One of the key findings from the aggregated research on workplace wellbeing that The Australian Human Resources Institute in conjunction with the Michelle McQuaid Group and others undertook from 2018 to 2023 was that there was a significant downturn in resilience in Australian workplaces. So how do you tackle that in your workplace?

There are lots of wonderful positive psychology-based tools that are freely available for us to use in our efforts to improve wellbeing in work and otherwise in life.

While each of these can be highly effective tools in their own right, sometimes you get an even more powerful result from using them in partnership.

In that context, Angela Duckworth’s Grit Theory and BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits provide a really powerful combination as a “recipe for resilience”. By merging the passion and perseverance of grit with the incremental power of tiny habits, we can forge a path towards lasting resilience through positive thinking and consistent, small victories.

Understanding Grit, Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth, in her groundbreaking research, defines grit as the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals. It’s not just about talent or intelligence; it’s about having an enduring commitment to your passions and pushing through obstacles. Gritty individuals view setbacks not as failures, but as opportunities to learn and adapt. This inherent optimism fuels their ability to persevere.

The core components of grit are:

• Passion: Having a deep, sustained interest in a particular area. It’s what keeps you engaged even when things get tough.
• Perseverance: The ability to keep working hard and stay committed to your goals, despite challenges, failures, and plateaus.

Duckworth emphasizes that grit can be developed. It’s a muscle that strengthens with consistent exercise. But how do we consistently exercise it, especially when facing daunting challenges? This is where BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits come into play.

The Power of Tiny Habits: Incremental Wins

BJ Fogg, a Stanford University researcher, revolutionized our understanding of behavior change with his Tiny Habits method. Fogg argues that to create lasting change, we shouldn’t aim for monumental shifts. Instead, we should start with behaviors so small and easy that they’re almost impossible to resist.

The Tiny Habits method follows a simple formula: Anchor + Tiny Behavior + Celebration = Habit.

• Anchor: An existing routine or event in your day (e.g., brushing your teeth, finishing a meeting).
• Tiny Behavior: The new little behavioural change that you want to cultivate (e.g., after brushing your teeth, do one push-up).
• Celebration: A quick, genuine feeling of success (e.g., “Yes!”, a fist pump, a smile) or a reward. This positive reinforcement wires the behavior into your brain.

The magic of Tiny Habits lies in these incremental wins. Each successful repetition, no matter how small, builds momentum and commitment. It’s a continuous feedback loop that fosters positive thinking by proving to yourself, repeatedly, that you are capable of achieving your goals.

Building Resilience: A Synergistic Approach

Now, let’s weave these two powerful theories together to build resilience.

1. Identify Your Passion (Grit): Start by clarifying your long-term goals and the passions that drive you. What truly excites you? What do you want to achieve that requires sustained effort? This forms the bedrock of your gritty pursuit.
2. Break Down Goals into Tiny Behaviors (Tiny Habits): Once your long-term vision is clear, dissect it into the smallest possible, actionable steps. If your goal is to write a book, a tiny habit might be “After I finish my morning coffee, I will write one sentence.” If it’s to get fit, it could be “After I tie my shoelaces, I will do one squat.”
3. Attach to an Anchor and Celebrate (Tiny Habits): Consistently link your tiny behavior to an existing routine and always, always celebrate your success. This positive reinforcement, even for the smallest achievement, reinforces the behavior and builds positive thinking. You’re training your brain to associate effort with reward.
4. Embrace Incremental Wins for Perseverance (Grit & Tiny Habits): Each tiny behavior completed is an incremental win. These small victories accumulate, building self-confidence and demonstrating that progress is happening. This continuous stream of positive reinforcement strengthens your perseverance muscle. When setbacks occur (and they will), your history of small wins reminds you of your capability to keep going.

If you would like to explore ways that we can help you to build resilience practice or with any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

I want to share with you one of the most remarkable experiences I have had in my life. 

Over the past few months, I have been a volunteer on a political campaign by a first time independent candidate in our federal election.

It has been inspirational, frustrating, educational, unnerving, exciting, disappointing, challenging, rewarding – yes a real rollercoaster – and so valuable.

Here are my top 5 takes from the journey.

Growth

Our candidate was incredible. Having jumped into the ring (after multiple refusals), she grew and grew and grew with each step that she took and it was both amazing and inspiring to see.

Grounding 

Having that foundation of honest, loving, non-judgmental support through family and key supporters/leadership group provides the confidence to dare to be out there – true psychological and emotional safety and support for the leader who knows that the safety net is there to encourage and support positively and to catch them kindly.

Authenticity

One of the biggest lessons that I thought the candidate learned was quite simply: “be me”. Her signature strengths of hope and kindness were a core ingredient in her campaign. Those strengths resonated with people because they are in her essence (ie they could see the authentic her) and starkly contrasted with the political behaviours we are used to. That was really powerful.

Diversity

In any political campaign, there is a massive amount of work to be done requiring a diverse range of skills, knowledge, abilities and connections. Being able to harness those in a positive and efficient way can be a challenge and equally getting it right can be really advantageous.  This group of volunteers have had that diversity and the spirit of collaboration that really makes it work. What they achieved was extraordinary.

Community connection  

For everything above to happen, you need to have strong community connection through having a clear and aligned purpose that gets people engaged and motivated, the processes and resources to equip them to play their parts and the leadership and support to help them to do that. That happened in spades.

There were also some challenging and inspiring things that I personally experienced which I will comment on separately.

It really has been a great experience, and I have met some wonderful human beings in both our own campaign team and those of competing candidates.

It is an experience that I recommend if you have a candidate with the right purpose and values that resonate for you.

Humbly,

Peter Maguire

Practice leader, PosWork

The experience that I had here is illustrative of the difference that adopting a positive mindset and the practice of kindness and gratitude can make in leadership and the engagement and motivation of your followers. If you would like to explore the ways that we might bring these attributes to your leadership and your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

At PosWork, we believe that we have a role to play in helping community-minded small business owners to build positive relationships with others and support each other in their ventures in business and life.

That’s why we run Our Local FIRM lunches:

• to have a bit of FUN through social engagement over a meal
• to get INSPIRATION from others’ stories or news
• to build positive RELATIONSHIPS and
• to find MEANING through belonging to a positive business community  

Each month, we bring people together to share their needs, stories, triumphs and challenges.

We also have a discussion on a relevant business theme and collect songs for our playlists against the 4 Our Local FIRM pillars of Fun, Inspiration, Relationships and Meaning.

Your commitment – your time, the cost of your lunch and drinks and your contribution in discussions and with your song – and remember “no selling”.

This month, the discussion question  is: “What does the federal election result mean for small business owners?”

The playlist song theme is “Fun” = songs that put a smile on your face.

We’ll collect them and add them to the Our Local FIRM playlists on YouTube music. 

DATE: Thursday 15 May 2025

TIME: 12.00 – 2.00

LOCATION: ORA D’ORO, 28 HEWISH ROAD, CROYDON. 3136

Bookings at: https://www.trybooking.com/DBMOI

Want to know more? Call Peter Maguire on 0438 533 311