Identify 3 Good Things Each Night to Boost Happiness

 Identify 3 Good Things Each Night to Boost Happiness

By: Katie Kerwin McCrimmon,  UCHealth 

  

People can boost their positive attitudes and resiliency while reducing harmful self-criticism through a daily exercise called “Three Good Things.” 

Is it possible to become a more positive, hopeful person?

Yes. Research shows that by deliberately focusing on good things in your life, you can become happier.

Embracing optimism and your role in making the world a better place is a valuable tool.
A simple tool called ‘Three Good Things’

Dr. Annie Moore helps her patients boost their positive attitudes and resiliency while reducing harmful self-criticism through a daily exercise called “Three Good Things.”

It’s a simple exercise that can take just a couple of minutes each evening before bed. Highlighting Three Good Things each day can yield long-lasting health benefits.

Moore is an internal medicine doctor at CU Denver Internal Medicine Group near Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood. She is also a Professor of Clinical Practice at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and did a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. Integrative medicine doctors are trained to focus on the whole person and partner with patients to help them adopt lifestyle changes that can make them healthier.

“We look at root causes for health problems, in addition to giving patients a diagnosis and treatment plan. We hope to understand why a patient gets an illness, especially a chronic illness in the first place,” Moore said.

Researchers in positive psychology tested ‘Three Good Things’ and it worked

Dr. Annie Moore

Moore first learned about the Three Good Things tool when she worked at Duke University Medical Center. Experts there encourage health care workers to use Three Good Things to prevent burnout.

Happiness researcher, Dr. Martin Seligman, pioneered and tested the Three Good Things tool. He and his team at the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center did randomized controlled trials to measure the effectiveness of simple interventions that might make people happier. They published their findings in 2005 in American Psychologist.

In their experiment, the researchers randomly assigned participants to try one of six interventions including a control group that simply wrote in journals about their childhood. One group did the Three Good Things exercise each evening for one week. Then, researchers measured how all the study participants did over time. One month after the study subjects wrote down their Three Good Things each evening for a week, participants “were happier and less depressed than they had been at baseline, and they stayed happier and less depressed at the three-month and six-month follow-ups,” the researchers found. Click here to see a video in which Seligman describes how Three Good Things works.

Harsh self-criticism harms health

Moore started using Three Good Things herself at Duke and brought the practice with her when she came to Colorado in 2015. In addition to benefiting personally, she likes using Three Good Things with patients who are especially hard on themselves.

“It’s extraordinarily common that we hear a loud inner critic among our patients,” Moore said. “Through what they say, they imply, ‘I’m not good enough. I’m not meeting my own expectations.’”

And, says Moore, that negativity “impedes progress” toward improving health.

“The more you feel like a failure, the more you’re going to fail. The goal of Three Good Things is to build back confidence and increase motivation to help people feel more empowered to take positive actions in their lives,” Moore said.

How does Three Good Things work?

So, how exactly does a person use the Three Good Things tool?

The concept is easy, and individuals can personalize how they use Three Good Things. The researchers who first tested Three Good Things required study participants to write down three things each evening. By doing the exercise toward the end of the day and before bed, they felt that participants would sleep better.

Moore doesn’t always write hers down, but when she has in the past, she has enjoyed going back to read previous lists.

Also, in order to count a deed as one of your Three Good Things, you need to embrace your role as the director of your life.

“The core aspect of this is that it’s something we made happen or were actively involved in,” Moore said.

So, if the sunrise was beautiful, you can enjoy that, but can’t list that as one of your Three Good Things since you didn’t play a role in bringing on a new day or turning the sky pink and orange.
Not a gratitude journal; Three Good Things requires intention and action

Moore said some people misunderstand Three Good Things as a gratitude journal or a way to appreciate blessings. Certainly, it’s great to be thankful, but Three Good Things is different.

“This requires more intention,” Moore said.

To be effective, you must recall actions you took, such as: carving out time for exercise, calling a friend, picking up groceries for a neighbor or skipping an unhealthy habit like smoking a cigarette.

“The role we have in creating positive choices is a critical aspect of this,” Moore said. “The empowerment and resiliency benefits come from recognizing our role in how we think and act.”

