Some people say “all you need to know, you learned in Kindergarten”. Well, my students are learning all they need to know in 6th grade, and telling me they’ve never felt better. How many middle schoolers do you know who can say that?
As I wrap up a Take Charge of Your Life class with thirteen deeply engaged 6th-grade girls, I thought I’d share the lessons they have learned in case you adults out there want to feel as proud as they do.
- To get where you want to in life you must set a GPS headed in the right direction. Would you ever road trip to California and not set your GPS? Or would you ever set it to Florida and wonder why you didn’t get to Cali? Never. So get clear about your dreams, which are the GPS directions for your life.
- Our thoughts are not all true. We get to choose our thoughts rather than blindly following every frightened, bratty, powerless thing that enters our head. I told the girls to steal the mic and talk back to the negative thoughts that are not true but are certainly bringing them down. They can’t put the mic down now, they feel so empowered.
- Doing what you say you are going to do is the secret to self-pride and happiness. We are much better at keeping promises to other people than to ourselves, but if we start showing up for ourselves and our own dreams, we feel prouder and happier. Accountability matters and these girls learned how to stay accountable to themselves.
- We prove what we believe so let’s believe things that serve us. It is easy to ditch limiting beliefs that keep us small by collecting evidence for a better belief. Check out the evidence these girls have collected below!
- We can evolve our personalities to be prouder of how we show up in the world. Scrap those diagnostic personality tests that say our personalities are set in stone. Want the secret of how to do this? Take one of our classes!
- We get farther in this world with a friend. Being our best selves isn’t always easy work, but accountability buddies keep us on the right track. So always find that friend who will help you fight for your dreams. Grab him or her today and start this work together!
When these 6th grade girls had a scheduling conflict, they chose this class over their lacrosse practice because they didn’t want to miss this work. And they have all asked to continue these classes after this series is over. They want more, why? Because when you learn these lessons, you feel better about yourself. Mic drop, girls.
