Motivation Tips for the Start of the School Year

School Time

Hey everyone! It is August and what does that mean? The start of school here in Texas! It is the time when teachers, students, and parents get out of the summertime mindset and back to the hustle of classrooms and school activities. I was so busy this summer that I swear I blinked and I missed it. I had a list of things I wanted to do (as usual), but I didn’t have time to do them. By the time August arrives, I’m usually ready to get back to school. That’s not the case this year because I feel like I needed at least one more month. So, how do we get out of the summer mindset and back to the hustle?

Last school year was tough for me, as it was for many other teachers. I felt like I needed extra motivation to go back to the classroom for the 2022-23 school year after a few of my coworkers quit teaching altogether over the summer. It is an uncertain time for education, but I am here for it and ready to embody my “Balancing Home and Work” blog. 

Here are some motivation tips for teachers this school year. I promise this will help with burnout and these tips can also be adapted for non-teachers:

Vision Board for this Coming School

1. Visualize how you want this year to go. Towards the end of the summer, I always start thinking about school so much that I have dreams about it. What do I want my classroom to look like? How do I want my classroom to be? What am I going to wear in the first week of school? What are we going to read this year? One of the best tips I can give someone is to make a vision board or make a vision list. Since my year runs August-July, this is the time of year that I start to make a vision board. If you are a visual person, a classroom vision board is a great motivator. We Are Teachers has some great ideas for your vision board.
2. Set goals for the year. This can go hand-in-hand with making a vision board. Ask yourself what the big picture is. What do you want your students to learn this year? What do you want to learn this year? Also, ask yourself how you can accomplish these goals. I like to set goals in two ways: I set them for the year as a whole, and I set them for each unit/lesson I will be teaching. I promise that being this organized will make your year go smoother. Check out my blog on SMART Goals for more ideas.
3. Set daily intentions. Now that you have a long-term idea of what you want to do, it’s time to look at the day-to-day. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish, and go into the day with an open mindset.
4. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Okay, your lesson plan went terribly. Don’t let it ruin your day. My mentor teacher in college told me that the first period is always the “practice period” because anything that would happen to off-put your lesson will usually happen during the first period. You have to shake it off and move on to the next class period. Your first-period students will be back and ready to learn tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day.
5. Take time out for yourself. One of my past mistakes has been to work through lunch. Most teachers have just thirty minutes for lunch. Take that thirty minutes and get out of the classroom. If students know you are in your classroom at lunch, they will want to be in there with you. Take some alone time. Walk around. Go outside. Your classroom will still be there when you return.
6. Don’t be afraid to try something new. I am not one of those teachers that teaches the exact same thing every year. I may have a set of novels that I teach, but I am always researching and finding new ways to teach those novels, which keeps my job interesting. If I am bored with a novel or a lesson, I like to try something new. The same can be said with any aspect of teaching. If your class rules aren’t exactly working, try something new. Don’t get set in ways that don’t work. Be flexible.
7. Have fun. This one is big. If you are not having fun and enjoying yourself (at least a little), you are in the wrong job. Make friends. Do something creative. Turn your lesson into a game to get the kids motivated. Go somewhere after work to relax. Remember to have fun. As Eckhart Tolle would say, “live in the now.”

I want to hear from our readers. What motivates you? What are some tips you have for motivation? Let’s continue the conversation below or in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

5 Ways to Manifest Your Best Life

Hi there, and welcome back! Since we have been heavily focusing on goals and planning, I thought we should discuss manifesting. I love this topic, as it is something that I have been deeply interested in for many years. In fact, I can truly say that I have manifested something in my life – you may have remembered in the podcast that I mentioned I manifested my husband, a dog, at least two vacations, and a whole slew of other things. This has become the secret tool that I use for achieving my goals. I turn my dreams into reality by manifesting them. 

It all started when I decided that I wanted to check out podcasts. Podcasts had already been around for quite a long while, but I had never explored them. I had always been a music girl, and I have always preferred to listen to music rather than talk radio when driving. I had started listening to NPR some, but then my driving times changed, and I thought I would seek out something else instead. In looking for podcasts to listen to, I came across a couple of bloggers talking about manifesting, and one of them had mentioned making her vision board for the year. I was hooked. It sounded like a crafty project to help me achieve my goals! After scouring the web, YouTube, and various podcasts for anything vision board-related, I came across a few other methods for manifesting. I also stumbled across a few other podcasters that have inspired me, and I want to share what I have learned to date. 

