YAAS 2 What is Your Brag & Blab? Let’s have it!

Dear Difference Maker,

I think you will agree with me that there is nothing like SUCCESS to Reignite your Light.  Focusing on something that’s great about yourself and the things that you do best can instantly lift your spirits and bring you back to a beautiful, lit-up world.

When children would arrive each morning in my classroom, they would excitedly line up to tell me about some kind of cool thing that had happened for them since I saw them last.

It occurred to me one day that their wonderful success stories needed to be shared with everyone, so I decided to make it a “thing” and we started having Brag & Blab time.

We did two activities each morning to get our minds ready for learning.

 1) Journal about our feelings and preferences for the first 10-15 minutes.

2) Have Brag & Blab time in which anybody and everybody who had a success from the day before could come to the front of the room and share.

Initially, it was only the most outgoing students who ran up to grab the spotlight.  But it wasn’t long before every single student was engaged and empowered to share something – even the little stuff – from the front of the room.

I wanted kids to know that every single one of them was special in their own right and that there was enough greatness and success to go around for everyone.

If I were in the classroom today, I’d add a third activity with a mixture of dancing, yoga, tai chi, meditation and stating affirmations out loud to calm, rewire and ready their minds and accelerate learning.

You can learn more about the academic accelerant benefits of Brag & Blab in my 9 Weeks to a Safe, All-Inclusive Classroom for a Make A Difference Year Curriculum.

In the upcoming days ahead, we’re going to be looking at how simply owning our inner Success Power can Reignite our Lights.

Reaching out …

BRAG & BLAB

A Proud Football Momma Moment came unexpectedly for me this past April at the last game of the COVID Spring High School Football Season.  My son, the head football coach (standing in the middle with his rain hat on) was having his after-game talk with his team.  They had just lost a gut-wrenching, nail-biter.

Everyone was initially downtrodden until he pulled out the YOU ARE A SUCCESS card and started telling them what winners they were as young men.  How proud he was of them for how they showed up and played from behind to almost win in the last second.  How they had left it all on the football field.  They never quit even though they’d been down 21 points at the half.

He talked about their character, their courage, their unity, and how THIS was what would shape their lives for the greater good.  Their ability to take defeat and make it about growth toward bigger and greater successful life to come.

He talked about how they were family. How thankful he was for their parents as part of this family within a family.

And as he did, I began to notice them wiping their eyes, sitting up straighter, starting to laugh at some of the funny remarks he made about them.  Then I noticed the parents wiping their eyes, standing up taller, smiling, laughing, and when he was done, everyone stood and cheered as if they had won the game.   I guess, they actually did.  The game of life.  I still get wet eyes thinking about this.

I know that you may have been through a soul-crushing time here in the last several years, maybe because of COVID, maybe because of life’s offerings.  But today, I just want you to remember that …

Nothing is anything until you call it. If you call whatever is happening in your life right now a success, you will be energized by the opportunity smack dab in front of you.

I’d love to know your Brag & Blab.

Reach for it and then click here to share it with me.  Send me as many as you can think of.  I want to know.

(There is no limit on the number of B&Bs you can have!)

Keep It Simple & Straightforward