Mindset is everything

Yesterday morning my son was testing my daughter in the car on the spelling words she has to learn for this week.

She groaned and said, “I’ve got really hard words this week.”

She tripped over each word he called out to her - leaving out a critical letter each time.

I told my son to give her back the list so she could review it again. Once she had reviewed it again, they began the process over.  Still she left critical letters out in each word.  By this time I was getting frustrated with her, she was getting frustrated with herself, and my son was getting bored with the whole process.

We hit a line of traffic so I turned to my daughter and said, “You realise why you’re having a hard time spelling those words don’t you?”

“No,” she answered sheepishly.

“How did you start the process of spelling your words this morning?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“Okay well let me remind you then. You told yourself that you had really hard words so now your brain believes those words are too hard for it to spell,” I said. “So why don’t you approach your spelling from a different perspective? Why don’t you tell yourself that you can spell all the words on your list and see what happens. Take the list back and review it with your new mindset.”

“Okay,” she said. She took the list back and spelt every word on that list with no problem whatsoever after that. This morning in the car, she was super confident with her words and was even joking and laughing as she spelt each word perfectly. A completely different child and result from the day before.

I got goose bumps when she successfully completed her list with such confidence not only because I knew she was capable of spelling those words but also because once again I taught my children a life lesson while relearning one at the same time. Success comes from the mindset that we are in. What we project and believe is what we attract in return. By adjusting our viewpoint from negative to positive, it’s amazing what we can accomplish. My daughter proved it so it does work.