How the Power of Positivity Generates Healthy Leadership: Behaviors, Emotional Stability, and a Robust Spiritual Life
Abstract
We are all faced with thousands of opportunities every day to be positive or negative. One choice leads to healthy behaviors and emotions. The other, causes early death, illness, broken relationships, low self-esteem, and depression. One would think that the choice in this matter would be easy, however, the majority of people make the wrong choice and choose negativity over positivity. One of the greatest things science has discovered in recent years is that there are chemicals behind our feelings: “happy chemicals,” and “unhappy chemicals.” They are controlled by our thoughts. Negativity is responsible for many of the problems we face in our lives, our world, and in our relationships. At the root, negativity is driven by fear, which is often the cause of the destruction in human relationships. Left to itself, our brain gravitates toward fear and negativity. Fear is behind the majority of our scarcity feelings and is part of the fight or flight process we all possess. However, if we are able to cultivate a lifestyle of positivity by understanding what the Bible says about behaviors such as gratitude, loving our neighbors, forgives and hope, coupled with the discoveries in neuroscience on positivity psychology, it changes everything. We have more positive emotions, we are more engaged in life, we possess healthier relationships, we live with more meaning, and we live with more vision. A clear solution is a roadmap: a tool that will help guide people, so they can know exactly what to do in order to integrate specific behaviors into their lives on a regular basis. When utilized frequently, this tool has the ability to create long-term, sustained behavior change. x The tool is the PQ360 leadership assessment tool. This survey and the accompanying report, consists of twenty-five behaviors that are grounded in science and reflect five areas of positive psychology: emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and vision.