Wow, the school year is basically just one month away. Seems like summer went so fast, but there is still a lot of time to prepare for another great year. I have been doing a lot of reading over the summer and the first book I started with was called "The Energy Bus" by Jon Gordon. He speaks to schools, businesses, teams, etc. all over the world teaching all of them how to have a positive attitude, atmosphere, and outlook on their team and in their lives. This book was very powerful and I plan to use pieces of it and some material from it with the 8th grade Life Skills class this year. I now subscribe to his weekly newsletter and have received some great information from these, as well as very simple tips. I wanted to share one with you today that if practiced now, could lead to great successes in your child's life this school year and possibly all the way through life.
Jon starts his newsletter (see link below) by noting he finishes each day by putting his kids to bed and asking them a simple question: "What was your success today?". See, by finishing their day with noting a success, they finish their day on a positive and with something they did well. They go to bed with that on their mind and they wake up with success on their mind. This can build, and build, and build and become a snowball effect of future successes. Good and bad things happen each day, but the amazing part is that we can choose to have the last part of our day before we close our eyes to be a success. I started something similar to this in my senior year of high school when I was confused and scared of the next step. I learned a trick from a weekend workshop of sorts to end my day by thinking of two positives during the day and the same two positives when I awoke the next morning. Then that night, think of two new positives from the current day. They could be as simple as a pretty sunrise or nice weather to something great that happened at school or in my personal life. I did this over and over and was amazed at how much good happened in my life and the negative that I was thinking of before was actually just a small part of my life that I dwelled on way too much. I think this strategy has lead me to be the positive person I am today, some co-workers tell me I am TOO POSITIVE! I don't think that is possible.
Anyway, give this strategy a try with your kids or even yourself! End the day by thinking about a success you had and repeat this every day. I am interested to see if you or your children see any changes over the next month or even over the school year. I am also interested to see if you have any "success tips" that you do at your house. Leave a comment below and share your tips with all of our Carlisle blog readers!
link to Jon Gordon's newsletter: http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-071309-celebratesuccess.html
Did you know...the Iowa Youth survey we did statewide last year shows that students in 6th, 8th, and 11th grade note that schools let parents know when they did something wrong 90-96% of the time, but only let parents know good things or successes they have had 57-86% of the time?? Hmm....hopefully we can change that this year.
