How Full is Your Bucket

How Full is Your Bucket explains how daily bucket filling can be used to enhance life at work and at home while providing research that demonstrates its value.

The Theory of Dipping vs. Filling the Bucket

Clifton’s theory says that each of us has an invisible dipper that we can either use to fill other people’s buckets with positive emotions by saying or doing things that increase their positive emotions or dipping from others’ buckets by saying or doing things that decrease their positive emotions. 

The theory also explains that when we fill others’ buckets, we also fill our own, and likewise, when we dip from others’ buckets, we diminish ourselves.

A full bucket gives us a positive outlook and an empty bucket poisons our outlook. We make the choice every moment of every day whether we fill each other’s’ buckets, or dip from them. These choices profoundly affect our relationships, productivity, health and happiness according to the authors. 

Reflection

How full is my bucket today?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10

How many buckets were you responsible for filling this week?
1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16, or more

Additional ideas

• Send this out electronically prior to a meeting, ask team members to share positive stories during your team meetings
• If someone’s bucket is low ask team members to focus sharing positive notes, quotes, pictures, words of encouragement to team members
• Create a How Full is Your Bucket? book club for your team and set up multiple opportunities to discuss elements of the book.  They also have a children’s book. 
• As a team discuss and sort bucket filler behaviors from bucket dipper behaviors
• Ask team how they fill their own buckets
  • Ex: saying my morning mantra: You got this! 
  • complimenting a friend, 
  • paying for a stranger’s coffee,
  • writing in a gratitude journal, etc.