Positive Thinking
Source/Author: Mike Murphy, Headmaster
October 26, 2018
I like talks, articles, movies and videos that focus on positive thinking. It is better for the spirit to be positive. It is healthier to be focused on the positive. Children and adults at school respond better when we are in a positive setting. Positive feedback inspires creativity.
Researchers like Alison Ledgerwood, whose TED Talk has had more that 2 million views, affirms how hard it is to get people to move from the negative to the positive, and how easy it is to move a positive point a view to a negative one. She makes a point that most of us need to consciously engage in actions that call us to focus on the positive or we will slip into the death spiral of negative thinking.
What do we do as educators, students and family members to focus on the positive? Do we ask everyone to report on three good things that happened every day? Do we make a list in the morning of at least one or two things we are going to do to make someone’s day better? Will we greet a stranger, smile at a classmate, engage a co-worker in a positive conversation? Will we give positive and constructive feedback? And even when we have to correct a behavior, do we leave the person with hope and dignity?
Teacher Conference Days are approaching. Upper School and Middle School students will engage in reflection and planning before family members come to see teachers. Experiential School and Lower School teachers will prepare presentations. Everyone will be crafting the beginnings of plans to encourage improvement and positive opportunities.
Unless something has changed, I believe best practice in learning theory informs us that we benefit most when we are trying to enhance two strengths and only one area that needs improvement during any period of time. The temptation to fix everything at once has proven to be a formula for frustration and even failure.
This same lesson is highlighted in Morten Hansen’s book, “Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More.” Hansen, who worked alongside researcher and author Jim Collins of “Good to Great” fame, has identified 7 factors that lead to great work. The opening chapter addresses the element his research identifies as the single greatest contributor to great work. People who do less, as defined by Hansen, but obsess on those areas in which they are working are the most productive and successful workers. Those who try to do it all eventually find that they cannot.
As we prepare to support our children and students in the work they are doing, our ability to help them develop new levels of achievement and mastery over the work most meaningful to them will lead to positive thinking and achievement. How will we support positive thinking for our students and their teachers?
Cheers!
Mike