Some people only do the exercise for one week, and that’s OK. But for others, it becomes a cherished daily practice.

“We see positive outcomes,” Moore said. “The idea is that once you notice the positive things you do, you’ll choose to do more, and you will see more positive things others do as well. This requires action on a person’s part to see the positive, which is critical to resilience.”
What if I’m feeling hopeless?

For anyone who feels they have severe depression, call your doctor or seek immediate help elsewhere. Anyone who is having suicidal thoughts can get help 24/7 through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.

For most people, it’s normal to feel somewhat depressed during major life events, natural disasters and pandemics. Using Three Good Things won’t erase sorrows, Moore said. Rather, it’s a practice that can help people cope better.

“We can say, ‘This is terrible and tragic.’ And, at the same time, at the end of each day, we can also say, ‘There were Three Good Things in which I participated to make my work and the world better.’”
Who can benefit from Three Good Things?

Everyone.

Moore sees some patients who are coping with difficult, genetic health challenges. They sometimes feel hopeless.

“They might say, ‘I have high cholesterol. No matter what, I’m going to have a heart attack and diabetes. I’m going to die young.’”

Moore tells them that while acknowledging they inherited a tough genetic deck of hands, they can also improve their health and their lives.

“They can start to feel more empowered to minimize the genetic impact, understanding the majority of health outcomes are lifestyle-based. A lot of people are defeatist these days. There is a balance between owning health challenges and maximizing our health choices to live the best life we can,” Moore said.

She also sees patients who have avoided going to a doctor for years because they are embarrassed about their weight or they are dealing with addictions to alcohol or drugs.

Or, an older patient might be struggling with balance. A patient of any age who has had a tough surgery might be depressed about a difficult recovery.

For people in these circumstances, one good thing to celebrate can be as simple as getting out of bed.

And, we can all do good things to fight social isolation.

“You can write a note to a friend or arrange an outdoor lunch. Taking the initiative to have some social contact is great,” Moore said. “The list of ideas for good things is endless.”

The concept of positive psychology doesn’t mean that you will go around feeling positive all the time.

“Some people find they are living in one ongoing negative emotional state. It can be great to balance the sadness with positive thinking,” Moore said.
How long do you have to do Three Good Things?

In the original clinical trial, study volunteers did the Three Good Things for seven nights in a row. Some continued voluntarily. Even if the participants stopped after a week, the benefits continued. Noticing good things seems to stick with us and improve our attitudes over the long term.
Do you have to do Three Good Things every day?

Yes. In order to do the activity correctly, you are supposed to do it every day for at least 7 days in a row.
Can you pick the same Three Good Things every day?

No. You need to pick new good things each day.
Do you have to do Three Good Things before bed?

Most advocates for Three Good Things say it’s best to do the exercise before bed. Focusing on good things clears your head and drives stress away, thus helping people sleep better. But Moore isn’t a purist. If a patient is a morning person and will be more dedicated to focusing on Three Good Things in the morning, then that can work too, she said.
What kind of results have doctors seen?

Seligman’s clinical trial showed that doing Three Good Things resulted in greater happiness as measured six months later. Some medical experts say that using Three Good Things can be as effective as using antidepressants.

Moore has seen excellent results among her patients, whether they have naturally sunny dispositions or tend to see the world pessimistically.

“Everyone can see the world in a more positive way. Hope and confidence overlap,” Moore said.

“You can do this on your own. You can do it with your family. It’s not going to make bad things go away. But, it does help you cope better with them.”

UCHealth Today: https://www.uchealth.org/today/

Remembering South Jersey Olympian Mel Sheppard

 

A champion to remember Mel Sheppard won the first of his 4 Olympic golds 100 years ago.

By Phil Anastasia INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: July 14, 2008

One of America's greatest Olympic champions was a South Jersey native who ran his first race as a Philadelphia schoolboy.

He was a fierce competitor whose humble background and dogged determination made him a personal favorite of President Theodore Roosevelt.

He was a former street tough - a self-styled member of the "Grays Ferry Roaders" gang in South Philadelphia around the turn of the 20th century - who ran so fast and so well that U.S. middle-distance stars have been chasing his accomplishments for a century.

