Showing posts with label Discipline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discipline. Show all posts

Monday 24 July 2023

Building Your Child’s Self-Esteem


As parents, we’re always looking for ways to make our kids happier, healthier, and more successful. Yet, few of us know exactly how to do that.

 

Beyond showering them with compliments and positive affirmations all day long, we’re pretty lost.

 

According to experts, what we should be doing instead is teaching them how to be more resilient, feel confident about themselves, and build up their self-esteem.

 

Because we know how much you want the best for your kids, we rounded up five of the most effective ways to build your child’s self-esteem.

 

Let’s get started.

 

Give Your Child Responsibilities

 

Studies show that children who take on age-appropriate responsibilities from an early age grow into highly successful adults.

 

Another thing you can do is give them choices. When children feel like they have options, it makes them feel validated, like their opinion matters.

 

For young children, you can give them a few simple chores around the house. Then, give them the chance to choose between pancakes or waffles.

 

As they grow, their range of responsibilities and choices should grow with them. This will help prepare them for the more challenging choices they’ll face later on in life.

 

So, they may whine and complain at first. But they’ll definitely thank you later.

 

Create Opportunities for Growth

 

We all want our kids to be successful at everything they try out. One way to do that is to pay attention to what your child enjoys doing. Then, help them set achievable goals in their scope of interest.

 

This opens up opportunities for your kids to try new activities and get that bubbly sense of pride when they learn something new. They may even make new friends and engage in social interactions outside of their class environment.

 

Remember that no matter what activities your child seeks out, they need to feel like they’re accepted by their parents. This means that if you want them to be a star athlete and they love painting instead, you still have to show your support and avoid focusing on weaknesses or shortcomings.

 

Get Your Child to See the Bright Side of Failures

 

You probably feel your heart burst with joy whenever your child accomplishes something or masters a new skill. Yet, you have to face the fact that they’re bound to mess up and make mistakes.

 

Your child has to get the message that you’re not seeking perfection. But you put more value on effort and progress, even if it means failing because while failing is never pleasant, it’s still a crucial part of growing up.

 

Plus, if managed properly, failure can be an opportunity to learn something new and stay humble. It also helps them maintain the courage needed to try again, which is always difficult to do even as adults.

 

However, our role as parents is to show our children that we love and accept them no matter what. It also teaches them to have a good attitude even during difficult times, and that it’s important to stay persistent and persevere.

 

Praise from Your Heart

 

You may be praising your child 24/7, but is it really heartfelt? Kids are intuitive when it comes to this sort of thing. They’ll know right away if you mean it or if you’re just going through the motions.

 

So, the next time you praise your child, make sure it’s heartfelt. For example, try saying something specific.

 

Look them in the eye and describe exactly why you feel this way or what particular part of their drawing caught your attention.

 

It may be a very small part of your day that you probably won’t remember a couple of hours later but to your child, it’s an affirmation that they’re loved unconditionally.

 

Avoid Sarcasm

 

It’s easy to let the stress of our jobs and responsibilities get the best of us. Then, we get frustrated and say things we don’t mean.

 

Though, we have to rein in our frustrations and remember that kids take everything to heart. So, even if you’re saying something sarcastic as a joke, all they’re going to pick up on is your tone and your choice of language.

 

Always keep in mind that your child is always seeking your approval, even if they pretend not to care. They want you to notice them and be proud of them.

 

At the same time, we can be too critical of our kids: they’re lazy, they misbehave, and they talk back. But saying these harsh, sarcastic things to your kid won’t motivate them and will only make things worse. So, the next time you get frustrated with your child, take a few minutes to cool off before blurting out something hurtful.

 

Not only will you end up regretting it, but over time, your kid will start to develop a negative view of themselves. This has a direct impact on their emotional and psychological health, which undermines their self-esteem.



Monday 17 July 2023

The Impact That Feeling Fulfilled Has On Your Life


Many people confuse fulfillment with happiness. While the two share many common traits, they’re quite different.

 

The biggest difference is that you can be happy because of something that happened at the moment. But, overall, you still feel like you’re leading a life without meaning or purpose, and, hence, no fulfillment.

 

Today, we’re exploring the impact that feeling fulfilled has on your life. Yet, before we can do that, we have to understand what it is and where it comes from.

 

So, let’s dive in.

 

What Is Fulfillment?