We touched a little bit on manifesting earlier this year when we were discussing vision boards, but today I want you to know that anyone can manifest without ever having to get out the craft supplies. Here are some other ways to manifest - most of them only require pen and paper, or even just your thoughts. You can pick and choose what works for you, and you can change things up, but I think it is important to see all of the options and their benefits. I know that some of this has already been mentioned recently, but the reason that it is all resurfacing is due to the correlation with many of our Goals Girl segments.

Positive affirmations

Positive affirmations are the simplest form of manifesting. I remember back in the 80s and 90s people would wear their walkman or Discman and listen to recordings of positive affirmations. I didn’t understand what it was until I was made aware of the wretched things that I said to myself. Once I was aware of how I treated myself internally, I vowed to change my habitual self-bashing and move to kindness and self-love. Unfortunately, self-love does not occur overnight. It is something that is learned over time. I knew I needed to start with changing my inner dialogue, but I needed assistance with verbiage as it was not natural to speak kindly to myself. That is where positive affirmation recordings come in handy. If you are like me and do not know how to change your behavior, I recommend this method. Submerge yourself in positive phrases, and you will become more familiar with the dialogue so that you can course-correct yourself when you start treating yourself unkindly. I mentioned positive affirmations in one of my recent posts when talking about having a bad luck mindset. These are great samples to get your day started better!

Vision Boards

If you missed my post on vision boards I highly recommend you check it out. Amber, Cindy, and I have different approaches to vision boards and you will find a helpful how-to tutorial in our video on YouTube. 

Spell Work

Any type of ritual that you create with meaning can be used for manifesting purposes. Do you add cream to your coffee? Try stirring your cup clockwise (to bring in positivity) and say today is going to be sweet! Be mindful to do this with gusto and not out of lackluster habit, as spell work should be done with genuine and focused intent. I would love to circle back on this conversation another time!

Scripting

Grab a pen and paper! I like to use a dedicated journal, but you don’t have to get fancy with it. Sit down and write a letter to yourself. The letter should be written from “future you” to “present time you''. Your letter will outline how great your life is, and how you achieved the dreams that you are currently working on in the present day. Go into great detail explaining how you managed to overcome any obstacles with ease to achieve your dream, secure the promotion, or land on both feet after hardship. But don’t mention the actual struggles– you don’t want to manifest any negativity in your life. I was recently inspired to go back and read some of my earlier scriptings. I started from the beginning and was amazed at some of the things that came to fruition –things that I had not even put into action or given much thought at that time – they were just merely hopes and dreams. I will have to revisit them again, as they gave me warm feelings and hope.

Visualizing

So for visualizing, you can do the above practice, but without the pen and paper. I recommend taking the effort to quiet the room, get comfortable, and close your eyes so that you can imagine your dreams and goals with minimal distraction. You don’t have to be a wordsmith to create visualizations. Imagination and some creativity are all that is needed for them to develop. The trick is to get into the details. Imagine how you feel, emotionally and physically. Be sure to explore all 5 of your senses and ask yourself questions like “what would your typical day be like, what would you do, who would you spend time with?” This process is daydreaming and meditation at the same time. I call it daydreaming for grownups. It’s ok if your mind wanders, just stop and refocus your thoughts until you are satisfied with the outcome. 

For many of us, we feel that there is an aspect of our lives that can be better. We understand that our thoughts turn to actions that impact others around us. The fuel that we inject into the world can be positive or negative energy, and we each decide what kind we send out into the world. Do you want to live in the ways of the past, or in the New Earth? Is there a type of manifesting practice that I have left off? Do you have any tips or tricks you have found successful? I would love for you to share by continuing the conversation in the comments or on our MMC chat on Facebook.

Vision Boards: Are they Magical, Scientific, or Just Fun?

 Hi there, it’s Christen!

This week on the blog and podcast we have been talking about vision boards! Cindy discussed various types of vision boards and Amber discussed how they can be artistic as well as inspirational and educational. I wanted to touch up on the aspect of vision boards being used for manifesting - and how the process works. 