And they haven't caught him yet.

One hundred years ago today, Mel Sheppard won the first of his three gold medals at the Olympic Games in London. A century later, Sheppard remains the last American to win a gold medal in the 1,500 meters.

Sheppard also won the 800 meters and anchored the U.S. sprint medley relay team to a victory in those Games. At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, he won a gold medal in the 4x400 relay and a silver medal in the 800.

Four Olympic gold medals, three in world-record time. An Olympic silver medal. Seven AAU national titles. World indoor records in the 600 and 1,000 yards.

All that athletic glory springing from such an unlikely background - plus an eyewitness brush with the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic - make Sheppard one of the more compelling characters to emerge from the Philadelphia area.

But 100 years is a long time: Today, Sheppard might be the most famous athlete that most people never heard of.

"He should be our Steve Prefontaine," said longtime Haddonfield track and cross-country coach Nick Baker, referring to the late Oregon running star.

Sheppard was born in 1883 in Almonesson, a section of Deptford Township in Gloucester County. He lived there, in a twin house, for the first nine years of his life.

"What I remember most is swimming in Almonesson Lake," Sheppard wrote in his autobiography, Spiked Shoes and Cinder Paths, which was published in serial form in Sport Story magazine (newstand price: 5 cents) in 1924.

At the time, Almonesson Lake was a rural body of water popular with fishermen and young boys who would tie ropes to trees that grew near the shoreline. For most of the first half of the 20th century, Almonesson Lake was a recreation spot for boaters and swimmers, with amusement rides near the current location of Auletto's Caterers.

At age 9, Sheppard moved with his family to Clayton, and got a job "rolling jars" in a glass factory for $9 a month. His family moved to Haddonfield a few years later, then to the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia when Sheppard was about 15.

Sheppard wrote that he had jobs "pulling tacks out of shoes" and as a messenger boy, but that he also joined the Grays Ferry Roaders, a street gang that clashed with rival gangs such as the Ramcats, Pine Streeters and Race Streeters.

Sheppard wrote that the Ramcats were his gang's "special enemies, with whom we would fight when we had nothing else to do."

Sheppard's emergence as a world-class athlete was astoundingly sudden. When he was 17, his family moved to West Philadelphia, near Fairmount Park, and he joined the Preston Athletic Club.

About the same time, he enrolled in Brown Preparatory School, in the Odd Fellows Temple at Broad and Cherry Streets. The building, erected in 1893 at a cost of $1 million, was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Convention Center expansion.

Sheppard wrote that his first race was a 100-yard dash in Washington Park in Philadelphia. He finished third.

"The longer races were more fit to my nature," Sheppard wrote.

In 1904, Sheppard won three races while representing Brown Prep at schoolboy events held in conjunction with the Olympics in St. Louis - a foreshadowing of his success four years later in London.

Sheppard qualified for the 1908 U.S. Olympic team by winning the 800 meters in the Olympic trials, which were held at Franklin Field.

He set sail for London on June 29 with about 100 other members of the U.S. team on the liner Philadelphia. He wrote that the track team trained on "a cork track on the promenade deck," and noted that javelin throwers amused themselves by tying ropes to their spears and throwing them at sharks that approached the ship.

The 1908 Games were the first to have an opening ceremony. About 2,000 athletes, representing 22 countries, competed.

There was a fierce rivalry between the American and English teams, fueled when American shot-putter Ralph Rose did not dip the U.S. flag in salute to King Edward VII. Rose's refusal became standard practice for U.S. athletes in the opening parade.

Sheppard was a surprise entrant in the 1,500 meters - he hadn't even run the event in the trials - but won his heat in 4 minutes, 5 seconds. The next day, he set a world record by winning the final in 4:03.5.

"If it was necessary to die at the finish, why, that would be perfectly satisfactory as long as I hit the tape first," Sheppard wrote. "It was the proudest moment of my life."

Sheppard won the 800 meters in 1:52.4, another world record. And he was the anchor man on the sprint medley relay team that won another gold medal.

