Seuss Up Your Life - 5 Life Lesson from Dr. Seuss to Boost Your Motivation

Speaker 2 (01:26):

This week we celebrate Read Across America. So as your official stories that sing Lady, I feel it is my duty and my privilege to give you some guidance and encouragement through the lesson of Dr. Soth lesson number one today you are you. That is truer than true. There's no one alive who is youer than you. So do you have people in your life who criticize you? Is there someone in your life that wants you to be something you're not? Does social media stress you out and make you think that you're less than? Do you compare yourself to other people and always come up lacking if any of these statements is true for you? Remember the words of Dr. Seuss. You are the only you around. You are amazing and wonderful just as you are. No one else is exactly like you. You provide your own unique value to the world and to your students.

(02:33)

Looking at what other music teachers are doing on social media is sometimes helpful, but it can also be really stressful. Do you find yourself sometimes comparing yourself to these amazing music teachers with these amazing lesson plans? And does it seem like they come up with just the most brilliant things and you're sitting there going, mm I I don't that I'm as good as that music teacher? Well, I say try to remember your strengths. Instead of focusing on your weaknesses, try to speak to yourself positively. Instead of saying something like, I'm just not as creative as that other music teacher. Try saying, I am creative and unique in my own way. Instead of saying, I don't do that very well, try saying something like, I create the most amazing atmosphere and my students just love me in my classroom. You also want to be careful of negative self-talk.

(03:43)

It is so easy to get focused on the negative things in our life and really just talk about ourselves, look in the mirror and go, Ooh, look at that fla on my thighs. Or Oh my gosh, I hate the way my voice sounds. I wish it sounded more like that other lady who's on Instagram. You want to be careful about negative self-talk because talking negatively about yourself in your head can lead to stress, anxiety, and basically to thinking negatively about yourself and then doing things that are negative. And before you know it, you end up stressed out and unhappy. And we are not looking for that. We are looking to be happy music teachers. So instead of focusing on that negative self-talk, start a journal and write down three things you love about yourself every day. Before you know it, and I'm serious about this, start it today or, or get out a pad of paper.

(04:52)

It doesn't have to be an official journal, but get out a pad of paper and give yourself permission to love yourself. Give yourself permission to focus on the positive things about you. And before you know it, you will just always have something fun and positive to say about yourself. Lesson number two, why fit in when you were born to stand out? Don't you just love being different? I kind of do. And if you don't, well that's okay. You don't need to love being different, but you should focus on your uniqueness. What is special about you? The fact that you are different is what I like best about you. It's what I like best about all of my students and all of my friends. You should embrace your differences and enjoy being a little weird. If there are people in your world who don't enjoy your uniqueness, your specialness, then you don't really need them in your life.

(06:03)

While you're embracing your differences, you're also modeling for your students. You are telling them it's okay to be weird. I love to be silly in my classroom. I love to run around like a crazy person. I love to demonstrate, like I'll go in and I'll be like, boys and girls, you're like, and, and we really need to bring it down to, and you know, just do funny, silly things and kind of embrace that weirdness. It's okay to be weird. It's okay to wear your most ginormous trouble cliff earrings and your big flowery dress and just all of your fun things, your fun hat. It is okay to do that. It is okay to embrace who you are and what you love to do. And by doing that, you are going to show your students how to do it too. You are going to show them how to be comfortable being themselves.

(07:07)

Lesson number three. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Do you love where you are as a music teacher? Are you happy with how things are going in your music classroom? Is your home life fulfilling? Do you relax and get to go out with friends and have coffee or tea or an adult beverage? Do you have hobbies? Are you making music outside of your school day? If you are answering no to any of these questions, then remember that you and only you are able to change your situation. And it does not matter where you are in your life. If you are not happy, you can totally change direction, pivot, do something different. Look at your classroom and be like, you know what? I don't like the way things are going. I want to change things up.

(08:13)

And if you can't figure out how to change things up, then you can always reach out for help. Reach out to me, reach out to another music teacher, reach out to a colleague at work. Get some help. The only way to be happy is to create happy. So instead of using all of your energy to complain, which believe me, we all do, we're all guilty of this. Try creating some happiness. Reach out and find your joy. Do some pivoting, change things up. Run your classroom differently. Let go of the I have-tos and go instead for the I want tos. Change up the type of activities you're doing in your classroom or change up the types of activities you're doing at home. Or if you have always wanted to quilt or knit or learn how to take pictures, be a great photographer, then find a way to do that.

(09:19)

Give yourself permission to pivot and do something different than you've ever done before. If you're not happy, find ways to change it. Don't take word comb with you, don't plan on the weekend. Spend time with family and friends who enrich your life and make you feel good. Lesson number four, be who you are and say what you feel because those who don't mind matter and those who matter, saying this backwards, <laugh> lesson number four, be who you are and say what you feel. Because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. So as a young person, as a young woman, I would get horrified, I'm telling you. So embarrassed when someone would send food back at a restaurant or someone would complain, I mean, I would want to crawl under the table and it would even be situations like the server got something wrong and I would eat it anyway because, or drink it anyway, because I was mortified to ever complain.