 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, fulfillment is when you feel like you’re ‘getting everything you want from life.’

 

It’s also sometimes described as having a purpose and a sense of satisfaction with how your life is turning out.

 

This means that fulfillment comes from within. It’s not proportional to how much money you have in the bank or how big your house is.

 

In other words, you can still lead a fulfilling life even though you’re living paycheck to paycheck. How? By doing things that give your life purpose and a sense of achievement.

 

On the flip side, you can be one of the richest people in the country, but still not be content with your life. You may not even feel happy with everything you’ve amassed.

 

Here’s an example that will clarify fulfillment more. Think of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you think he had an easy life? No.

 

But do you think his life was fulfilling? Definitely!

 

Despite all of his struggles, Dr. King found ways to fill his life with a sense of purpose and accomplishment, which made him feel satisfied with all the efforts he’d put in.

 

Where Does Fulfillment Come From?

 

At the basic level of human needs comes health and being provided with the chance to work and pursue your goals. You don’t have to be happy and giddy with laughter all the time. You just need to work toward a certain purpose and get a sense of satisfaction in the meantime.

 

So, because fulfillment is an internal process, you have to be willing to do the heavy lifting to achieve that sense of contentment.

 

In order to do that, you have to do certain things that get you closer each day to having more and more fulfillment in your life.

 

Here are just a few formulas that can help bring more fulfillment to your life:

 

  • Count your blessings instead of your problems
  • Do more of the things you’re fond of
  • Establish healthy habits that bring you joy
  • Give back to society by volunteering
  • Surround yourself with family and friends
  • Embrace a more positive mindset
  • Be always ready to learn

 

How Does Fulfillment Impact Our Lives?

 

Now that you know how to find fulfillment, let’s talk about the impact it can have on your life.

 

Give Your Life Greater Meaning

 

Our most difficult moments are when we feel like we don’t matter.

 

When you find fulfillment, all that fades away. You understand the value and meaning of your life and that what you’re doing makes a big difference in other people’s lives, even on a small scale.

 

Remember, fulfillment doesn’t come from what you own or get, it comes from what you give.

 

Focus on What’s Truly Important

 

When you have a sense of purpose, you gain a higher level of clarity. You know what you want, and you have a plan for how you’re going to get there.

 

Focusing on what’s important to you will also help you make better decisions. Thus, you’re able to move towards what you want with more deliberation and persistence.

 

Boost Your Self-Confidence

 

We often let society dictate how we should look, talk, and feel. Yet, when you let other people’s opinions dominate your life, this causes a major dive in confidence and self-esteem.

 

Luckily, once you begin feeling fulfilled, you’ll come to love and accept yourself. You’ll also begin to be more confident, which will help you stay resolute and determined when working to achieve your ambitions.

 

Experience More Joy

 

More fulfillment brings more joy and overall satisfaction. And when you’re contented, you send out positive energy into the universe, which comes back to you tenfold.

 

This allows you to focus on doing more of the things that bring you joy. Plus, somewhere along the line, you stop worrying about what other people think or comparing yourself to others, which is one of the most effective ways to reach fulfillment.

 

Challenge Yourself

 

Because life is about growth and progress, it pays to challenge yourself. Then, you can improve and develop your skill set, expand your wealth of knowledge, and reach new goals.

 

It’s important to keep in mind that fulfillment is independent of external circumstances. It’s a simple balance in everything you do to eliminate disorder from your life and forge a path of gratitude and harmony.



Mental Toughness - The Ability to Self-Monitor


Self-monitoring is a valuable personality trait that helps people inform their behaviors and actions appropriately in any given environment. While this trait can help people “fit in” to the current surroundings more naturally, it can also be an excellent way to fortify your mental toughness. 

 

What Is Mental Toughness?

 

According to Mental Toughness Inc., “Mental toughness is the ability to resist, manage and overcome doubts, worries, concerns and circumstances that prevent you from succeeding, or excelling at a task or towards an objective or a performance outcome that you set out to achieve."

 

Self-monitoring and then acting in a way that may go against your natural instincts is challenging and requires notable mental toughness to achieve.

 

What is self-monitoring?

 

According to the psychology experts at VeryWellMind, “self-monitoring is a personality trait that involves the ability to monitor and regulate self-presentations, emotions, and behaviors in response to social environments and situations.” 

 

When you are self-monitoring, you are paying close attention to how you are behaving and responding to what is happening around you in a socially appropriate way.

