Who are you becoming?

In 8 Things That Influence Who You're Becoming from @DavidGeurin Blog, he shares,

“The things we think about influence our effectiveness in every area of life. If you want to be a more effective educator, friend, spouse, or neighbor, think about how you are being intentional with these things.”

I think this is so true and people don’t realize it when it is happening.

I try to be around positive people rather than negative people. I want to be one of the positive people that others want to be around. My mother used to always say, “birds of a feather, flock together.” I know she meant that if I hung around kids always in trouble, people would see me as one of the troublemakers. But I think that saying even applies to the opposite of that. By being around positive people, their positiveness would rub off on me. I think positive people are happier in life and that is what I want to be.

I don’t like to watch a lot of movies with blood, gore, and terror. I think that makes me scared about life and worried about the dangers that could be lurking around every corner. I’m not saying that there isn’t danger in the world but this could make me overreact to everyday things that are not dangerous. I avoid these kinds of movies. I like romances, comedy, and the action movies where the good guys always win.

I try to spend my time being productive. Every day, I try to do one thing around the house that improves the way we live. This can be cleaning chores or doing laundry or weeding flower beds. Sometimes I do more than one thing but if I do at least one thing, I’m happy with how I have acted.

I have a hard time saying positive things to myself. Growing up, I don’t feel I had a very good self-concept and even as an adult, I tend to doubt myself and second guess my decisions. It really hurts my feelings when others say bad things about me and part of me starts believing it. When this happens, I have to make a conscious effort to remind myself that those things are not true and they don’t define who I am.

These kinds of things are what my students need to learn. How many of my students are negative because they hang around negative people? Are they depressed or scared because of the things they watch or the games they play? Are they being productive? What words are they hearing or saying to themselves? These discussions need to be held in the classroom. The more students talk about these topics, the easier it may be for them to face the obstacles in their lives and be more successful.

How do you help your students deal with these topics? Please share.

Photo by Quentin Dr on Unsplash