So many articles here on HealthyGamer.org are going to be focused on the physical aspect of living. Recipes, exercise, and diet advice are easy to chat about and discuss. There are many people who have positive experiences in that area but it is much more difficult to speak about the mind and spirit.
Everyone has challenges they face on a daily basis. For some of you it may be school, work, or home separately or a mix of them. I’m going to share one of my largest mental coping skills that I learned a few years ago. To do this I need to explain how most of us think about certain situations and how we can slightly adjust how we mentally view these situations to help us achieve happiness.
Lets say that you have a big project to accomplish for work, school, or home. Most of us have someone who is going to be judging our work. A teacher, our fellow students, friends, colleagues, others at the board meeting, people we are presenting to, or whoever it may be. It may be more stressful because doing this project may affect our lives greatly. We may get a promotion or a better grade by doing an extraordinary job. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people complain about how their boss/teacher doesn’t appreciate them or the work they do. This sort of thinking is based off of your perception of how someone else regards your work, your effort, you. There is a much more positive way to look at these sort of situations.
I like to look at these sort of situations in a much different way. I work as hard as I can at any project that I get involved with. I know that when I am submitting a paper, creating a garden in the back yard, or setting up for a presentation at a board meeting for executives that I am prepared, researched, rehearsed, and I did a great job. I approach these types of situations WITHOUT the desire to hear that I did a good job. It is always nice when someone compliments you on a job well done, but it shouldn’t be the hinge on how you perceive your hard work. I know that I can be critical of my own work and fix things if I did make a mistake and that accepting feedback is a part of the refining process. If you can submit your essay to your teacher and know that you did the research, your thesis is solid, your evidence is concrete, and you wrap the paper together nicely with an amazing conclusion then be proud of the work you did! A big part of being able to use this process depends on self worth and being able to ascribe your work to your self worth. This is something I’ll try to blog about next time!
Core Concepts
- Don’t look for praise for projects you complete – Know you did the best job possible
- Complete projects to the best of your ability every time
- Accept all constructive feedback
- Smile! You are one step forward today!