http://velvetoversteel.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-you-positive-or-negative-thinker.html
Every single day we have the opportunity to be a positive or negative influence to anyone we come across. From the neighbor on the bus, to a passerby walking on the street to the people we may actually oversee or collaborate with at work. Viewing our interactions from the perspective of how can we make a difference, forces us to reevaluate our impact during that interaction. In the classroom, many teachers make the mistake of not actually listening to their students. Our students are powerful motivators and provide immense feedback that can help teachers drastically improve their classroom process. I think it is highly important to take a seat in the student’s chair every now and again to get on their level and understand your classroom from their point of view. In turn, I always encourage projects where students get the opportunity to teach a lesson and impart what and how they learned a part of the content to their peers. It’s all about empowering. In empowering others we empower ourselves. I think that’s the point chapter 5 was essentially getting to and I think it is something we can all benefit from adapting in any aspect of our lives.
http://www.pimpmyspace.org/comments/code/158495/
“Lighten up, which may as well light up those around you!” Chapter six, hands down, gives the best possible advice that applies to anyone in any situation of life. Rule #6 is enough of a jolt to bring you down several notches and humanize yourself in a situation. Life itself can bring enough drama, stress and unexpected situations that getting worked up and crating additional chaos only makes things worse. The hardest lesson to learn in life is to take yourself less seriously and allow peace to guide you through the chaos. Adding to it does nothing for you or the situation. Live, love, laugh is such a gentle reminder on the simpler pleasures of life. My best friend of 20 years actually has a tattoo of that phrase!
From reading chapter 7, I think at this point in my life settling for the way things are is the starting point to making things better. I’ve spent so many years with a vice grip on controlling many aspects of my life and even those around me to garner results that are acceptable to making things easier for me, that it in fact, makes things even harder. When you lower expectations, you actually make a decision to settle for less than what you deserve. When you settle for the way things are, I think you are more so allowing yourself to be present in a circumstance and embrace the options and possibilities of what’s to come.
Chapter 8 tells us to give in to passion. Tapping into passion can truly change the course of a day for someone. Hitting that point where you are excited and energized by your own thought or creation, or just inspired by someone else’s turns the period into something more electric. It gives meaning to what you’re doing and makes it all matter more than before. There are days when I lack passion, when I’m just going through the motions of the routine. I hate those days. But there are others, when I feel what it means to be alive. It can be sparked by small things, which I’ve come to accept as my passion. When I see one of my kids enforce their independence by doing something as small as taking initiative in what they will wear or how they will approach a homework assignment. That small moment where they show me they are growing up hurts just a little, but energizes me to feel like I helped them get there. The moment when with just a sharing of a story or giving an encouraging word, someone says to me that I’ve inspired them send me to the moon. It seems that my passion is in motivating, inspiring, and uplifting. I feel like I’m serving my purpose, I feel the most present.
wonderful overview of the chapters and your insights into the writing.
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