He suggests starting each morning by asking and answering a set of seven questions:
1. What am I happy about in my life right now?
- What about that makes me happy? How does that make me feel?
2. What am I excited about in my life right now?
- What about that makes me excited? How does that make me feel?
3. What am I proud about in my life right now?
- What about that makes me proud? How does that make me feel?
4. What am I grateful about in my life right now?
- What about that makes me grateful? How does that make me feel?
5. What am I enjoying most in my life right now?
- What about that makes do I enjoy? How does that make me feel?
6. What am I committed to in my life right now?
- What about that makes me committed? How does that make me feel?
7. Who do I love? Who loves me?
- What about that makes me loving? How does that make me feel?
By making a habit of asking and answering these questions, one trains their brain to be actively looking for the good things in their life. Depressed people tend to spend all of their time thinking about the bad things in their life, which is part of the reason why they're depressed. Similarly, actively spending time thinking about the good things in life will improve one's mood. This set of questions can also be used to improve one's mood when feeling down about something, as they will break the pattern where your thoughts keep getting stuck on the negative things and reorient your thoughts.
The important thing is that if you no obvious answer to these questions comes to your mind, keep looking until you come up with something! Only that way can your mind be trained to see the positive sides in everything. That advice is particularly true for the three evening questions:
1. What have I given today?
- In what ways have been a giver today?
2. What did I learn today?
3. How has today added to the quality of my life or how can I use today as an investment in the future?
Back when I was in the SIAI house, we talked a lot about achieving a growth mindset, but it seemed to me like we didn't have very many ways of actually fostering it. If you're on each day forced to come up with answers to both "what did I learn today" and "how has today added to the quality of my life", you should begin to see yourself as a constantly growing system instead of a static one. Furthermore, knowing that you'll need to answer these questions on the evening can also motivate you to challenge yourself more during the day, so that you'll have your answers.
Robbins says that the best part about the technique is that the questions can be asked anywhere, whether you are in the shower or making breakfast. Personally I think the technique probably works best for me if I first state my replies out loud, then write also them down. That'll engage more parts of the brain than just thinking about the answers would.