 

Sometimes, self-monitoring can feel easy and natural. For example, when you are in a quiet, fine dining restaurant, you likely feel the urge to keep your voice calm and low. On the contrary, if you’re in an amusement park with friends, you probably feel the urge to laugh and talk loudly. In each of these very different scenarios, you are gathering environmental information to inform your actions – and then using that information to make personal decisions about how you’re going to speak, act, and behave.

 

In other situations, self-monitoring can be difficult. If you are having an argument with a friend, you may feel tempted to immediately release your frustrations by yelling at them. However, your self-monitoring skills may remind you that yelling isn’t going to solve the problem – in this case, it is better to take some deep breaths, remain calm, and keep your voice steady.

 

When you exercise self-monitoring in this way, it is a true sign of mental toughness. Going against your natural instincts can be challenging! 

 

If you struggle with self-monitoring, what are some strategies you can use to get better at using it?

 

If self-monitoring doesn’t come easy for you, it is possible to improve these skills. Consider employing the following strategies to get started:

 

1. Practice using your observational skills. 

 

Spend more time listening and observing during interactions and conversations with others rather than trying to respond. You can learn a lot about your surroundings and the people around you this way. With this valuable information, you can begin self-monitoring your own behaviors and choices to match what is happening around you more closely.

 

2. Engage in stepping away from situations so you can process what is happening before reacting.

 

In many situations, particularly shocking or surprising ones, you may feel an immediate urge to react in a certain way. However, you can engage in some self-monitoring practice by choosing to step away from the situation momentarily. This gives you a few private moments to calm down, assess the situation, and then decide a plan of action.

 

3. Pay close attention to yourself, especially in different social situations. 

 

Whenever you find yourself in varying social situations, such as out with friends, in a meeting at work, hanging out at the community park, and anywhere else you find yourself on a regular basis, pay close attention to how you act when you’re there.

 

Taking note of specific patterns in your own behavior can help you improve your own self-monitoring. For example, you may notice that people seem surprised by the volume of your voice when you actually pay close attention – this can help you determine a course of action to modify this behavior in future situations.



Monday 10 July 2023

8 Power-Ups for Reclaiming Confidence


There is nothing more crippling than losing your confidence.

 

Without confidence, everything gets harder. You struggle to concentrate. Tasks feel overwhelming. If you stay there, you’ll even find a more long-term emotional impact, where you might fall into depression or become bogged down in indecision. Without confidence, you lose all forward progress.

 

This is why it’s so important to reclaim your confidence after suffering a blow. For a fast boost, try these eight power-ups.

 

Do What Makes You Uncomfortable

 

When you take risks, you stretch yourself in surprising new ways. This is a powerful feeling. Why? It takes confidence to step outside your comfort zone. Trying something new forces you to act with confidence, whether you started out feeling it or not.

 

Find Your Purpose

 

Knowing what you’re destined to do is a fantastic feeling and fills a person with confidence. If you’re unsure why you’ve set a particular goal, or are questioning what you’re doing, you’re not likely to feel confident at all. Solidifying the goal in your mind is a rapid boost to confidence then. 

 

Keep Trying

 

It’s normal to experience failure from time to time. This kind of disaster can easily destroy confidence. You regain this confidence when you get up and try again. 

 

Learn Things

 

Knowledge truly is power. When you really understand something inside out, you tend to be very confident (at least in that area). Continually learning new things expands your knowledge base. As a result, your confidence extends in new directions as well. 

 

Drop the Idea Things Have to be Perfect

 

When nothing is ever good enough, confidence falters. How are you supposed to feel sure of yourself when you’re feeling things are always unfinished or lacking somehow? By accepting things as they are, warts and all, you’ll find you’re relax more and even become more confident in what you’re doing because you’re telling yourself that what you have or are doing is exactly what you need.

 

Dress for Success

 

How we present ourselves to the world really can affect our mental state. Wearing what makes you feel good about yourself will restore confidence. A change in attitude is only a change in outfit away.

 

Trust Yourself

 

When you doubt your instincts, you’re telling yourself you don’t really know what you’re doing. This is why it’s so important to ‘go with your gut’ when faced with a challenge. This kind of trust instills confidence in your ability to judge a situation or outcome.

