Doing good together!

With Federal Parliament resuming last week for the first time since the election, and the re-elected Government promising a “year of delivery”, you can expect lots of consultation, assessment and legislation flowing through over the coming months. A plethora of bills are on the table to be legislated. We remain curious as to how far Labor will test the boundaries to ensure that “no one gets left behind”. Planned changes include cost of living relief , the aged care and child care sectors, education, and much more. With a stated reform focus of productivity, economic resilience and budget sustainability, there’s a lot to tackle and implement.

Meanwhile, whilst everyone in the for-purpose sector was attending the Social Impact Summit in Sydney at the start of July, I attended the International Positive Psychology Association World Congress. Here’s just a few reasons why this evidence-based science matters to doing your greatest good:

• Positive emotions are nutrients for growth and it is only in this positive upward spiral that people become more externally focussed and therefore are more likely to volunteer, donate and support their community and the causes they care about (things that provide meaning and purpose)
• People who practice the pro-social behaviours, such as working in the for-purpose sector, volunteering or supporting causes they care about, above are less likely to be lonely, which is critical in our currently loneliness epidemic
• Australia is also experiencing a mental health crisis. Strengthening our mental health and wellbeing needs to be a proactive regular process to stay mentally fit and resilient, in the same way that physical exercise is used to stay physically fit and healthy (a lack of mental exercise causes our neurons and neural connections to deteriorate)
• The research suggests that people with a positive outlook have increased life satisfaction and live 6-8 years longer than those that who are not optimistic
• We can’t have flourish and thriving communities and society if we don’t have flourishing and thriving people

If you are keen to learn more, our two remaining individual Flourish and Thrive in 2025 events address creating a tool box of actions and behaviours to build your resilience in uncertain times, and understanding empathy, compassion and self-compassion to silence your inner critic to flourish and thrive. Learn more in the Events section below.

As always, please share your feedback, thoughts, comments and suggestions with us, to help us to help you do your greatest good.

Jenni Harding- Founder/Managing Director, Greatest Good