(10:38)

And to me it felt like complaining. Now I don't know why, but at some point in my life I learned how to do things differently. Let me give you an example. We were on a flight on Southwest Airlines, which happens to be my all time favorite airlines. I am totally a super fan of Southwest Airlines for many reasons, and we'll get into that in another time. But this is one of the reasons that I am a super fan for Southwest Airlines because we were on a flight and we were waiting for our baggage, and I had this beautiful maroon bag and it was almost brand new and it came off the flight and it had a big scratch on the front of it. And I said to Randy, oh my gosh, look, this, they've kind of like messed up my bag and I'm so sad.

(11:32)

I really love this bag and I love the color. And I just was, I was really sad about it. So he was like, oh, Jeanette, they're not gonna do anything about it. So I said, well, we'll see. So I went into the office to the southwest Lake luggage office and I said, in a very polite, kind, cordial way, because that's how I am. I said, I wanted to show you that I had this bag that's almost brand new. And look, there's a big scratch on it that wasn't there when I put the bag on the flight and the lady said, hold on a minute. And she brought out a brand new bag. I mean, one of those, like with the, the cool wheels that turn every which way my bag had been material. And this bag was one of those hard shells. And I mean, it was a beautiful bag.

(12:23)

And she said, take everything out, put it in this bag. And this bag was brand new. Like she had to take it out of the packaging. She had to, um, take the labels off of it. And um, so I put everything in that bag and I left with a brand new bag. And that is one of the reasons that I'm a fan of Southwest. All that to say that I don't mind now, now I am in my fifties, but this has been going on for probably 15 years. That if a server gets something wrong or something comes out that I don't like, could be a drink, could be something that I'm eating, whatever. Um, I always order my salad dressing on the side. If it comes on the salad, I am now okay with saying to the server in a polite, respectful way, you know what, I, this isn't right, and could you please just take it back and make it right?

(13:19)

And I feel like as long as you're kind about it, that people are going to do what you want them to do. So I think it's always okay to express yourself. If you have big feelings about something, it's okay to express yourself. If you're unhappy with something, it's okay to talk about it with your partner. In fact, it's better to talk about it right away because I don't know about you. But if I don't talk about it right away, then it builds up and usually there will be an explosion and that's not a good thing. And then it's also always okay to talk to your students if they're doing something that you don't like. If they're, I have been known to say to my students, I spend so much time planning lessons for you and you are talking over me, and it is hurting my feelings because you know what?

(14:13)

I love you and I want the best for you, and I am trying to help you learn and you are hurting my feelings. And that is okay. Modeling how to talk about something that bothers you is a really good way to help your students learn how to deal with things better. If you don't like something, it's okay to tell them because guess what, if you don't talk about it, it's never going to get better. Lesson number five, today, I shall behave as if this is the day I will be remembered. You want to be well remembered by your students. You are part of their lives for literally years. How do you want them to remember you? Do you want them to remember you as that kind music teacher who helped them find joy in music, that person who changed their lives, that person who helped them figure out how to be kind to other people, the one who gave them the gifts of life through music?

(15:16)

Or do you want to be remembered the other way? So when I was in second grade, I had this amazing, wonderful teacher. And all I remember about her, besides the fact that she was so wonderful, was that she had pretty blonde hair, very long blonde hair, which I was always jealous of. And she let me work ahead with my s r a cards. And these were these little cards where you could read a story and then you could answer all these questions. And I loved to read and all I wanted to do was Reed. So she let me work ahead, fast forward to third grade, and I had another teacher who was very old school and would not let me work ahead. And in fact, I vividly remember sitting in a ginormous circle with all of the other students and somebody reading and struggling hard.

(16:12)

And at this point in my life, I did not have any patience for students who struggled hard with reading. And all I wanted to do was run screaming from the room because I was like, the word is it or the or, it really wasn't. I'm sure it was something a little bit trickier than that, but I was so frustrated. And so what I did is I took myself out of the situation and I was a little girl who did not like to get in trouble. I was a big people pleaser and I am still a people pleaser to this day. It is something that I fight with all the time, but I also was bored out of my mind. And so I would take myself out of this situation by writing stories and drawing pictures, and I absolutely loved to write stories. And this teacher, instead of honing that in me and allowing me to do it, just I got in trouble all the time for not doing what I was supposed to do.

(17:16)

And of course, I should have been completing my classwork, but I feel like she dealt with it in such a way that for the longest time I was scared to write. In fact, I convinced myself that I didn't like to write. And it wasn't until I was in college that I learned that I really loved to write and that I was really good at it. So the way you behave with your students is going to affect them, and sometimes it's going to affect them in a really big way. So be sure that you behave every day as if your students will remember you that day because they will be joyful in your teaching model. Happiness, model kindness. Be patient, be sincere, be honest, and use each class to start over. Even if you just had that class, remember that your next class is coming in excited about music. Take a deep breath and just move on. That's what I like my students to do, and that's what I try to do myself. Greet your next class with a smile, with a positive attitude. Today's theme is know yourself, be yourself, express yourself and love yourself. Do you want to be a happy music teacher? Do you want to be a happy person? Starting with those life lessons will go a long way towards getting you there. For more great motivation and inspiration, join my email community stories that sing.net/lesson plan sampler.

Speaker 4 (19:01):

Well, that's all I have for you today, but before I go, let me remind you, keep learning, keep growing, and keep being fabulous. You.