When I was younger, I thought of vision boards as a big collage that I could create with images that I liked; a display of my style or images that expressed me visually. When I think about vision boards now, I see this powerful tool that anyone can use, a tool that wills your desires to life. So when I said, “Hey let's talk about vision boards”, what I really wanted to talk about is the power to manifest- through vision boards. 

First I want to touch on what manifesting is. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word manifest (verb) means to show something clearly, through signs or actions. Hence, manifesting means visible evidence is produced or occurs based on some sort of action. Think of the concept of cause and effect; action/thought creates a reaction.

The term manifesting has been trending all over social media for the past few years, but influencers that walked this earth centuries before the invention of social media have long been attesting to the power of the mind. The commonality is that our mindset is the origin of our life's blessings. Consider these:

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

– Mark 11:24

"The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are."

- Rumi

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

- Newton’s third law

Newton was talking about physical science, but it is still relevant. We are talking about bringing something into reality with thought and action. Now, we are going to take a deeper dive into what the act of manifesting is in a later discussion, so I don’t want to take you down that rabbit hole today. I just want to give you a little taste of what it is, if you have not heard of it before. 

I highly recommend the book “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. You can also watch a piece on Netflix about it - I actually recommend that first, because it's a quick watch with a high impact. It is a great source of inspiration and information on how to manifest by using the law of attraction, which is, in-a-nutshell, a condensed version of the Hermetic Principles. “The Secret” explains it in a way that is easy to understand. All you have to do is think positively about what you want (and not about what you don’t want), believe that it will come to you, and it will manifest into your life. 

How does manifesting work with vision boards, you ask? There are a few questions you will need to ask yourself to help get you started. Following this process will take your simple collage from just an artistic expression to something that not only looks good, but will work for you behind the scenes. 

1. Determine what you want to manifest. Are you wanting to manifest a better version of you? Do you have a specific goal in mind, or some area in your life that you want to improve? 

2. Envision you at your best self; what are you doing, what is around you, what is your day like? Sit and close your eyes for a moment. Stop and really speak to yourself. Get a detailed glimpse of what you want in your mind.

3. What actions do you need to take to get to that best version of yourself or reach the goal?

4. Now you are ready to collect images. Ensure that your vision board includes images and words that relate to your best self, your goal or whatever it is that you want to manifest. Pick out images that speak to you. Avoid any images that are things you don’t want.

The act of creating your vision board is enough to start the process. Now that you have created your vision board though, the idea is to keep it where you can see it everyday. I believe that this is a key component to making the vision board work. When you look upon it, even for a microsecond, your subconscious is reminded of this best self you have envisioned. Consistently triggering your subconscious is an important part of the process. Since your subconscious is being triggered often with these images, your mind will take actions (or thought processes will generate choices) that you may not even notice making. This will lead you towards things related to your vision that you see in real life. If you are interested in the science behind this, a great starting point to read is this article in Psychology Today. 

In short, just hang that vision board up where you can see it often, and let it do its thing - or you do your thing. Whatever you believe, whether it magically comes to fruition, you are tricking your subconscious, or you just like to make pretty collages that make you feel good, it doesn't matter; what does matter is that you are doing something for yourself that makes you feel good, and you are surrounding yourself with positive imagery. 

What do you think? Are vision boards effective? Have  you made one and seen the power in action? I would love to know what you think in the comments. Don’t forget to follow us on social media, and continue the conversation in our Facebook Group MMC Chat.

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Visual Inspiration to Drive Your Goals

Hey Friends! This week we are talking about Vision Boards. I’m sure you’ve heard of them because everyone seems to be talking about them this time of year, but really, they are nothing new. Designers have been using “Mood Boards” and “Design Boards” for decades to help clients and team members visualize what the designer has in mind. These kinds of vision boards often have sketches, paint chips, fabric swatches, and magazine or catalog clippings that bring the concept to life. Law Enforcement also uses a type of vision board that you’ve probably seen on television.  They will use maps with pinned locations, newspaper articles, mugshot photos, and even scraps of evidence pinned to a bulletin board. Laying out all the pieces in this visual manner often helps the investigators see patterns that they might have missed when looking at documents and files in a stack. 

