How Was Your Day?

There is one thing about all of us, whether we identify as young, old and in between.  And this is the desire or need to have interest taken in us.

When interest is taken in someone, it helps to build relationships, increases self-confidence and serves as motivation to keep going with a dream, goal or idea.

At Girls and Boys of Character, we open with the mentees sharing their day.

How Was Your Day?

Each mentee can share how their day went. Most, if not, all take the opportunity to do so.

Except for one mentee, who we begin to call, “Mr. Phenomenal” because his days were phenomenal.  He would share how he ‘made his day’ which means he completed his assignments at school and was rewarded.

Many of the others shared they ‘had a bad day’. This became the norm.  We started to wonder if they were having a secret contest on who had the worst days.

During our staff time, we discussed this and decided to change things up a bit.

A New Direction

We changed our question to, “Tell us about your wins?”

Out of habit, they would begin sharing how bad their day was.  With coaching we’d ask again, ‘tell us about your wins’.

Imagine the changing of the mindset they were challenged with when we wouldn’t allow them to tell us about the bad things but to focus on their wins.

Often, we become so accustomed to seeing all the bad, we negate to focus on the good.

It was a challenge for them, and it took some time to make the transformation.

And for us, watching and seeing their thought patterns change was remarkable.

Their minds shifted from seeing the days as battles and wars to seeing their accomplishments and wins!

They began to see wins both big and small.  This changed the environment for the rest of the sessions for the most part.

It helped them and us to change the way we looked at our days.  No, it did not remove the ‘bad’ that happened during the day, but it did cause us to look at the total day and see with wins.

What was your win for the day?

 Photo Credit: JoJo@Unsplash.com