Excited or Nervous: The Power of Words
Good afternoon, everybody. I wanted to talk to you today about the idea about how our vocabulary affects our mindset, and our mindset then is able to determine whether we are successful at something or not.
I was doing private lessons yesterday with a handful of students. We have got our black belt camp starting in a couple of weeks, and the private lessons with were with a lot of the candidates for that camp. While talking to them, I asked them a simple question,
“Are you excited about camp? Or are you nervous about camp?”
Well, most of them said, “I’m both”.
They don’t really make a distinction between the two, or which one is more relevant. So are you more excited? Or are you more nervous? We want to be able to work with kids about getting in touch with their feelings and emotions so that they have a better understanding of what it is that they are truly feeling, so they can better deal with it.
Think about the process. If you are coming into blackbelt camp and you are nervous. Nervous basically means you are not sure that you know what you are supposed to know, or that you don’t believe in your abilities to be successful. Excited means I’m ready to take on this challenge. I don’t know what’s going to happen just yet, but it’s going to be great, and I’m going to do my best.
Just imagine taking that process to anything in life. If you approach it as excited, you are going to be able to be invested, you are going to be engaged and you are going to be able to give 100%.
Just the opposite, if you are nervous, or if you are always afraid. Fear prevents us from taking action, and not being able to take action and just being stuck where you are at and that is no way to live. So you want to be able to take this concept and work with the kids on a daily basis. Are you excited to do this or are you nervous?
Now there are times where nervous is good. If I I’m standing up on the roof of a two story house and I’m looking over, it’s okay to be a little bit nervous saying I don’t want to go too much further because I might fall and hurt myself. So I am not saying that nervous is never a good idea. Unfortunately, all too often, people live in the state of nervous or fear, all day, every day and that prevents them from being successful.
Find some things that make your child excited, and help give them the vocabulary to help them take action. Learn that excited and nervous are close. But you definitely want to feel excited, because you are prepared, you are ready to be successful or you are ready to learn and be better. Either way you win!