Imagine if your teen had a positive attitude and a clear plan for school or college prep. Teens preparing for college often struggle with being engaged or excited throughout the process.
Parents also face challenges. You may be feeling that you don’t know how to best direct your teen during this process. You may be wishing you felt more positive, too.
It can be difficult to keep negative thoughts at bay. Beliefs and ideas around college prep can often be limited or negative. Parents and students are often unaware of the about of limiting beliefs they have! I’ve created this video to help parents and students who have felt stuck with a negative attitude.
This strategy will help you get your limiting beliefs in check and guide you to create empowering beliefs, which will then help you identify solutions and keep a positive attitude.
Have you or your teen ever found yourselves thinking things like, “I’m not good enough to do this,” or “This is going to be terrible,” or “I could never be good at that”?
These are things that you say to yourself, but the world around you has actually lead you to believe them. Either someone has said these things to you or some other negative influence in your environment has shaken your confidence.
Do you want your life to be dictated by the limitations of others? Or do you want to determine what you desire and find a way that works for you? In order to have a positive attitude about making decisions, start by recognizing the negative thoughts and beliefs that are trying to direct your decisions for you.
Negative thoughts limit your potential; this is why we will refer to them as limiting beliefs.
Some common limiting beliefs of parents and teens preparing for college include:
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“College prep is going to be stressful.”
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“I’m not going to be impressive enough on my applications next year.”
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“There is no use in working so hard for my goals.”
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“I have to do as much extra work as possible, no matter what.”
You may not even be aware that you believe these things. Consider the impact this could have when approaching college prep and building the future for your teen! Your student may be writing the story of their life using limiting beliefs like these.
What thoughts, feelings or beliefs do you or your student have that may be draining or limiting? Take time to notice a few of the limiting beliefs that are in your (or your student’s) way and a positive attitude will come more naturally. Teens preparing for college are up against enough and don’t need any additional pressure that comes from negativity.
Once you identify your limiting beliefs they will start to have less power over your thoughts and actions. You can even change your limiting belief to an empowering belief.
A simple way of shifting a limiting belief into an empowering belief is by telling yourself that you can do well instead of telling yourself that you can’t.
Does that feel painful? Perhaps hard to believe? These are common reactions. Luckily, you don’t have to fully believe the empowering belief yet. Noticing how it feels to change “can’t” to “can” may, however, illuminate how strongly you have believed the negative assumption in the past.
Note also that choosing an empowering belief is not pretending that problems don’t exist. Many obstacles and challenges exist for teens preparing for college! This exercise is about being aware of the ways in which you face an obstacle.
Getting rid of limiting beliefs and creating empowering beliefs starts with that awareness, and then ways of designing a genuinely positive attitude start to emerge. Feeling in control when facing obstacles will slowly start to feel more natural, because it will be clearer that you have a choice in the way you look at them.
Imagine it this way: If you are trying to solve a problem, yet you believe that the problem is not possible to solve, it will be a lot harder to solve that problem. Alternatively, if you tell yourself that something is possible, it doesn’t necessarily become easy, but your brain is then able to engage in actively seeking options and solutions.
Those options and solutions would be missed by if you had a limiting belief that the task or goal is impossible. You’re writing your life story with what you choose to believe. What story are you telling yourself?
Visit my video on our Youtube channel and share in a comment! I would love to know:
What negative beliefs might be limiting you?
What empowering belief would you like to change that into?
If you or your teen are struggling to maintain a positive attitude toward college prep or other life transitions, contact me for a free phone consultation! A positive attitude comes from within you, but that doesn’t mean you have to create it alone.
This is one of the many tools that we at Teen LAUNCH help students learn to use at our one-of-a-kind college prep workshop, Carve Your Own Path. Carve Your Own Path is the only college prep experience designed by independent college counselor, a life coach for teens and a therapist for teens.
The workshop offers a whole-person view as your teen designs their college career and plan for fulfillment. Learn more about Teen LAUNCH at http://www.teenlaunch.org
Please share this article and video so that other parents and teens preparing for college can become aware of their limiting beliefs and create empowering beliefs, too!