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#Blessings This week's trek is inspired by the research of Yale Professor, Dr. Laurie Santos, on the science of happiness. How many gratitude-themed emails do you typically get the week of Thanksgiving? Take that number and increase it by one. Because, no shame, this email is on that train. I decided to risk dipping my toes into the sea of sameness this week because I was amazed to learn that Dr. Santos's extensive research has shown that one of the best things you can do to boost your personal sense of happiness is to take time to thank those that have been there for you.  So I crafted a quick exercise to turn the countdown to Thanksgiving into an opportunity to count your blessings. Introducing Your #Blessings Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to show a little love for the people that have your back. Why We Love It  When we get busy we don't always take time to really acknowledge others for the amazing things they do for us. This exercise offers a chance to dedicate a few minutes this week to send some love to the people we depend on most.  How It Works A. Take 10 minutes to consider the following questions. Write down your response as well as the name of the person who comes to mind for each: 7. Who makes you laugh/smile? 6. Who is your biggest fan? 5. Who is the best boss you've ever had? 4. What's the kindest thing anyone's done for you? 3. What are the best qualities you learned from those that raised you? 2. Of the people you spend time with, who brings out your best qualities? 1. Describe an important teacher in your life - outside of school. B. Take 1 minute at the beginning or end of your day each day this week to write a quick thank you note to each person you identified above. We recommend writing just 1-2 sentences but if you want to do more, go get 'em gunner! If the person you think of is no longer in your life or can't be reached, take a few minutes to hold space in your thoughts for them. C. Have a blessed week! Source: School of Life Want to dig deeper?  For a summary of some of the major themes covered in Dr. Santos's well-being course at Yale, read this from Today. For more details on why a regular gratitude practice can be beneficial, read this from Forbes. Check out the last section of this article from Berkeley to learn about how gratitude effects the brain.  Here's what your fellow trekkers have to say about past treks: "I really liked the Feedback Champ Trek. I found it particularly useful as I reflect on my areas of development, which can be difficult to accept and action. Instead of being nervous I'm choosing to be excited - increasing awareness of my triggers, keeping an open mind and focusing on constant improvement."  - Jared Zlotnick, Group Manager, Google Marketing Solutions Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

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Ritual Revamp This week's trek is inspired by Dr. Joanne Martin's research at Stanford on organizational behavior and culture. Does your team have a regular ritual? From LeBron's chalk toss to the Detroit Red Wing's octopus tradition, team sports are rooted in rituals. Organizations also thrive on rituals - from coffee breaks and happy hours to off-sites and town halls. However, rituals that stick around aren't typically made up on a whim. Most long-standing organizational rituals were thoughtfully designed to uphold a shared sense of purpose, connection, and values. Introducing Your Ritual Revamp Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to observe some of your team's common rituals and determine what you might want to revamp or retire going forward.  Why We Love It  While some rituals have a clear purpose others can appear to be pointless if they lose their meaning within the team. This exercise provides an opportunity to identify the rituals that best support your team's culture and determine what you might want to change to better align with your goals. How It Works 1. Take five minutes and think about the tone you want to set with your team. Do you want people to feel more engaged? More connected? More motivated? Write down 3 adjectives that describe the tone you want to set.  2. Select a day this week to observe your team's rituals. Grab your fav notepad and pen and jot down your observations based on the following questions: A. How does our team start the day? End the day? B. How do we begin meetings? How do we end meetings? C. How do we talk about wins (e.g., hitting a sales target, winning new business, solving a customer problem)? D. How do we acknowledge or celebrate a job well done? E. What other rituals consistently show up on our team? 2. Once you've captured your observations, take 10 minutes to examine any rituals you've noted.  - In what way does the tone you want to set (see your adjectives in #1) align with your team's rituals?  - In what way does the tone you want to set not align with your team's rituals? 3. For the second question in #2, what might be a new ritual you can put in place to better align with your intended tone? Here's some inspiration from other companies: - OXO has an entire wall where lost gloves are hung to remind their team of all the different types of hands they must design their products for. -At Southwest's HQ employees gather on the roof for Monday afternoon landing parties where they have drinks, watch Southwest planes land at the nearby airport, and rate each pilot's performance.  - At Starbucks new retail hires are "required to taste and document their reactions to all the coffee blends on offer at Starbucks" in order to show how important it is to know the product.  4. For the ritual you identified in #3, consider your time horizon. Is this the kind of ritual that will be important for just the next quarter or does it have longer term implications? If it has longer term implications consider how this tradition might support your team's growth in 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years down the road. Want to dig deeper? For some tips on how to use rituals to ignite innovation, check this out from Google. For three principles to keep in mind when crafting a workplace ritual, read this from FastCo.  LAST CALL FOR BEST OF 2018 We want to hear from you for a Best of 2018 Feature this month. Hit us up at treks@lifetrekkers.me to tell us which treks you've loved and why. Check out the archive here. Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.