 

Look Forward

 

Confidence has a hard time standing up to ghosts from the past. When you get caught up in your previous failures or uncertainties, confidence falters. Instead, look forward to positive emotions. When you recognize your potential, you start seeing just how amazing you are. 

 


Embrace Imperfection to Raise Self-Worth


Everywhere you look nowadays there is advice on how to strive, beat the competition, be happy, successful, wealthy, thin, married to your soul-mate, have perfect kids, balance work, and life, win the marathon and then come home and make the perfect dinner. In other words, how to be perfect or at least our early twenty-first-century concept of perfect. There are self-help books to improve every conceivable aspect of your life from your personality to your career.

 

But what if striving to be perfect is not the right goal? What if beating yourself up and scheduling and improving isn’t where you should be? Because becoming 'your best you' isn’t about being perfect (and is, in fact, a shortcut to disappointment at best and a breakdown at worst).  Perfection is an illusion, and making it your life’s aim is a damaging mistake. The bottom line is–you will never be perfect. Imperfection is not only inevitable, but it's also okay. And it’s the thing that keeps us moving forward.

 

Perfection is a mirage, and if it's your goal, you are very likely to fall into the trap of carping on yourself when you don’t achieve it. You will have a skewed view of yourself by having the wrong expectations. The more you try, and fail, the worse your self-esteem will become. That is not a recipe for a happy life.

 

Be kind to yourself – if you’re constantly striving for perfection and criticizing yourself for not meeting those impossibly high standards, you’re setting yourself up for a miserable life because you can’t achieve the impossible goal of perfection. 

 

Take a look around you – despite what you see on television and social media, no one is perfect. Ever. At no point in human history has anyone been perfect. People just do their best, most of the time.

 

Embrace your imperfection – it’s part of what makes you human and not a robot (and remember even robots can malfunction!) Imperfection makes you quirky and interesting and brave and admirable. What’s to admire in someone who gets a perfect score first time, compared to someone who worked hard, made mistakes, learned from them and got there in the end? Or didn’t, but gave it their best shot? 

 

Trying to be perfect is choosing to suffer when you don’t need to. Trying to be your best self is a very different proposition. That’s likely to lead you down all sorts of interesting and fulfilling paths if you’re prepared to make mistakes along the way.

 


Monday 3 July 2023

4 Simple Ways to Avoid Procrastination When You Work from Home


Working from home is every office worker’s dream, right? But how do you stay on track and not get caught up in those endless procrastination loops? When you don’t have to go into the office, it’s easy to get distracted by all the comforts and demands of home life. Whether it’s a sudden urge to do housework or the immediate need for snacks, before you know it, you’ve frittered away a couple of hours and not got any paid work done. 

So how can you take back control and avoid procrastination when you’re working at home? 

 

1. Make an Office Space

 

Part of your procrastination problem is that your home is a relaxation space. When you’re in an office, everything is geared towards work and getting the job done. Home is about chillaxing, housework, familial responsibilities. You need to carve out some space that is just for your work. A separate home office is a perfect solution, but having a proper desk setup also works. Set yourself up with a water bottle and a bowl of fruit for healthy snacking and to stop those regular trips to the kitchen!

 

2. Learn to Prioritize

 

Be professional in organizing your time. Use a planner or a diary for deadlines and allot time in your day for particular tasks. If you’re a morning person, get your demanding or thought-heavy tasks done in the first half of the day. Conversely, night owls can choose to work late or use morning time to sort emails or do admin. Make a daily task list and check things off as you achieve them. That last achievement will feel like a slam-dunk!

 

3. Stay Motivated

 

Research has shown that lack of motivation is a crucial driver of procrastination. If your motivation is low, there’s little reason to get on with your work. 

 

If you find it hard to stay focused on your work, consider using rewards to boost your motivation. It can be as simple as choosing to do a work task before you check social media or have a movie night to celebrate hitting a milestone. If you’re struggling, try reframing each piece of work as money in your pocket.

 

4. Use Apps

 

Technology can be your friend in defeating procrastination. You can choose from several apps that will freeze distracting social media while you work. You can also choose to have a separate browser that is only used for work. Time tracking apps will help you see what you’re achieving, and as they generate reports, it will also help when it comes time for billing clients. 



Monday 26 June 2023

6 Changes to Your Schedule to Help You Manage Your Time Like a Pro


You’ve learned some tricks on how to manage your time, whether you’ve learned from a boss, a friend, or on your own. Yet putting those tricks into action is a different story. You have to learn how to make a schedule for yourself, which sounds about as daunting as being your own boss. Take out your self-starter hat and get ready to learn how to manage your time all on your own with these six hacks!

