Positive Self-Talk and Achieving the Impossible

One of the biggest roadblocks to success in school is negative self-talk. That’s when you think in your brain, “I can’t do this.” As soon as you start thinking that, your brain shuts right down. Of course, once your brain has shut down, you can’t learn. This is a vicious cycle! And very frustrating!

This week my fourth graders tackled long division. After my glorious lesson involving the mnemonic device “Does McDonald’s Sell Cheeseburgers?” (Divide, multiply, subtract, check, bring down), only two people grasped the concept.

We kept working and working on it and more and more students caught on. But not before one student put their head down on their desk. I knew the student was thinking that deadly phrase, “I can’t do this.”

Negative self- talk happens to all of us at one time or another in our lives. The best strategy is to recognize it, stop it, and turn it into positive pep-talk. The absolute worst thing you can do is give up. That’s what this student did. As I continued to demonstrate, they refused to watch. They sat there at their desk with their eyes squinched shut. As a result, they are very far behind the rest of the class who didn’t give up. The rest of the class is getting it.

And now those who have resisted learning their basic math facts are finding out how important those pesky facts are! They are able to do the long division but it takes them twice as long as those who have their basic facts memorized. I tried to warn them.

Here are some strategies when you get frustrated and start to hear “I can’t do this” in your head.

1. Picture a big stop sign. This will stop your negative self-talk.

2. Think “This is hard, but I’ll get it soon.”  Now picture the word "Go" in your head.

3. If you can, take a break. Go for a walk or shoot some hoops, etc.

4. Have a drink of water or a healthy snack.

5. Promise yourself a reward when you’re done.

6. Set a timer and get going! You can do this!!!

I hope you found this helpful! Have you ever overcome any negative self-talk? Please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!