Coaching practices for Three Good Things Exercise

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Three Good Things Exercise, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • Something genuinely good happened today and I noticed I just kept it to myself and moved on
  • I could list ten things that went wrong at work today without blinking but I’d struggle to name one that went right
  • I lie down at night and my brain runs a highlight reel of everything I got wrong today
  • I’ve been doing the gratitude thing but my entries all sound the same
  • My days are objectively okay but they leave almost no warm residue

Practices that may help

  1. Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
    In Martin Seligman’s original randomized controlled trial, participants who wrote three good things and their causes each evening for one week reported significantly higher happiness and lower depression at one month and six months — making it one of the most replicated exercises in positive psychology. Effects are genuine but modest; the practice sustains benefits best when kept specific and causal rather than performed as a gratitude list.
  2. Share one good thing with another person
    Tell one person about a good thing that happened — sharing amplifies the positive experience and builds connection.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
  3. Apply three good things to work contexts specifically
    Use the exercise to rewire what you notice about your work day — contribution, competence, and collaboration.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
  4. Write three good things and their causes each evening
    Before sleep, write three specific good things that happened and — crucially — why each one happened.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
  5. Keep entries specific, not global
    One precise, specific good thing is worth more than five vague ones — train on detail, not volume.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
  6. Three good things (positive emotions pillar)
    Write down three good things that happened today and why they happened.
    Seligman’s PERMA Model, Made Practical
  7. Rotate to prevent hedonic adaptation
    After 4–6 weeks, introduce variation to prevent the exercise from becoming mechanical.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice
  8. Three good things
    Each evening, write three things that went well and why they happened.
    Gratitude Journaling, Done Well
  9. One-minute vigorous activity snacks for cardiovascular health
    Accumulating 3–4 one-minute bursts of vigorous effort daily produces cardiovascular benefit comparable to continuous exercise.
    Exercise Snacks: Short Bursts of Movement That Actually Work
  10. Exercise snacking for the unmotivated day
    Break activity into brief, repeated bouts when a full session feels impossible.
    Exercise for Mental Health

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice