IALAC
When I was in Grade 10, I attended a Leadership Skills Development Weekend. As this was a looong time ago, I am sure you can appreciate how innovative and progressive my high school truly was. There was so many opportunities to take advantage of, but it wasn't due to the policy of the School Board, it was due to the School Board being able to attract such vibrant, innovative, and visionary teachers.
To be fair, this wasn't labeled as a Leadership Skills Development Weekend, it was a Student Match retreat, but it really was a Leadership Skills Development weekend. Student Match was one of those visionary programs led by two teachers who volunteered their time after hours. It matched high school students with elementary students "at risk". It was a mentoring program.
One of the stories that we learned was that we all woke up with a full IALAC sign on them. I Am Lovable And Capable. The examples that we were taught were applicable to high school students, but they can also apply to adults.
You wake up feeling confident, your IALAC sign fully intact.
Your spouse berates you for something you didn't do right the night before. A little piece of your sign is ripped.
You get off in traffic and become frustrated. Another piece ripped. You arrive at work late and your co-workers tattles to your boss. A bigger piece ripped.
Another co-worker sees this and doesn't think this is fair so bring you a cup of coffee. A piece of your sign is restored.
You may a huge sale on a cold call. You are elated and your sign is not only restored to full capacity, but it increases in size.
Your boss reminds you that even with this sale, you are well below your monthly target, your sign has a huge rip.
This goes on through the day. At the end of the day, you look at your sign in the mirror and that tells you how you feel about yourself. If your sign is big, you really feel Lovable and Capable. If your sign is mostly ripped or unrecognizable, you feel like crap. Your sign the next morning, won't be fully restored and you will be starting with a small sign.
You would think that the message we learned is to take care of our IALAC signs. But, that wasn't the message that we learned. We learned not to worry about our signs, but to pay attention to other IALAC signs. If you see someone down with a ripped sign, take a moment to give that person a compliment or do something positive for them to remind them that they are indeed lovable and capable. Spend the day looking for IALAC signs that are need of repair. At the end of the day, you won't even have to look at your sign, you will already know that you are lovable and capable !!!
Common sense, perhaps. Perhaps we can make this common sense common practice.
#commonsenserevolution
To be fair, this wasn't labeled as a Leadership Skills Development Weekend, it was a Student Match retreat, but it really was a Leadership Skills Development weekend. Student Match was one of those visionary programs led by two teachers who volunteered their time after hours. It matched high school students with elementary students "at risk". It was a mentoring program.
One of the stories that we learned was that we all woke up with a full IALAC sign on them. I Am Lovable And Capable. The examples that we were taught were applicable to high school students, but they can also apply to adults.
You wake up feeling confident, your IALAC sign fully intact.
Your spouse berates you for something you didn't do right the night before. A little piece of your sign is ripped.
You get off in traffic and become frustrated. Another piece ripped. You arrive at work late and your co-workers tattles to your boss. A bigger piece ripped.
Another co-worker sees this and doesn't think this is fair so bring you a cup of coffee. A piece of your sign is restored.
You may a huge sale on a cold call. You are elated and your sign is not only restored to full capacity, but it increases in size.
Your boss reminds you that even with this sale, you are well below your monthly target, your sign has a huge rip.
This goes on through the day. At the end of the day, you look at your sign in the mirror and that tells you how you feel about yourself. If your sign is big, you really feel Lovable and Capable. If your sign is mostly ripped or unrecognizable, you feel like crap. Your sign the next morning, won't be fully restored and you will be starting with a small sign.
You would think that the message we learned is to take care of our IALAC signs. But, that wasn't the message that we learned. We learned not to worry about our signs, but to pay attention to other IALAC signs. If you see someone down with a ripped sign, take a moment to give that person a compliment or do something positive for them to remind them that they are indeed lovable and capable. Spend the day looking for IALAC signs that are need of repair. At the end of the day, you won't even have to look at your sign, you will already know that you are lovable and capable !!!
Common sense, perhaps. Perhaps we can make this common sense common practice.
#commonsenserevolution
In that vein, I appreciate your blog!
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