Happy New Year 2015

A brand new year to begin again, to start over, a new slate to write a different story. We sent out report cards on Friday. The new semester started and I told my students "You have a brand new fresh start. Everyone is on even ground and there are no zeros or missing work". Of course you hope that they embrace new goals and strive to meet them.

We talk about our resolutions for the new year. Some people make the same ones over and over. Some of us choose not to make resolutions because we feel we are setting ourselves up for failure.

If you have ever heard of Self Fulfilling Prophecy then you might understand what they mean. We learned about this in a leadership class that I took.  

Self Fulfilling Prophecy is a way of looking at yourself and making a prediction of an outcome and then acting in ways that the prediction will come true. An example would be if you were required to take a class for school or work. You feel as if you are no good in this particular subject and you know that you are not going to pass. You begin to act in ways that will sabotage your efforts to pass the class. You tell yourself that you cannot learn this subject and your study habits will suffer. You dwell on the negative and you talk yourself into to failing. 

This term was made by a sociologist in 1948 by  Robert K. Merton. He also said that a teacher influences a student by their perception of that student. If the teacher perceives the student as an over achiever, he might provide studies that will guide that student in a positive direction. If the teacher perceives the student as lazy, they might not give them the attention that they give another student. This in turn will allow the student to get by without trying.

I know I have thought about this before, but like lots of my resolutions I have let them go and failed. So this year, I think I will give this Self Fulfilling Prophecy thing another go. I am going to look back on my last few years, write down some goals and practice some positive thoughts on how to achieve them. I want my students to believe in themselves. Why should I settle for less from myself?

One of my goals is to get back to writing. I enjoy writing down my thoughts, but for some reason it has been very easy to just not do it. So here it is January 11, 2015 and this is my first blog of the new year.

2013

2013 is here and it is time for another round of resolutions and promises that the beginning of the year brings. Every January 1st, we get a brand new clean notebook numbered from 1 to 365. I didn't actually think of this on my own, I borrowed it from someone else. I just read it somewhere in the past week. That doesn't mean it isn't true.

The fact is, this is a wonderfully healthy way to look at life. We give ourselves permission to let the things that we have done in the past stay there. This way we can actually forgive ourselves for not being perfect. So many times we fail because we set ourselves up to fail. We sabotage our chance at success when we bring our baggage with us. I think I blogged about this last year, or the year before.

Self Fulfilling Prophecy: A Self Fulfilling Prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to come true due to the simple fact that the prediction was made. This happens because our beliefs influence our actions.  

I think we have all been guilty of this. Remember when we were in school and preparing for a test. We did everything right. We took the notes, wrote the papers, studied the material and crammed all night long. The next day we go take the test. We know it, but somehow we second guess our selves and somewhere in the middle of the test we start getting overwhelmed and instead of acing the test, we get a low b or even a c. Why? Because we have told ourselves over and over and over, I am not good at taking test. Every time I take a test, I "choke" and I never can make an A. We make a prediction and then allow ourselves to believe that we can't do it and we just choke. 

They say that the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things with the expectations of a different outcome. This is where the  Self Fulfilling Prophecy comes to bite us in the butt. It isn't that we don't want to change, or can't change..It is because we don't allow ourselves to believe that we can do it. We keep saying that I always screw it up and so guess what.. we do. 

I remember when I wrote this the last time. I gave myself a lot of pep talks and gave my self permission to succeed. I had some success and met some goals. I don't know what happened or where I let myself stop believing, but I had some set backs. But it worked so well, I am going to try it again this year.  And this year, I am going to take my brand new sheets of paper and try to write some new goals. I am going to look forward and not get bogged down by the old SFP. I am going to make new ones that are positive and bright. 

I know that this is the 7th and I am a week late. I am telling myself that it is because I haven't sit down yet this year to make my resolutions. It's not because I am the worlds worst procrastinator. That would be my first SFP of the year and I am not going down that road again. 

This would be Page 7 of 365. One of my new SFP's. I am going to write more. I am not going to sabotage  that by making excuses but by saying that I can do this. I will do this. I am going to write more.