The power of positive thinking and attitude​

 

In the past several articles, we talked about many aspects in which we can help our kids including stress and wealth management, academic survival skills and the importance of finding their elements. Children, in general,can have successful futures, depending upon how well they can manage their stress, deal with frustration, their ability to reduce anxiety (stress management)and how well they respond to failure. 

Today, the most important abilities needed are those that cannot be verified through school tests. These abilities are those that the school or the family may have tried but failed to teach. 

• Most schools may simply tell you not to worry but very few will teach you how manage your stress.

• Most schools can teach you knowledge but very few can teach wisdom. 

• Most schools will tell you to study hard in order to succeed but very few will talk about the meaning of life. 

• Most school may teach communication skills but very few can teach self-confidence, knowing yourself and interpersonal skills.

• Most schools may teach you the difference between right and wrong but few will nourish noble characters.

• Most schools may motivate your interest in a certain subject due to quality teachers but very few can teach enthusiasm, passion and focus. 

 

From the statistics, having a higher education is generally rewarded with a higher salary but having more knowledge does not guarantee success. What matters most after graduating from school is one’s ability to continue learning. How well children study in school has no correlation with how successful they may bein the future. Furthermore, if we factor in a child's family happiness, numbers of friends and how often he/she participates in extracurricular activities as part of what we consider being successful there is almost never any connection with their academic achievement in school. 

Below I have shown different useful evaluations to diagnose the level at which a student may be at, at different stages of one’s life:

• Math fear index to evaluate how scared a student is of math and to find the reason why he/she is failing.

• Stress diagnosis table to evaluate the degree of stress. If a person calculates the result of a questionnaire and gets more than 200 points, he/she may have a serious mental health problem and needs to see a doctor. 

• Worrisome assessment table to know the degree of one's level of worry to prevent depression. 

• Marriage preparation table for a young couple before they go into marriage to assess their level of readiness in aspects like wealth management, insurance, vacation plan, housing plan, child plan, etc.

 

Many related workshops are actually offered in universities for example to assess one’s degree of mental health, to teach panic management, obsessive-compulsivedisorder (OCD) management, etc.  (http://www.concordia.ca/students/counselling-life-skills/workshops.html)

In our summer camp, besides our academic program, we also introduce various tests including the IQ test, EQ test, aptitude test (http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=3108) and brain test (http://www.lumosity.com/) to help students to learn and know more about themselves. 

In most cases, attitude is far more important than aptitude. There is a book called “Your attitude will determine your altitude” and many articles talk about how one can get more of a better attitude. (http://sklein.hubpages.com/hub/Attitude-is-Everything-For-You)So I would like to talk about how the power of positive thinking can help your kids.  Everyone knows that thoughts lead to convictions, which lead to behaviors. These behaviors lead to personalities, which lead to fate. Positive thinking therefore brings one to a better destiny, no matter the circumstance.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A girl once accidentally lost her lovely pen that she was saddened such that she was sick and in bed for two whole weeks. A pastor came to visit her and he said, “If you lost $1000 by accident, would you lose another $2000 on purpose?” The girl replied, “Of course not!” The pastor then questioned her, “How come after you lost a pen by accident, you lose two weeks of happiness and health on purpose?”The girl was immediately inspired and jumped out of the bed.  She said, “I will stop the loss right away and I will try to make money to buy myself another pen!”

 

Positive attitude can be trained. Every parent can do the following to help your kids. For example, if something negative happens in one’s life, such as a thief stealing your bike, how could he/she respond with positive thinking? 

-      How lucky am I that I only lost a few worldly possessions but not my life!

-      I hope that this person was urgently in need of this bike. 

-      Next time, I will be more careful and change a better lock or alarm system. 

-      Perhaps, it is the time to get a new and better bicycle. 

-      Is it possible that I made someone jealous? Maybe I should stay more low key when in public. 

 

At the end of the day, there are some things that we can change and others that remain out of our control. As long as we all try our best, remain optimistic at all times and have a consistently great learning attitude, the sky is the limit. 

 

Why is it that sometimes you feel down, sad or somewhat depressed? Try finding the source and eliminating it.