Tell Me A Story

In The repetition of stories from Seth Godin's Blog , Seth Godin shares,

“And the same approach works for a feeling of optimism and possibility. Repeating stories (to ourselves and others) about good fortune and generosity makes those stories more powerful.”

I’ve said this opinion many times but I think it bears repeating. We focus too much on negativism in society and not enough time sharing the positive stories. Negative stories seem to promote depression, intolerance, and sometimes even violence. The media tends to promote this especially because negativism sells.

I’m not saying that we should paint the world as a nice pretty place all the time, but we should be realistic. There is probably a positive story for every negative story told.

I think so many of my students struggle because they have told themselves a negative story to themselves so many times that they start believing it. It starts with peers ridiculing them when they struggle. Maybe an adult has suggested that they were lazy or not putting enough effort in to explain why the student is struggling. Parents might complain and reinforce the teacher’s opinion.  When this story is constantly repeated to the student, they start believing it when they may actually have a legitimate reason for their struggle.

I feel it is my job to give my students a new story. I want them to hear a story about success and happiness. I want them to see that it is possible for them to overcome the obstacles in their life and that they are not lazy or incompetent. I want them to see that there are many different ways to conquer the “monsters” that seem to keep them from reaching their goals and that I am here to help them. I will walk beside them in their struggles and be there to support them when they need it.

At first, they are reluctant to believe this story because they have been tricked too many times by the hope for success. I have to show them that I mean what I say and I convince them to take the risk in trusting me. Little by little, I show them that they can be successful and with each positive step, they are rewriting the stories in their minds. I remind them of their success stories when they get discouraged. Eventually, they will have more recent success stories than past failure stories and can progress more easily.

This may be a slow process but I think it is possible to rewrite the stories we tell ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to write a story of success for ourselves and to make it happen. We owe it to our students to help them make their stories happen and learn how to make new stories for themselves.

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

.

.