How you think shape your career, relationships and ultimately your life. The famous “half glass full or half glass empty” makes that point very clearly and we have talked about it many times.
The following link is to a very well known and frequently referenced article about “27-things-parents-of-gymnasts-should-avoid” (click to read).
I agree in general the intent of the article but I do have several issues with it:
- The brain’s ability to process the “no” word is very limited. So when you say “Do not compare your gymnast’s progress with that of other gymnasts”, there is a good chance that your brain will be thinking “Do compare and who should I be comparing myself to?”. If the article is re-written as “What to do” instead of “what NOT to do”, the message and effect will be a lot better.
- Give me a break, 27 points. I know my memory is starting to fail but ask any high school kid or adult and try to get them to memorize all 27 points will be a stretch. If I have to bet, most won’t even finish reading all 27 points before they hop to the end or the next article that peek their interests. From an effectiveness perspective, I would say 3-5 points in total should be all.
Exercise
Look through the list of 27, try to re-phrase it as “what to do” but reduce it to just 3-5 things by categorizing them together as well as prioritizing them appropriately.
Because it is such a long list, I am sure that you won’t agree to everything it says. Pick one that you have the most problem with and challenge it.
An old article from here that elaborates a bit more on a better way to influence others. http://www.mariolam.com/?p=2631