Modern Vision Boards really aren't that much different. Visual references and reminders are a powerful tool for developing habits and routines, increasing memory retention, and so much more. Even when we don’t consciously think about what we are seeing, our subconscious brain registers those visual cues and emotional responses. That’s why it’s very important to surround ourselves with positive inspiration and visual aids to help us along our journey to achieve our goals. By setting intention in everything we do, including what we see in our everyday environment, we are laying the best and most solid foundation for the path to our best life.

Today, I’m sharing with you a little video that Amber, Christen, and I made to share our vision board creation process. Please bear with us…as you can see, we are not videographers, but we’re learning!

I hope you enjoyed our video, and more importantly, I hope it inspires you to create a vision board of your own. It’s super easy, but it can add up to great results! I hope you’ll share yours on our Facebook group, MMC Chat.

Inspiration in the Classroom

This coming week’s topic is about Vision Boards and this year I've used a different variation of a vision board in my classroom to inspire my students to realize their SMART Goals.

Inspiration Board

Several weeks ago I wrote about using One Word and S.M.A.R.T. Goals in the classroom. At the beginning of the new year, I like to teach my students about goal-setting. Goals have always been very important to me. If we don’t set goals, how will we grow?

I always start by having my students write a letter to their future selves. In their letter, they must describe some goals that they have for the year and how they want to achieve them. I encourage them to dream big when they are coming up with their initial goals. When they are done, I ask them if their goals are SMART.

At this point, the students have given me a random selection of goals ranging from becoming the next great ballplayer to becoming rich enough to buy the things they want in life. Some have more practical goals like passing math class for the year or doing well on their upcoming state tests. Asking the students if their goals are SMART usually stumps them until I explain that SMART means “specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.” Then I ask my students to make their goals more specific. 

For example, if their goal is to have money, I ask them how they can have more money. The answer is usually something along the lines of getting a job. After a series of questions (you can find them here), they are able to write a more accessible goal, such as finding a job by the end of May. Once they have written their goal, they can begin planning the steps that they need to take and measuring out how long it will take to achieve that goal.

Normally, I also have my students choose a focus word for the year and we discuss One Word. This year, I decided to do something different and inspire (my word) my students to find ways to inspire others. One way I did this was to have my students find inspirational quotes to match their SMART goals. Afterward, my students made quote posters displaying their favorite quotes from their research. In the hallway outside my classroom, I made a huge quote collage (or vision board) to inspire other classes as they pass my classroom. The students, themselves, also enjoy looking at their posters in the hallway and reading what inspires their classmates. All in all, it is a fun activity to start the year off with.

I want to hear from my readers about what inspires them. If you have a favorite quote please drop it in the comments below or continue the conversation here on our Facebook group.

The Magic of Words

Hey, this is Amber and I want to ask you one question: How can one word impact your year? As an English teacher and a writer, words are, in a sense, my life. Words can be a powerful thing. They can lift a person up or they can bring them down. Words can be magical and they can be detrimental. Choosing one word to motivate you can have a lasting impact that will set the tone for your year.

Years ago, when I first started teaching, I was looking for an enlightenment exercise to do with my students in January. Later, I will talk about the goal-setting exercises that I do with my students in January, but in the process of teaching my students goal-setting, I ran across a book by Jon Gordon called “One Word that Will Change Your Life” (linked below).

Jon Gordon’s idea came as an alternative to the endless New Year’s resolutions that people make every year. Instead of making resolutions, you pick one word to drive your year. The word is meant to be a motivational power word to impact all the dimensions of your life: mental, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, and financial.

So, I challenge my students to come up with ONE word to drive their year every January. Afterward, we do activities and writing assignments that incorporate our words. One thing that Gordon talks about is making a sort of vision board or painting with his word and hanging it in his house to remind him of his yearly motivation. One of the activities that I do with my students incorporates their words and I add them to the classroom word wall. Students have to make a small poster/vision board incorporating their words. They cut out or print pictures that inspired or had to do with their word. After implementing this in my classroom, I also choose a word and make a vision board of my own for the classroom. We will be talking about Vision Boards in an upcoming “Goals, Girl!” episode as well.

My word for 2021 was “forward” indicating that I am always moving forward in my life. After a long, few years of moving backward, I decided that I never wanted to move back again and always move forward.

My word for 2022 will be “inspire” because I want to inspire people by sharing my past experiences on this blog and our podcast.

I look forward to hearing from you. What is your one little word?

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