How Students can get the right Mindsets for this chaotic fall
Student Success Mindsets for Fall 2020
Good thoughts. Good deeds. Good actions.
Parents: Please watch entire video then share with your child if you think it may be helpful.
About: To get the most out of this video, print & post this PDF it where you will easily see it (you can post in multiple places). This PDF has the mindsets from this video. Read this daily in the morning and before you go to sleep. While reading, envision it all happening, because you are a strong and capable person and you can do anything you work for. Feel free to use this or create your own version. I made 2 versions on your PDF here, a detailed one and a simpler one. I recommend reading the detailed one for at least a month before using just the simpler version, so you can get used to the deeper ideas.
Have a great fall!
Seth Perler
ps – click here for your free PDF
Video Transcript: Click here to download the transcript PDF.
Middle, high school, college students, what’s up? It’s me, Seth. And in this video, I’m going to talk to you about mindsets for this fall. Mindsets for this fall, mindsets to help you be successful for this fall, but also, because if you have these mindsets for this fall, it will literally help you have a better life, a better future, more freedom, more fun, more choices, possibilities, opportunities in your future life. Mindsets for this fall. All right, good thoughts, good deeds, good actions, here’s the deal, yo. What’s up is. This fall is going to be insane. It’s weird, it’s bizarre, it’s crazy, we’ve got this pandemic thing going on, we don’t know what’s going to happen. You’re going to be doing online classes, in-person, classes a mix, who knows. Sometimes it’s going to be hard, sometimes it’s going to be boring, sometimes it’s just going to get old, sometimes it’s going to get confusing, there’s gonna be all this change and uncertainty. But you still have the opportunity to plant seeds in your life for you, for your future and get as much out of this regardless of how crazy it is and bizarre it is, get as much out of it as you can for your own life, your own future. But, but there’s a big but, the but is that we procrastinate. We’re not motivated, we don’t want to try, we get so frustrated. What happens is we start getting behind, and we start finding ways, and having excuses, and not taking action that is actually good for our lives. I know the screen time is gonna get old. You know, sometimes you might not like the teacher, or the subject, or what you’re asked to do, it’s all gonna get old. But the more you can invest as much as you can yourself, the better life you’re going to have. So I want to give you 10 mindsets that will help your life this fall. And what I’ve done with these 10 mindsets is I’ve made a PDF with three pages on it. The first two pages explain the mindsets, the third one has a short version of it. You can put it up on your wall and read it every day and I have instructions on how you can do that. But let me go through what these mindsets are and how they’re going to help change your life. And please, if you’re watching this, and your parents are like, “Hey, check this guy out. See, if you like this video,” just give this a chance, have an open mind, and just give it a chance for a few minutes and see what you think.
Number 1: The number one mindset to have for this fall is this, “I choose me,” meaning you choose you. “I invest in myself, I choose me, even when I don’t feel like it. And it’s just so daunting to do my schoolwork or whatever, I choose me because I’m planting seeds so that I can have a great future for myself. I’m gonna do this, I choose me, even when I’m resistant, I choose me.”
Number 2: “I make an impact.” Do you know that you matter? You completely matter. The world needs you, you literally have very specific characteristics and qualities. You impact the world right now and in your future, when you’re an adult, you get to have an impact on the world. What kind of an impact you want to have is really the question. So invest in yourself, not only because it’s for you and for your future, but the more you invest in yourself, the more you contribute and make an impact to your family, your community, the world, nature, the earth, the planet, what you do makes an impact. You get to decide how you want to make an impact and that’s a cool thing because you have freedom and choices.
