Growing Good

Here’s my latest article on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News:

Growing Good

Woohoo! My first column of 2016.

Which was started during a bout of insomnia in the last week of 2015.

What did I do when sleep failed me? What electronics-addicted individuals often do in the middle of the night. I grabbed my computer, caught up on email, and headed over to Facebook to find out what my Friends had been up to.

There I discovered a post about a company founded by two brothers called Life is Good, which emerged from the standing request the founders’ mother had for them as children in a chaotic home environment: Tell me something good about your day.

This helped the brothers become “glass half full” kind of guys, the type of people who donate 10% of their profits to help children overcome adverse childhood experiences.

And what does a T-shirt company have to do with long-term care? Well…

What if we started off this brand new year asking ourselves and our coworkers, employees and residents to tell us something good?

What if we put time and thought into focusing on the positive — into growing the good — and reminding ourselves why we’re all here working with elders?

I predict we’ll have more productive staff, better functioning teams, and happier residents.

It’s not just me doing the predicting. The Positive Psychology Center, led by director Martin Seligman, Ph.D., describes positive psychology as “the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive.”

For the entire article, visit:

Growing Good