Stopping the spiral

A colleague told me a lovely story recently. His toddler goes through fits of complaining, one thing after another. So they started a ritual: when it happens, they ask him to pause and name one good thing, one thing he’s grateful for. What they’ve found is that once he starts, it’s easy for him to find a second thing, then a third. The complaining just stops. It’s a good reminder that we’re all capable of spiraling down a negative path once we get moving on it. And sometimes all it takes to reverse that is interrupting the momentum. You see the same pattern in professional sports. One team is dominating, then the other team gets a single good moment, and the entire momentum of the game swings. Applies to our days, and to our lives.