring by others around us and the genuine compliments that we pay others.  By hunting the good and sharing it, we leave genuine smiles in our wakes as we go throughout the day.  When we brighten the lives of those around us, it's awfully hard to wallow in our own perceived self-misery.  

Life is good...
when you look.

Another part of the "good" we've been hunting became more clear when a friend put it into words "Out of every adversity are seeds of equal or greater opportunity."  In other words, celebrating and embracing failure because it leads to growth and inspiration are part of the "good."  It seems like oftentimes when we look in the rearview mirror of life, the turning points or "rocks in the river" so to speak that alter the course of our lives were failures, not wins.  Hopefully, for most of us, when we look back with time, we recognize those moments that were painful in the moment, were actually polarizing, or galvanizing course corrections that got us to where we are today.  Finding the good in the darkness is a huge secret to resilience and ultimately to long-term success.  

To wrap up, talk show host and money guru, Dave Ramsey answers the "how are you?" question with the tagline, "Better than I deserve."  When we stop and think about the totality of our lives and our circumstances, when we apply the "hunt the good" filter to our lives, hopefully, we too can say, "better than I deserve" on a daily, weekly, yearly, and lifetime basis.   Over time, our "hunting of the good" transitions into "seeing the good" automatically and ultimately, over time, "being the good" for those around us.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out three things today, in the next couple hours that are "good" and be thankful them.  Repeat until you're starting to see them automatically.  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in terms of seeing the glass half full around you on a routine basis.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- US Army Campaign