Gifts of Character

May 13, 2015

3 Characteristics That Defines Teamwork

If you were the leader of a team, what would you like to see from each member of your team? When all of your answers come in, teamwork comes from all team members displaying these 3 characteristics:

GREAT EFFORT
GREAT ATTITUDE
BEING FAIR

In our class last night one more thought came forward and that was TRUST. Trust is important for teamwork to be its best. You gain the trust of others when you demonstrate great effort, great attitude and are fair to all concerned.

Our most important team is our family. Whether we are young or old, the parent or the child, we can ask ourselves if we are being the kind of teammate we would like to lead every day. Both children and adults can ask: “Are we giving all of our responsibilities great effort, with our best, most positive attitude and are we fair to all concerned.”

If we are, then we are demonstrating great Teamwork.

#inourhouse

May 11, 2015

Family is our most important team

While we will be on many teams in our life, ranging from sports to business – the most important team we will ever be on is the one that we are closest too – FAMILY. How do we demonstrate our teamwork with family members? What are the characteristics that we have within us that we can grow and show, that demonstrates teamwork.

A team is not just about one person, it is about working together in UNITY to reach a common goal. The team leaders (parents) need to agree on what they want the team to be known for and accomplish. Then the team (all family members) can work in UNITY with JOYFULNESS to accomplish those goals. Imagine if every family understood the PURPOSE of the team and then went about JOYFULLY working with others on the team, knowing that all of them were TRUSTWORTHY to do their part in reaching that goal.

All families can work like a great team, if they have a Mission, Vision, Core Values that everyone on the team (family) is working to fulfill. If our family is not working in UNITY at this time, could it be that not everyone is on the same page? They may not know what the vision is or what their role is in making that vision come true. Each of us can make our team stronger by doing our part or what is best for the team (family) with KINDNESS and LOVE. In fact just being GRATEFUL for our teammates is a good start to helping everyone on the team to reach the goal of the team.

Lets begin our journey of Family Teamwork by remembering that UNITY is a powerful virtue that brings people together, valuing them and practicing peace in all circumstances.

Did you notice the virtues / gifts of character that were in bold letters?

April 12, 2015

Have you been robbed of Gratitude?

While there is no one single group in the world who are intent on robbing us of our feelings of fulfillment, happiness and satisfaction with life – there are many things that when allowed, can rob us of all the feelings of success that we could have. Gratitude is appreciating, recognizing and being thankful for what we have, those in our life, and the experiences we have in our life. How do we become more grateful and how is it possible to lose those feelings?

What can rob us of our gratitude, satisfaction and happiness?

All those 40,000 plus commercials we view every year promoting ‘things’ that we see others going after that soon become ‘things’ that we feel like we need too.
Waking up on the wrong side of the bed, our attitude. Allowing one thing in our day or in our yesterday to determine how we treat ourselves and others. Losing our appreciation and recognition of all the good that others have blessed us with – because one person upset us during the day
Hanging out with those that can only see the negative side of any situation or conversation. The more we associate with negative people – the less we appreciate the our circumstances.

What will help us grow our gratitude?

Recognizing that success is not just in our career and education. Success can and should be appreciated in our home life, in our hobbies and recreation as well as our giving to others.
Taking a moment each day to record on paper what we have to be grateful for during our day.
Spending some time to appreciate yourself for what you have, or what you have done or received during that day. Yes be gracious to yourself.

During this month lets all lead the way for our own sake and that of our children by expressing our gratitude. Your feelings of happiness and success will grow with each act of gratitude you perform.

April 7, 2015

Gratitude or taken for granted?

When any person feels as though they are being taken for granted – it hurts. None of us want to think that the services that we provide are just received without any thought of appreciation. This is true in our personal relationships, with our children and in our career.

In reality though when things are going well – or the way we expect or would like them to go – we have a tendency to not notice or acknowledge. When things do not go the way we wanted, expected or ‘need’ them to go – we are all over it.

This is the negative to positive ratio. What do we generally see first when we are looking at our child’s report card? (the positive or the negative, the A or the D). When we looking at our child’s room (the clean or not clean)? When do we speak up to an employee (when they made a mistake or given extra service)? The list goes on.

What each of us crave is to experience the gratitude and appreciation of others. Studies have shown though that each of us receive 7 times as many negative messages to the positive ones every day. We have grown to expect that others will only see the negative (and comment on it) rather than see our gifts and positive contributions.

If you want to make a difference in the life of others – see the good in them first, before looking for their areas that may need growing. Instead of focusing on how good we are – think about the good things that others have done for us. Start with simple acts of gratitude – a smile, saying thank you, or writing a note of appreciation.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
—William Arthur Ward

April 3, 2015

Life Skills: Gratitude – The Definition

Each month we will discuss a life skill with all of our students. This month the word is Gratitude. This word will be defined in the following ways for our students.

Young students: Gratitude means: I am so thankful!

Older students: Gratitude means: Appreciating, recognizing, and being thankful for what you have.

Each age group has a worksheet that parents can use to continue the discussion at home with their children, and one for adults to allow them to think more deeply about the skill and how it applies to them. Would you like to receive the worksheet? Stop by our studio at 133 Gibralter Avenue in Annapolis, MD and tell us the age of your child. We will give you a worksheet and invite you to watch Mr. Joe discuss the word with the students in class. You can also follow our discussions here on this website.

If you would like to become a member of Balanced Life Skills, come TRY CLASSES FOR FREE. We are not your typical after school activity, in fact we are an education center, working with our students on physical skills along with empowering families with compassion, awareness and respect – creating a culture of peace – through the arts. We believe in every child and will build their confidence. Balanced Life Skills serves the community and encourages each student to do the same.

April 2, 2015

Health – mental and physical equally important

When we think of health many times our thoughts go to what we are eating, how we are exercising or are we getting enough sleep. If we have been through a serious illness, we may be concerned about finding a cure or a way of not having it recur in our life or that of others.

Today though I want to talk about our mental health. Give our children and ourselves permission to say to a trusted friend or parent:

“I am feeling very sad.
My stress is getting greater than I feel like I can deal with.
I am frustrated with my situation.
I keep exploding in anger at people I love. “

Some would say it is not my personality to talk about those feelings. We know though that bottling them up inside ourselves can be dangerous not only mentally but also on our physical body. I remember some 25 years ago feeling so stressed that I literally felt as if I was going to have a heart attack. There were pains in the heart, faster pulse rate and an anxiety that was more than I could deal with. I went to the hospital, I was so scared.

I learned to talk about what I was feeling. I learned how to lean on others when I really needed to and to take better care of myself. So please – take the mental health of ourselves and our children just as seriously as you do the physical health. Doing so will help you to be a much healthier person and happier too!