Coaching practices for Three Good Things Positive Psychology
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Three Good Things Positive Psychology, 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
- My days are objectively okay but they leave almost no warm residue
- When something good happens to me I instantly chalk it up to luck or someone else, never anything I did
- I lie down at night and my brain runs a highlight reel of everything I got wrong today
- I get to the end of the day and the only things I can recall are what went wrong
Practices that may help
- 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. - Positive Psychology, Made Practical
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms. - 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 - Three good things (positive emotions pillar)
Write down three good things that happened today and why they happened.
Seligman’s PERMA Model, Made Practical - Train optimistic causal attribution deliberately
Practice attributing good events to stable, internal causes — not to luck or one-off circumstances.
Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice - 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 - Three good things
Each night, write three things that went well and why — retraining attention toward the positive.
Optimism Training: Building Realistic, Flexible Optimism - 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 - Building Positive Emotions, Made Practical
Positive emotions can be cultivated deliberately through practices that vary what triggers them: gratitude, savoring, meaningful engagement, kindness, and awe are the most studied routes. Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions expand thinking and build psychological resources over time — supported by observational research, though some specific claims (like the 3:1 ratio) have not replicated. The individual practices have varying but mostly real evidence bases. - Benefit-Finding in Adversity, Made Practical
Benefit-finding — the cognitive process of identifying positive outcomes, lessons, or changes that emerge from difficult experiences — is associated with better psychological and physical health outcomes in observational research on illness, loss, and trauma. However, positive psychology researchers are careful to distinguish genuine benefit-finding from forced positive reframing, which can backfire. Timing, authenticity, and the type of adversity all matter significantly.
Related concerns
- Three Good Things Research
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.
- Positive Psychology Exercise
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
- Positive Psychology Exercises
Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
- Three Good Things
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.
- Three Good Things Agency
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.
- Three Good Things The Evidence Based Gratitude Practice After A Setback
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.
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