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Unfriend Your Phone This week's trek is inspired by UT Austin professor Art Markman's research on the best ways to disconnect from work. Does it feel like your phone is stalking you? My phone is good at following me around. I might be in the middle of a nice little Saturday - on a trip to Home Depot or maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond and, then, a notification: "Why Is Everyone So Mad About Ryan Gosling's New Space Movie?" What? Ryan Gosling is in a space movie? And not Matt Damon? Is that why people are mad? And, then, I'm like oh, yes, that's right I need mulch. Let's buy mulch. But as I walk over to the gardening aisle, I notice that pesky red number in the upper right corner of the email app climbing at a steady rate. I let the little square lurk in the corner for a while as I fill my shopping cart. Once I'm in the car, I try not to look, but it's hard so I keep looking just to see what kind of email fix I can skim off the top, and, eventually, I get home and cave and let it have my Sunday. Who doesn’t love a good old Sunday email binge? As Markman says, "When we can’t let go of work while we’re out of the office, we don’t get to enjoy the benefits of time away." We all know that staying close to our digital devices can be one of the biggest triggers to keep us focused on work even when we're off the clock. Introducing Your Unfriend Your Phone Exercise What It Is A 20-minute exercise to find new ways to unfriend your phone when it's starting to feel like a stalker. Why We Love It  We all know that letting work habitually seep into our downtime isn’t the best thing for us. This exercise offers up a way to understand the potential benefits of digitally disconnecting from work on a more regular basis.  How It Works 1.Take 5 minutes and reflect on your past week. Take note of how often you used your phone, laptop, or certain apps and how that usage related to your tendency to focus on work. If you've got an iPhone, check out screen time usage for some good insights. 2. Then, look at your week ahead and pick an afternoon, evening, or a few hours this week that you are willing to commit to being digitally disconnected. Yes, for real, we are asking you to put your phone on lock-down. 3. For the time you selected in #2, schedule a specific activity that you will do that won't require the use of your computer or phone. For example, schedule dinner with a friend, take a cooking class, or go for a hike. According to Markman, “Your habit system only learns a new habit when you perform an action, not when you don’t,” so scheduling something during this time is critical to avoiding the tendency to default to passive device-oriented behaviors (e.g., Facebook scrolling).  4. For the time you’ve set aside, be sure to ditch your phone. If you are at a dinner with a friend give it to your friend for safe keeping. Leave it in your car, turn it off, or go big and leave it at work/home.  5. When you get home from the activity, take a few minutes to reflect. What did it feel like at the beginning of your no-devices activity? What did it feel like at the end? How did you engage in the activity in a different way? How might you find at least 1-2 hours in your week each week to be more intentional about disconnecting? Want to dig deeper? For tips from Markman on how to make your time away from work (and your phone) count, read this from HBR. For a data-driven argument on why vacation is really good for us, check this out from HBR. Best of 2018: We want to hear from you! We want to hear from you for a Best of 2018 Feature this month. Hit us up at treks@lifetrekkers.me to tell us which treks you've loved and which you've loathed and why. Check out the archive here. Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@lifetrekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.