Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Fri, 8 May 2009 19:07:27 -0400

Having self-esteem issues sucks. It’s that simple. I struggled with self-esteem issues for most of my childhood. Every time I felt good about myself a little voice in my head would say, “yeah sure, right buddy. What reason do you have to be so full of yourself. It’s just a front.”

I listened to that voice for a very long time. It put me down every chance it got. Then I learned that I could retrain that little voice to say positive things. That’s when it all changed.

It didn’t want to change willingly and every once in a while some of those old comments come up again but the work was definitely worth it.

The first suggestion I have for you is stop wishing that you’d like it to change and just change it. Wishing for something means that it is always in your future and not in your present. Think about how you would act and the things that you would do if you felt great about yourself and just do them. This helps bring those feelings to the present through something called Neuro Associative Conditioning (I won’t get into all of the technical bits – just trust me it works really well). An easy way for me to show this to you is sit up in your chair in the exact position you would if you were the happiest person on the planet. By assuming that posture your mood should have shifted toward the positive (unless you were already the happiest person on the planet). The opposite is also true – sit like you are really unhappy and see how your mood shifts.

The next way to shift your thinking towards the positive is think about how you’d like to feel, then close your eyes and imagine you are feeling that way right now. When you open your eyes you should feel pretty good. Keep those feelings in mind as often as possible and keep them in the present – don’t put them back in the future.

A third tool to change your self-esteem is every time your little voice says something negative about you or anyone else say these words: “Thank you for sharing. When you have something positive to say then I’ll listen”. This phrase has made an ENORMOUS impact in my life. It has given me control over how I feel about myself. It is a clear and decisive statement that says you acknowledge that this voice has something to say but you are not going to agree with it because it is not constructive.

The last suggestion I have for you is to buy our self-esteem book. This isn’t meant to be a shameless plug. The tips, tools and information that we have put together makes for great quick resources to not only help you build your child’s self-esteem but yours as well.

Now I have to be perfectly honest with all of you. I still struggle with self-esteem issues once in a while. These tools that I gave you in this blog help greatly but consistently positive self-esteem is a work in progress. Everyone has bad days. The trick is to not let the bad days turn into weeks or longer. If you or your child has a bad day remember, one day doesn’t have to be based on the one before it. It’s your choice and there is a whole brand new day to start over with tomorrow.

If you’d like to share what happened feel free to use our chat section or mail me directly at: blogguy@leadteachandinspire.com

Until next month!

Stuart

The Pursuit of Happiness

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:51:16 -0500

Welcome educators to the launch of our new website!  This website is strictly geared to being a resource for those who educate others. There is one major thing that sets this  website apart for all other resource based websites for educators.
Our site is not about getting ideas to help you plan lessons and units. This website is about giving you a place to come to get resources to help YOU. The reason for this approach is because the education of others is one of the most critical roles in society; and it’s also one of the most undervalued. leadteachandinspire.com is a place of support for you as a person.
Our reasoning is that if you are a happy well grounded and satisfied person then you will naturally do the best job you can.
A happy you leads to happier kids.
It is a pretty powerful statement to many and is the cornerstone of the mission of this website. Regardless whether you agree with that statement or not wouldn’t you like to be more energized and passionate about life and your chosen profession? Who wouldn’t!
I’m not saying that we have some magical motivational pill that will make everything in your life super amazing (if there was I’d be all over it like my grandpa is for Metamucil). There are many days that I wonder what happened to my passion and energy. Everything around me just seems like crap! The difference now is I don’t wallow in it. I acknowledge that this is the way I’m feeling, see if I can figure out why and then move on from that head space (it’s really that easy – more info about this in upcoming articles and blogs). No one’s life is perfect but if we can help you get more and more of those great times when everything is great and amazing then everyone who you come into contact with will be better off – a ripple effect.
So I have an assignment for you.
Each week do something unexpected (and nice of course) for a colleague. Do this with absolutely no expectations of the other person. Don’t justify it to them by giving them a reason for you doing it. If they say “thank you” just say “you’re welcome”. If they ask why then say “you just felt like it”. What did that do for the other person? What did it do for you?
Bonus points to those who do this for someone they don’t get along with!
If you’d like to share what happened feel free to use our chat section or mail me directly at: blogguy@leadteachandinspire.com
Until next month!
Stuart

My Blog

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

The Pursuit of Happiness