About a month later, Sheppard and the rest of the U.S. team were invited to meet President Theodore Roosevelt at his summer home in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

"The president was particularly interested in Mel Sheppard and asked for him several times," the New York Times reported Sept. 1, 1908. "The great middle-distance runner was compelled to describe his races . . . and the president listened with great attention."

Roosevelt was particularly interested in the 1,500 meters, which he called "the greatest race I ever read about." Sheppard told the president about the event, then pulled a Moroccan leather case out his pocket and handed it to the man known as the Rough Rider.

"This is my prize for winning the event," Sheppard said of his gold medal. "I would be honored if you would keep it."

When Roosevelt refused, Sheppard said, "I have two others, and I will not miss this one."

When Roosevelt accepted, he told Sheppard, "This will be one of my most treasured possessions."

In his autobiography, Sheppard described Roosevelt's reaction this way: "The president was like a schoolboy who won his first ribbon."

Sheppard later wrote to Roosevelt asking for help in acquiring a job as a customs inspector at the Port of Philadelphia. Roosevelt's personal secretary wrote back, and Sheppard got the position.

He later was transferred to the Port of New York, and he was on duty the night of April 18, 1912, when the RMS Carpathia arrived with the survivors from the sinking of the Titanic.

From 1906 to 1912, Sheppard was America's best middle-distance runner. He won seven AAU national titles, and barely missed another gold medal in the 800 meters at the 1912 Olympics. His time of 1:52 would have been another world record, but teammate Ted Meredith edged him at the tape and won in 1:51.9.

When his running career ended, Sheppard turned to coaching. He was a civilian athletic director at military bases during World War I. He served as a field secretary for the Playground and Recreation Association of America, traveling the country to help set up leagues and playgrounds. He was the coach of the U.S. women's track team at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

For the last 20 years of his life, Sheppard worked for Wanamaker's in New York as recreation director of the Millrose Athletic Association. He died in 1942 in Queens, N.Y., at the age of 59.

"He was kind of a rough-and-tumble individual," said Howard Schmertz, 83, who served as meet director of the Millrose Games from 1975 to 2003.

Schmertz's father directed the Millrose Games from 1934 to 1974, and was an attorney for Wanamaker's during Sheppard's time with the Millrose Athletic Association.

Looking back, Schmertz said, "In those days, everybody knew Mel Sheppard."

 

Which is More Important to Good Health-- Exercise or Sleep?

 By Marta Iraola Iribarren 

Euronews    Updated 09/12/2025

Around 1 in eight people in a new global study got enough sleep and exercise.

A new global study suggests that focusing on sleep may be more beneficial than exercise for overall health, as most people struggle to meet recommended levels of both rest and physical activity.

The research, published in the journal Communications Medicine, found that most people fall short of the widely promoted benchmarks of seven to nine hours of sleep and at least 8,000 steps per day. About 13 per cent globally consistently met both targets.

“Only a tiny fraction of people can achieve both recommended sleep and activity levels every day, so we really need to think about how these guidelines work together and what we can do to support people to meet them in ways that fit real life,” said Josh Fitton, the study’s lead author and a sleep health researcher at Flinders University in Australia.

Fitton added in a statement that the findings raise questions about common health recommendations, underlining how difficult it is for many people to maintain both an active lifestyle and healthy sleep patterns.

The study analyzed data from sleep and activity trackers collected over 3.5 years from more than 70,000 participants across the globe. It showed that while many people either get enough sleep or lead active lives, few manage to do both.

Nearly 17 per cent of participants averaged fewer than seven hours of sleep and under 5,000 steps per day, placing them in the “sedentary” category, which is linked to higher risks of chronic disease, weight gain, and mental health challenges.

The study has some limitations, such as its reliance on data from personal tracking devices, which are more commonly used in wealthier countries.

The key to becoming more active, researchers found, lies in getting sufficient rest. Sleeping around six to seven hours per night was associated with the highest step counts the following day.

The researchers said that if people are pressed for time, they may want to consider focusing on sleep before exercise.

“Prioritizing sleep could be the most effective way to boost your energy, motivation, and capacity for movement,” said Danny Eckert, the study’s senior author and a professor at Flinders University.