Number 3: Next, three is, “I do my best, and then I do a little bit better.” So what you want to do is do your personal best. When I was when I was a young person, I felt like my personal best was horrible. It was horrible. But what I did that was my saving grace is I would do my personal best, and it may have not even been that good, but it was my best, and then I did a tiny bit better. And when you get in the habit of doing your best and doing a little bit better, you’re gonna get what’s called grit, or resilience. People who don’t have grit and resilience give up, they get stuck in life, they really struggle as adults, okay. They blame everybody, they’re a victim. But people who do their best and a little bit better, that will open doors and opportunities. So when things get hard for people, and they’ve learned to be resilient, they don’t give up. They put a little effort in, they’re patient, they’re persistent, they keep trying, and eventually, they have great successes, and life can feel really good. So number three is “I do my best and then I do a little bit better.”
Number 4: “I speak up. I advocate for myself.” When I need help, I say “Hey, I need help.” When I don’t get it. I say “Hey, I really need some help here. I’m proud of myself. I’m humble. I’m not perfect and need some help.” The most successful people in the world, whether they’re musicians that you like, athletes that you like, entrepreneurs that you like, authors like, whoever, the most successful people in the world know how to ask for help, and they know how to receive help. That is what we do. So number four is “I speak up, I speak up, I speak my truth. I don’t just act like I’m perfect and like I have to have everything figured out.” You don’t. Your parents don’t have it figured out. Your teachers don’t have it figured out. Nobody on this entire planet has it figured out. We’re all trying to figure it out. There’s no rulebook to life. So speak up when you need help, it’s a very important thing to learn how to do.
Number 5: “I don’t let distractions get the best me.” Look, we live in a noisy world, there are so many distractions, squirrel, there are so many distractions. And distractions, the problem with them is when they hold us back from what’s most important and they keep us from doing things that are planting seeds for ourselves. So we don’t let distractions get the best of us. You don’t let it get in the way of what’s most important, which is the people in your life. That’s the most important thing is the people in your life, and then having a life that matters with choices and opportunities.
Number 6: “I don’t give my inner critic much attention.” In my mind, I have an inner critic. So do you, so does your mom, so does your dad, so does every human being on Earth. Even the most confident people you can imagine have an inner critic. What does that inner critic do? That inner critic says, “You can’t do this. This is stupid. You don’t have to do this. Put it off. Do it later. Do it tomorrow. You’re not smart. You’re dumb. You can’t handle this. It’s too hard. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.” You know, the inner critic says “I’m not enough. I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not cool enough. I’m not funny enough. I’m not interesting enough.” The inner critic is in there telling me all these bad things about myself. So if I try to play guitar, if I try to do something, you know, with friends, it’s always in there kind of nagging at me, and the most successful people in the world have the inner critic, but they don’t listen to it. They don’t give it, they give more attention to the positive. “I can do this. I can accomplish anything. I can work hard. I can figure it out. Yes, it’s challenging. Yes, I want to give up sometimes, but I got this, I can figure it out. I’m amazing. I’m worthy. I’m a good person.” And you have to take baby steps. We often get stuck because we think we need big steps. But we just gotta not listen to that inner critic and take action.
Number 7: “I’m honest with myself about my strengths and limitations.” We lie to ourselves, all of us, your parents, do, I do we all lie to ourselves. But do we want to listen to the lying voice or the honest voice? So it’s human nature to be unrealistic about things and what we struggle with in school is we are unrealistic about how much effort is needed to do an assignment. And where I’m realistic about how long it will take to read a novel, or to write a paper, or to study for a test, or to do our homework, and that being unrealistic with ourselves gets us in trouble. We need to really listen to our mind and listen for the truth. What’s the truth here? You know, okay, yeah, “I think I’m gonna do my project. And I always put it off to the last minute, then it’s the night before, then I turn it in, and I didn’t do a good job on it. Even though I got a B, I faked it. And it really wasn’t what I was trying to do”. So anyhow, we need to really be honest with ourselves about our limitations, and be realistic about how much energy things take.
