Soundtracks

I'm Brian Martin, a second grade teacher who find so much joy and fulfillment in what I do. Being in the classroom for almost 20 years, I know all about the time, effort and energy that you are continuously pouring into those you serve. That's why each week, I'm going to bring you an inspiring message to give you a little joy, and help fill your cup back up. Thank you for being here. And welcome to the teaching champions podcast. What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. Is anybody outside of themselves, that summer break seems to be flying by. I know, during the school year, there's gonna be long moments. But the end of the school year comes in you say to yourself, where did the year go? Now I think the same thing happens with summer. But it seems to go into hyperspeed. And it's all good, though. I hope that you are starting to feel refreshed, recharged, and maybe you're starting to get that itch to get back at it again. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we still got a lot of summer left. Now we're going to continue with the summer series and focusing on us. We've talked about lessons from the Four Agreements, and how to win friends and influence people and how they relate to us in our own lives. I'd also challenge you though, think about how we can incorporate this into our classrooms and share them with our students. You see, these are skills and strategies that all of us need from those young children to the oldest among us. Today, we're going to be talking about some thoughts from the book soundtracks by john a cuff. When we talk about soundtracks, we're talking about self talk, those messages that you tell yourself over and over again. And have you ever struggled with your own soundtracks, the words that you speak to yourself, what we say to ourselves, it matters. You can build yourself up with your words, you can fill yourself with confidence, your soundtracks can help you handle the curveballs that life throws at you. Or the soundtracks, the words that you listen to in your head. They can make you feel weak, they can crumble your confidence. They can hold you back in so many ways. And that's why it's so important that we learn about the soundtracks. And one thing that I like to do is I listened to a lot of professional speakers give keynote speeches. And I've heard so many professional speakers talk about the biggest regrets that we will have in our lives is not what we did, that the biggest regrets we'll have is what we didn't do. And first second, think about the role that our soundtracks play in holding ourselves back. Now, every time I hear someone talk about regret, it makes me cringe. And I'm gonna be honest, that throughout my entire life, I've struggled with broken soundtracks, I look at every facet of my life, from athletics, to the military, to teaching, and I look at the role that soundtracks have played in it honestly hurts. And maybe you can relate. Maybe you understand how, when you tell yourself you're not good enough, you're not athletic enough, you're not capable. You're not knowledgeable enough, are you start making comments and verbally making self fulfilling prophecies like, I always fail. I always miss those shots. I can't do that. Those broken, hurtful, painful soundtracks, they don't do us any good. And this is something I'm so passionate about. Because it's wreaks havoc on the experience that I've had. And that 42 I'm in the second half of my life. There's a lot of doors that have closed and experiences that I'm never gonna have. And I truly want to learn about self talk as much as I can and pass it along to you to the athletes that I work with to my students. Anyone else is willing to listen. Because there are sound tracks that may have stopped us in the past. But they don't have to stop us today. And it's time that we use our words to make us stronger, to make us more confident, to make us ready to face the challenges that are in our way. So here are a few strategies from john a cuffs book soundtracks. In this theater, a cuff says, we need to look at our soundtracks, and identify the helpful ones and the ones that are broken, that are pulling us down. And he says to do this, we ask ourselves three questions. First, is it true? We often tend to think that if we think it, that it has to be real, but the truth of the matter is, we have 1000s upon 1000s of thoughts a day, and many of them have very little validity, we can't always control what pops into our head. And we can get stuck on those broken sound tracks, and they get stuck on repeat, and they take root in our mind, and they clutter our hat. Now, if you receive serious diagnosis from a doctor, you would seek a second opinion. So do the same thing with your thoughts. When those negative thoughts are swirling in your head? Ask, is it true? And if in the moment you find yourself saying yes, then ask yourself, Is it true 100% of the time. And as you ask yourself these questions, you're going to see that these fruitless thoughts that we've latched on to, they truly don't have the validity that we thought they did a second question to ask yourself, Is it helpful? Does it move you forward? Or keep you stuck? does it lead to a decision? Or does it limit a decision? Does it generate action, or apathy? or thoughts aren't helping us move forward? Then it's time to get rid of these broken thoughts? So ask yourself, Is it helpful? Question number three. The last question that we should be asking ourselves, and it is, is our thought kind, we may think our soundtracks are true, we may think our soundtracks are helpful. But are they kind? Listen to that soundtrack in your head a few times. After listening to it? Do you feel stronger? Do you feel better? Do you feel more empowered, ready to take on the day? How about this, that soundtrack that you've been listening to? that you've been holding on to? Would you say this to a friend? Think about that for a second? There are certain things that we will say to ourselves over and