“Simple changes like reducing screen time before bed, keeping a consistent bedtime, and creating a calm sleep environment can make a big difference,” he added.

Sleep, the Key to Athletic Performance
UBC.CA Blog 

Related

• Becoming active in adulthood can curb risk of dying from certain health issues by 22%, study finds
• Getting under 10,000 daily steps? Researchers identify the best walking habits for heart health

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Link to Euronews: https://www.euronews.com/

Gloucester Catholic Cross Country Results from the 1970's

Coach Jack Daniels passes away at 92

 The world lost three of its greatest distance running coaches this year in a short span.

3-time Olympian and University of Oregon Coach Bill Dellinger. Adams State Coach Joe Vigil, and Olympian and Cortland College Coach Jack Daniels.

Besides being great coaches, all three were great men.

Here is the New York Times' great profile of Coach Daniels by Jere Longman.

I have in-depth interviews with Coach Daniels and Vigil in my book "Positive Splits."
Positive Splits: Positive Running Stories: Heath, Jack: 9781548655341: Amazon.com: Books

Jack Daniels, Olympian and ‘World’s Best’ Running Coach, Is Dead at 92

Tutoring Olympians, he created a simple workout formula that was said to produce the best results with the least effort, earning accolades across the running world.

 

The running coach Jack Daniels in 1996. “Before Jack, nobody knew how fast or slow they should go in training,” one running authority said. Credit...Robert Houser

By Jeré Longman

Sept. 19, 2025

Jack Daniels, a two-time Olympic medalist in the modern pentathlon and an exercise physiologist who was once described by Runner’s World magazine as “the world’s best running coach,” died on Sept. 12 at his home in Cortland, N.Y. He was 92.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Nancy Daniels.

Over seven decades, Daniels, armed with a Ph.D. in the subject, researched the physiology of running and coached Olympians and elite college athletes, as well as recreational runners. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to simplify and make accessible to coaches and runners of all levels — from the high school history teacher who doubles as a track coach to the world-class marathoner — the complicated science of human performance.

A runner or coach does not have to wade into the weeds trying to understand the nuances of Daniels’s measure of running fitness, which is based on the amount of oxygen consumption and goes by the acronym VDOT.

The only thing required is the numerical time it took to finish an all-out race — say, a 5K. That time can be plugged into an online calculator or compared with charts that Daniels and Jimmy Gilbert, a mathematician, devised in the 1970s. Daniels published it in 1998 as “Daniels’ Running Formula.”

The formula predicts an individual’s time in races of various distances, such as a 10-kilometer, a half-marathon and a marathon. It also establishes optimum paces for training runs of varying levels of intensity.

Daniels proposed individualized workouts for a runner to obtain the best possible results with the least amount of effort. A runner should not run too far or too fast, he suggested, and should avoid so-called junk, or unnecessary, miles.

“Before Jack, nobody knew how fast or slow they should go in training,” Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon and a former executive editor of Runner’s World, said in an interview. It was Burfoot who gave Daniels the best-coach appellation in the 1990s.

Critics said Daniels’s formula did not account sufficiently for individual variation. But others disagreed; Mike Smith, the former head coach at Northern Arizona University, who now trains Olympic-caliber runners, described it as “shockingly accurate.”

The criticism hasn’t diminished the formula’s popularity. This year, the VDOT online calculator averaged more than a million computations a month from users in more than 100 countries, said Brian Rosetti, who helped create the calculator and a coaching app with Daniels.

Daniels in 1988 with members of the women’s cross-country team at the State University of New York at Cortland. From 1989 to 1997, he guided the team to seven national championships. Credit...SUNY/Cortlandt

A coach and scientist of boundless curiosity, Daniels was responsible for other innovations as well. In the early 1980s, he helped figure out which running shoes were the fastest by determining that adding 100 grams (about three and a half ounces) to the weight of a pair of racing shoes increased the aerobic demand of running by about 1 percent — the equivalent of an extra minute in completing the 26.2 miles of a marathon.