 

1. Leave Wiggle Room Between your Time Blocks

 

Friends, meet buffer-time. No one should have a fully stacked calendar with no time in between for a break. Block out buffer-time on your calendar in between meetings and tasks. Your future self will thank you when your days are more productive, and the hours are less exhausting. 

 

2. Organize Yourself

 

This is a big life change for some people because organization habits don’t always come easily. At first, it may feel like you are spending extra time trying to stay organized, but the payoff is worth it. Here’s a staggering statistic: On average, Americans waste about 2.5 days a year looking for misplaced objects. Don’t be part of that statistic! Find a place for your belongings and always put them back where they belong. This goes for computer files too! Create a simple filing system and save new documents to the correct location. 

 

3. Make Use of the 80-20 Rule

 

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? Otherwise known as the 80-20 rule, this principle says that you can get 80% of the work done in 20% of the time. Similarly, 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. It can be applied to many things in life, so it’s a great concept to apply to your usage of time. Get in the habit of noticing what tasks get the most results. Spend more time on those actions and cut out some of the responsibilities that take up time but don’t produce the outcomes you are looking for.

 

4. Stop Waiting

 

Every once and a while, you’ll inevitably have to wait for something: at the grocery store, in the doctor’s office, in traffic. Instead of actually waiting, or deferring to your phone for entertainment, do something productive with your time. Listen to a podcast you’ve been dying to try out, read a book on an interesting topic, or write in your journal. Turn waiting time into productive time.

 

5. Organize Your Tasks in Blocks

 

Batch all your similar tasks together. For example, don’t check your email every time someone pings you. If it’s urgent, go right ahead, but otherwise, set a time block every two hours or so to plow through all your emails at one time. This keeps you focused, which is a more efficient way to work. 

 

6. Try to Do Less

 

This may sound like a slacker approach, but it’s not. Believe it or not – we take on way more than we need to, meaning we take on more than is beneficial to our work. If you find yourself planning parties, chatting with your coworkers, and dabbling in another department’s workload, you may have spread yourself to thin. By doing that, you’re not helping yourself or your peers. In the end, you could wind up letting down people because you overpromise and under-deliver. 

 


5 Simple, Yet Effective Time Management Tasks You Should Start Using Today


Are you trying to become an expert time manager? Have you noticed you don’t spend your time well throughout the day? We could keep going with these questions all day, but that would be a waste of time, right? We’re going to jump into five simple, yet effective time management tasks you should incorporate into your daily life. 

 

1. Track your Time

 

If someone asked you how long you spend reading emails every day, what would you say? What about your lunch break? Chances are, you don’t really know how long you spend on certain time blocks of the day. Start tracking your time and learn how to make changes so you can maximize it. 

 

2. Set up Time Blocks

 

When you have a certain set of tasks to do every day, set up time blocks for yourself. Give yourself 2 hours to do one thing and then 1 hour for another. It becomes a competition against yourself because you’ll be rushing to beat the clock, competing against yourself.

 

3. Plan it out

 

Morning person or a night owl, it doesn’t matter. Use the beginning and the end of your day to make a plan and try your best to stick to it. Before you leave work at night, write a list of important tasks to get done the next day. In the morning, prioritize your list and review the items. Then, get to work!

 

4. Get it out of the Way 

 

Eat that frog – Mark Twain said it himself. Pick the most important, and most dreaded, tasks first, and knock them out first thing in the morning. It’s such a relief once you finish them, and then the rest of your day is devoted to tasks that you care more about and find more challenging. 

 

5. Delegate When You Can

 

If you have a task on your plate that a subordinate could do (maybe even better than you could), delegate it to them. Some people worry that this is a bad work ethic, but it’s part of company culture. You’re all on the same team, so it’s a matter of asking for help rather than being lazy. Understand what your point of genius is and use your time for those important tasks while handing off things that you aren’t great at or that are below your paygrade. 

 

We kept it simple with these tasks. Time management is an art worth perfecting, and you’ll get there. Check-in with yourself (and the clock), and make sure you’re really optimizing the hours you get in the day. And if you don’t, fear not! There’s always tomorrow. It’s a constant work in progress, so do your best, and the rest will fall in place.