over again, that we would never say to a friend. So why are you saying it to yourself? Pay attention to what today? What sound checks if you've been listening to yourself? and ask yourself? Is this thought true? Is it true 100% of the time? Is it helpful? Is it kind we have to recognize the words that we speak into ourselves. And if it's broken and harmful, we want to retire and we want to replace them with new and empowering soundtracks. Mr. acheive also talks about borrowing soundtracks from the best because creating soundtracks and power us is sometimes easier said than done. So he says, listen to others and take their soundtracks and it can be from famous individuals that we hear on podcasts on YouTube, or their social media. Or we can get amazing soundtracks just by listening to our family and our friends. And three of my favorite sound bites that I use and go to often. One is from john Gordon. And he's an author and big time in the positivity and he talks about, you can rise and whine or you can rise and shine. And I go through this when I need to snap out of a funk when I wake up on that wrong side of the bed, and I need to adjust my demeanor for the day. I tell myself, you can rise and whine or you can rise and shine. Another quote that I go to often another quote That I go to off and as by Miss Oprah Winfrey. And when I'm at work I go to this often, or another quote that I go to often is by Miss Oprah Winfrey. And she says, You're responsible for the energy you create for yourself. And you're responsible for the energy you bring to others. And I use that, to remind myself, that no matter what the outside world is like, around me, that I'm responsible for what I bring to the world each and every single day. Another soundtrack that I listened to, is from one of my favorite mindset teachers right now. And that's a gentleman by the name of David Goggins is a former Navy SEAL, altron durance athlete, a pretty intense individual. And he has a ton of motivational videos out there. And one of his sayings comes from when he was talking about going through SEAL training. And one of the things that Navy SEALs have to do during training is they have to carry boats over their heads as a team, and they have to run up and down the beach with them. And so one of the sayings is, who's going to carry the boat. And what he means by this is, when things are tough, when you're worn down, when you're hurting, who is going to step up, lift that boat over their head, and keep pushing forward? Well, when I was running a marathon, a few years ago, I had gone out way too fast. And by mile 18, I was all aboard the struggle bus. I'm all by myself out there on the course, I still had eight miles to go. So I started channeling my inner David Goggins. And I repeated this saying, over and over in my head, who's going to carry the boat, who's going to carry the boat. And honestly, it helped me slowly get through those last few miles. And as you can see, it doesn't have to mean anything to anyone out the soundtrack. It just has to resonate with you. So listen, we can learn from everyone around us. If you hear a soundtrack that you like, write it down. We hear things are we come up with ideas in our head and say we're going to hold on to it for later, but later comes and we forget. So start collecting those soundtracks, write them down, share them with those you love. Because the words that we say those soundtracks that we listen to, they matter. I encourage you to think about ways that you can incorporate this into the classroom. self talk plays a huge role in our lives. opportunities have been missed. self sabotage has taken place, doors have been closed, all because of giving power to broken soundtracks. And if we're honest, there's not a lot of extra time within the school day. But I'll ask, how important is it to the success of our champions, that they learn about the sound tracks that run through their mind, and that they gain an understanding of how to get rid of the broken ones. And they learn how they can create their own that's going to empower and embolden them. And if you want to get a much more detailed look into this, check out john Akers book soundtracks, this was recommended to me. And if you're into this content, then I definitely say check it out. This was the first time that I've read a book is in this got a lot of great information in it. And it's written in a very entertaining style that makes it really easy to read. Thank you for being part of the teaching champions podcast, we encourage we support we lift each other up. And if you could subscribe, rate or leave a review. I greatly appreciate it, as it helps more educators see it, and it's all about getting a positive message out to one another. And to always remember, it doesn't matter if you're from rural America, to urban America, to Canada, to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on the same mission. And we're always better together. My challenge for you this week is actually a two part challenge. First, really take time to reflect on the soundtracks that you're listening to their soundtracks, in our head that are in the background that are suddenly stuck on repeat, and we may not recognize them. We may not notice how they're affecting how we show up the world. Subconsciously, pay attention Think about those three questions. Are these thoughts true? Are they helpful? Are they can take a hard look at them. What broken soundtracks had influence over you in need to be replaced. And the second part of the challenge is to try and see how many soundtracks you can collect this week and write them down. We're forever students, everyone we meet, whether they're young or old, and no matter what walk of life they come from, they can be our teacher. So listen, and collect some amazing soundtracks. I hope you have an awesome week. Keep being amazing, my friends. And as we go out into this week, may you step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions up. Have a great week, everybody.