And when Joan Benoit Samuelson, the winner of the first women’s Olympic marathon at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, had arthroscopic knee surgery 17 days before the U.S. Olympic trials — a setback that could have kept her from qualifying — Daniels came up with a workaround. At a Nike lab in Eugene, Ore., he rigged a bicycle so she could sit beneath it and pedal with her hands and arms, keeping her heart rate and her confidence elevated until she got back on her feet to win the trials and an eventual gold medal.

During the track competition at the Olympics that year, Daniels and Nancy Scardina, a former elite runner whom he married in 1985, counted the strides of 50 Olympians in events from 800 meters to the marathon. They calculated that roughly 180 steps per minute — with each foot strike landing toward the runner’s center of gravity, creating a flowing or rolling motion over the body — was optimal, because it minimized the time the body spent in the air and reduced the shock of the landing force.

“He was one to think out of the box at all times,” Benoit Samuelson said in an interview. “He was really ahead of his time.”

Jack Tupper Daniels was born on April 26, 1933, in Detroit, one of five sons of Robert Daniels, who installed telephone switchboards on military bases, and Louise (Giblet) Daniels, who ran the household. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when Jack was six weeks old.

He attended the University of Montana, earning a bachelor’s degree in physical education and mathematics in 1955. In college, he was a standout member of the rifle and swim teams, experiences that served him well when he joined the Army following graduation and won a silver medal in the modern pentathlon team competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he won a bronze medal in the team event.

Daniels competing at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a bronze medal.Credit...AP Photo

The pentathlon, meant to recreate a soldier’s challenges on the battlefield, involves shooting, swimming, fencing, horseback riding and running. But as Daniels wrote in his memoir, “Luck of the Draw” (2019), he received no expert coaching in how to train for and run a race during his Olympic preparation. He came to realize that it was counterproductive to run as fast as possible all the time — that every workout must have a specific purpose, and that training needed to be balanced with rest.

He went on to earn a master’s degree in physical education and exercise physiology from the University of Oklahoma in 1965 and a Ph.D in exercise physiology from the University of Wisconsin in 1969.

Preparing for the 1968 Olympics in high-altitude Mexico City, Daniels conducted tests on the effects of running in thin air while training in elevated areas like Alamosa, Colo. He would sit on the hood of a car as it drove around a track accompanying runners and use meteorological balloons to collect samples of air that they breathed into tubes. Credit...Bettmann/Getty Images

Ahead of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, held at an altitude of 7,300 feet, he and his colleagues conducted tests on the effects of running in thin air. During training in high-altitude areas like Alamosa, Colo., Daniels would sit on the hood of a car as it drove slowly around a track alongside runners, like the star miler Jim Ryun, and would use meteorological balloons to collect samples of air that they breathed into tubes.

 Daniels held roughly a dozen coaching jobs over his career, but his greatest achievement as a coach came at the State University of New York at Cortland (now SUNY Cortland), where he guided the women’s cross-country team to seven N.C.A.A. Division III national championships and the women’s indoor track team to one national title between 1989 and 1997.

In the summer of 1988, he wrote in his memoir, he helped a relay team of Cortland runners set a national record by running roughly 3,000 miles across the country in 13 days and 18 hours.

The 10 men and five women were divided into three groups, each group racing in four-hour shifts, said one of the runners, Judy Sparks Arlington. Daniels, she explained, devised a strategy for runners to alternate every 400 meters. This enabled them to run faster on each leg of the race than if they had been running a mile or more.

“Absolutely, it was Jack’s brainchild how we did it,” Sparks Arlington said.

In 2000, the N.C.A.A. named Daniels the top Division III women’s cross-country coach of the 20th century.

In addition to his wife, a registered nurse, Daniels is survived by their daughters, Audra and Sarah Daniels.

In the last week of his life, Daniels wrote a children’s book to encourage families to walk and jog together.

“Jack’s goal was to get America fit, the world fit,” Nancy Daniels said. “He wanted every kid to love to exercise.”

Jeré Longman is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk who writes the occasional sports-related story.

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 21, 2025, Section A, Page 30 of the New York edition with the headline: Jack Daniels, 92, Olympian and ‘World’s Best Running Coach,’ Dies . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe