MKMMA Week 21...Use Your Tools

Take the negative roadblocks of guilt, anger, hurt feelings, fear and unworthiness, and use them as tools for good. Sounds crazy right? As I went through the exercises of taking something negative and turning it into a tool to use for my benefit, a couple of things came up.

First of all, lack mindset...it's a way of thinking that I have been exposed for most of my life and I see my children (two adults, one preteen) erring in that way of thinking often. I have been using it lately as a conversation starter and we have had great discussions about other ways to look at things when they say something that has a lack bent to it. I grew up in poverty, but my mom had a great way of making sure that we had lots of opportunities to learn and experience things that would be considered to be out of the realm of possibility for most people in poverty. I had dance lessons when I was young (even performed in a ballet with "real" ballerinas), learned to play the piano and flute, had art lessons, was involved in every sport possible in our community and school, and participated in 4H and Girl Scouts. And because Mom was an English major in college and a newspaper editor, I had opportunities to help sell newspaper ads (cold call phone skills as well as face-to-face sales), proofread articles and text, and learn how to develop photos in a dark room. In high school I was on the yearbook staff, and as a teacher I have been the chair of the yearbook committee for the past 4 years. (This is actually something I was going to give up after this school year because it doesn't fit in my DMP, but I realized recently, as I was struggling with getting cooperation from others to submit work and running up against deadlines, that I have to do it for one more year. My son has one more year in elementary school and I want to finish out his elementary experience with one more year of being in charge of the yearbook...of course my administrators laughed when I told them I was going to quit and then realized that I "had" to do it one more year. I'm sure they're thrilled because since I've taken over the committee, we have had some amazing results with the outcome of our yearbook.)

The second big take away was fear and unworthiness. This is something that I have allowed to rule my life too much. I have a tendency to procrastinate because of these two things. Because of the lessons I've learned in this course, I am in a much better place when it comes to these. I don't always "do it now" but I do more often. I am nature's greatest miracle! I have nothing to fear and I am worthy of everything that is good!

I can be what I will to be.