Keeping the positive Fridays theme I’ve had going, I’ll go to first Eric Thomas then, Allen Zimmerman.

I’ve posted Eric Thomas videos here because the man in just a best when it comes to his story and how he inspires people. This video, titled “Secrets to Success” is also titled “Best Motivational Speech Ever”. He talks about not just being smart, but having heart, about how you have to sacrifice what you are for what you’ll become, and that pain is temporary, but it will subside.

The title of this blog is a quote from the video

When you succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.

#damnyall

That’s a powerful statement, one that gave me chills the first time that I heard it from Eric. As I watched the video where the quote was taken, it gave me chills again. Imagine that, the desire to be successful is as powerful as that desire to breathe, how much better would this place be? When I show this, I want my students to think about their own lives and how they spent their time. Is it doing something that will help them this school year? In high school? With their family and friends? Heck, I’m going to show my youngest daughter this year, because he makes the point of calling out students and their cell phones (a whole different post!!).

As for Dr. Zimmerman, he wrote this week about how to “Increase Your Hope, Decrease Your Problems”. He gives us three steps to go about getting to the positive mindset. Those steps are 1) Get plugged into hope. 2) Check out your positives self-talk. 3) Make molehills out of mountains. For me, it’s about self-talk. I tend to talk myself down, to talk down the positives I have and the positives I do, both at home and school. I love the molehills step! That’s one, as I share this with students, that I want them to think about in terms of the drama around them. Does that snap chat you just looked at deserve a response? Do you have to lash out at the people who care about you because you saw someone doing something fun on Instagram, and they didn’t invite you?

All in all, these positives, increasing our hope and ways to be successful are great ways that I see I can motivate my students at the beginning of the year! I tend to become “Pastor Johnston” because I get preachy when it comes to the power of our own attitude, but it’s all about the positives and what we do with them!

So, what do you do to bring some positive energy into your classroom? Please leave a comment below!

And happy Friday!