The boys on the playground called him fat and ugly, and they told him they hated his haircut.
That’s from a student of mine who’s been teased lately. He said to me, “I don’t care though,” as he shrugged his shoulders, and then added, “it don’t bother me.”
I decided not to say, “Didn’t. Didn’t bother me.” Seemed like the wrong time.
Those words will most likely be a broken record in his head if he lets them. But I replied, “Good for you. Don’t let it bother you because it isn’t true…and I like your hair.”
Whether your beliefs came through your family or from those bullies on the playground doesn’t matter. They are with you.
Dealing with the outside world is challenging. It’s easy to forget how it shapes our inside world way more than we think it does. The outside world of long ago, and the present outside world is downright harsh sometimes.
The negative events, words said to us, our culture, all sink deep into us, and we’re shaped by them like a piece of clay.
One day my 4th graders had a spontaneous conversation with each other about their parents’ divorces. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, their little worlds aren’t the same after this type of trauma. I could tell as I listened.
It made me wonder if they would continue the pattern when they grew up?
More than likely, most of them will.
Now, if you want to talk about pandemics. This is definitely one.
If these little soon-to-be-adults don’t understand, they will take these events, worries, and fears, and create poor mindsets and poor self-images which will always dictate what they do, how they internalize, where they go, and who they choose to be associated with, friends or partners.
Children with poor mindsets become parents with poor mindsets and the carousel goes around and around.
How we think about ourselves can be like an elusive, tricky virus.
Some of the little people I teach will be taken down by this enemy in the long run because their environment will not give them a snowball’s chance in hell to make it and they will settle into a marginal life, just trying to survive from day to day.
This virus mindset will cause us to make poor decisions, and cause us to bury our real talents and abilities. It also can make us live a whole different life than what we really wanted.
The more we adults improve our own personal mindsets and self-images the better. Why? Because then we have the power to influence the little people around us, whoever they are. And while we’re at it, influence other adults, too.
As you study more about what is a healthy self-image, the more confident you become. Knowledge is power. Analyze the stuff deep inside and change what needs to be changed. Most likely, you already know what that is.
Know you are very capable and intelligent enough to do it, one step at a time. Change the undesirable patterns and decide what you really want.
For most of us, this takes awareness. Once you’re aware of a belief that keeps you bound, meditate on the opposite. There are plenty of books out there and videos to watch on personal development that can literally change a person’s life.
There is a young lady on my copywriting Facebook group that’s pretty spunky and I recently read a daring post she wrote. She was seeking high-end clients. She’s a newbie. Like me. She said she wants to start out with high-end clients.
At first, I laughed at her comment.
She is either arrogant or highly misled because you can’t start at the top, at least that’s been my experience.
But dealing with my own mindset, I had to take a step back and think about it. Maybe she is really good and she doesn’t need the years of proving to herself she is worth high-end clients-like I do.
The more we adults recognize what we say about ourselves, how we feel about who we are, and how to make a real change will help make permanent improvements. I believe it can be like the butterfly effect- where a small change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.
And that small change can simply be repeating constructive words over us.
Repeating to ourselves how we are God’s highest creation, as Bob Proctor says, and we have the ability to create anything we desire is worth making into a ‘record’ to repeat over and over until it is a part of our subconscious.
Repetition is a good thing. It’s a must if you want to see real change manifest.
Life is dull to dull-minded people.
Life is interesting to interesting-minded people.
Life is successful to successful-minded people.
For me, I want to continue to have positive growth, spiritually and emotionally, and since we only have one life, make it the best we can.