Number 8: “I focus on the good,” okay, I focus on the good. It’s so easy to focus on the negative, what we don’t have what we want, what we wish we had, the way we wish things are. How this person did this wrong, and that person did this thing, and that was so stupid, and this person is they just need to do things the other way. And we blame them and we’re like a victim. You know what? Focusing on the good, gratitude, thankfulness, what we do have in life, that’s a mindset that is going to get you so far, because we default to the negative. We have to work hard actually to be positive, it doesn’t necessarily come naturally to us to be positive, we have to work for it. “I focus on the good” is number eight.
Number 9: You might not like this one, but hear me out. “I let my parents help.” I know, they don’t help the right way, or when they help it’s annoying, or it’s nagging, or you just want them off your back or whatever. You are supposed to be pushing your parents away biologically. And what I mean by that is you get to an age when you’re an adolescent, when you’re like, “I want to be independent. I don’t want my parents helping me I don’t want them bugging me about this. I got this.” But we again, like I said before, we have to be realistic about it. Your parents are just trying to help. They may not know exactly how to so that’s the other part of this. “I let my parents help, but I don’t let them enable me which is not helpful.” So there are ways that they help or they’re doing too much for you. Don’t let them do that, that doesn’t help you. “I let them help because I do want to be an independent adult. And the more I let them help now, the quicker I’m going to be an independent adult.” So there’s a good time to accept help from them. And there’s a positive, healthy way to accept help for them. So instead of just getting frustrated at them and saying, “Mom, Dad, leave me alone, get off my back, I got this, why don’t you trust me? Stop bugging me, stop nagging me. Say, “Hmm, I would love your help. But I want you to know how I want your help.” And then tell them how you want the help. They’re not mindreaders.
Number 10: “The world needs my unique gifts.” The world needs you. You have very unique qualities. So what you want to do is build on your strengths, your interests, your passions, your talents, your gifts, even if you don’t think you have any. Build on whatever you enjoy. Build those things because you’re an awesome person and the world needs you. You do have something special to offer. You’re going to find purposeful, meaningful work. If you look forward and you have these mindsets. And finally, 11 is a bonus.
Number 11: “I take 100% responsibility for my own happiness, success, and well-being.” We like to blame others, but when we take responsibility for ourselves, full responsibility, you know, our parents push us or teachers push us, it seems like they’re taking responsibility, like they want it more than us. They might encourage us they might try to help us. But ultimately, it’s up to you. “My life is 100% my responsibility and up to me how I create my life. And if I have bad things happen in my life, I can’t just blame everybody for what’s happened in my life. I got to look here first. What can I do to create a great life?” So it’s ultimately up to me. Yeah, bad things happen. That’s true. But the majority of it, it’s up to me. So the bonus is, “I take 100% responsibility.”
So um, let me go through those real quick. Here’s where we go. One: I choose me. Two: I make an impact. Three: I do my best, then a little bit better. Four: I speak up for myself. Five: I don’t let distractions, squirrel, get the best to me. Six: I don’t get my inner critic much attention. Seven: I’m honest with myself about my strengths and my limitations. Eight: I focus on the good. Nine: I let my parents help. 10: The world needs me. 11: I take 100% responsibility for my happiness, success, and well-being. So I put a little bonus line on there that says, “Finally,” and this is about you, “Finally I’m an amazing human being,” you are, “I’m kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, loving, smart, talented, capable. Even though I always try to be a better person. I like, appreciate, accept myself exactly for who I am today.” You are perfect where you’re at today. You are. There’s nothing to change. I’m not saying don’t try, but really we can accept that we’re right where we’re supposed to be. So I hope those mindsets help you. I hope you take them to heart. I hope you practice them. Try them out for a month, print these things up, see what it does to your life. Make up your own if you want to, and have an amazing day. My name is Seth Perler. I’m a coach in Boulder, Colorado. I help struggling students navigate this thing called education so that you can have a great life. Hit subscribe if you want, share it with people if you want, comment if you want, let me know what you think. Be good to yourself. Be good to others. Take care.