Bucket Filling

Three strategies that Rath advises to fill your own bucket are to shine light on what's right, make best friends, and give unexpectedly.  He says that in order to keep your bucket full you must emphasize what is going right. We always are looking at flaws and what is wrong, but we never stop to think what we are doing right.  He uses the example of a student getting an F and an A.  Most parents will jump straight to the F and how it must be improved.  They rarely will start with how proud they are about the A that was received.  He says that if the things that are done right are acknowledged, then it can keep your own bucket full as well as other peoples' buckets.

Another thing that he suggests is to make best friends. This will also help keep your bucket full. He gives the example of commuting to work everyday. If you have a friend to commute with, then commuting becomes more fun and therefore will give you more positive moments. This ultimately will contribute to a fuller bucket.

The third strategy that Rath explains is giving unexpectedly. A poll that was taken shows that most people prefer an unexpected gift as opposed to one that is already expected.  He says that if a gift is expected, it just becomes something that has potential to disappoint you. When you have high expectations, you tend to be disappointed more easily because you are more likely not to get what you are expecting to.  However, with no expectations, you eliminate potential for disappointment and this fills your bucket.

I think that this video and all of these studies are actually very interesting.  I don't disagree with anything that he has brought up.  I think that doing things for other people actually is the key to filling your own bucket.  I think the most interesting thing that was mentioned in the video was the fact that there seems to be an upper limit of 13:1 good moments to bad moments. The ratios that were given were very intriguing to me.  It's weird that we can actually quantify good moments and bad moments and then study the numbers and watch the trends.  He says that in a marriage the ratio needs to be about 5:1 and in an organization it needs to be about 3:1 in order for these relations to be successful. That is why I am so interested in the upper limit. It would make sense that you cannot have too many good moments because I think in anything and everything, there must be a balance. I also thought it was interesting that a full bucket can change people physically also. He says that people with a full bucket have more helper T cells which are a crucial part of the immune system. This literally proves that having a positive attitude in life contributes to your physical health.

I would say I mostly am a bucket filler because I am very positive about things. I almost always try shine light on what's right and pick out the good things in a situation instead of the bad things. I can't always do this, but I think the majority of the time, I do.