Motivational Monday Moment – 10/17/16

My Motivational Monday Moment is inspired by my wonderful and precocious Munch who is 8 years old.

When school started in August, I realized that I needed my village. I was having a hard time trying to motivate Munch’s mind. I needed him to change his mindset. Why?

Because he was so negative.

There needed to be a shift in his perspective. I needed him to start looking at things through a different lens. Everything was always the worst and he didn’t enjoy anything, not one single thing about school. He was acting as though waking up and going to school was pure hell and he couldn’t wait to come home.

I started to realize it in August and asked Niki over at The Richness of A Simple Life for suggestions. She does this series on Monday’s entitled MomLife and I needed help. She did a two part series and she shared three suggestions:

1. The first part of my positive focused practice is mindfulness, the practice of being in the moment.
2. The second tip is teaching them to look for positive things in their day.
3. Negative attitude with no sense of control.

I really started thinking about it and trying to engage Munch. I reached out to my other fellow blogger, Kyra over at Black.Bunched.Mass.Mom and she gave me a whole list of suggestions that her son’s teacher had given her and better yet some that she came up with. These are the three that I began implementing:

1. Did any of your classmates ask a great question today? Did they get an answer?
2. Which adult do you think has the best job at school? Why? (see if that changes over time)
3. Was there a time when you felt like praying today? Did you?

Munch is far from perfect and it’s still a struggle, but I think he realizes that I’m not going to give up or just let it go. I started this transformation of his mind when I started to explain that the fact you woke up is the reason you should give thanks. Someone didn’t wake up today and we should say “Thank you God for waking me up.” Thanking God is going to put you into the attitude of gratitude mode.

You see how I’m trying to incorporate the first point in Niki’s suggestion? Being mindful of the moment and grateful for it. Giving thanks to God allows him to shift his perspective from complaining to me to thanking God.

I’m also trying to teach Munch that he should pray regularly and consistently. Prayers are not just if you want something, but you should pray as a way of giving thanks. Keeping your mind on God. So, I started asking him to pray before we talk about his day. I started doing it with him. Praying that God allows the positives of his day to outweigh any negatives and thanking him for another day to serve Him.

Munch didn’t understand why we were doing it at first, but I needed to shift his mindset and allow God to intercede. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this in the beginning. I mean I’ve done counseling at church and the pastor will say before we get started “Let us go to the throne of grace before getting started.” It changes the mood. There is a true shift in the atmosphere.

Munch has had many things change at his new school so asking him about his teachers like Kyra suggested gets him to thinking about new people and the cool jobs they have. Right now the person who has the best job is the principal because he’s in charge of the school and always smiles at the kids. Munch likes that he smiles. I accept that.

So, my Motivational Monday Moment is all about motivating my minor. There are many things you can do and some of ya’ll may need to do these things with adults. Allowing people to see that gratefulness allows your mindset to change is a key factor in motivating. It won’t come overnight and it won’t be easy, but nothing worth fighting for is truly easy.