Presented by Dr. Wesley Wilson Director, Developmental Mathematics

Don Miguel Ruiz puts forth the idea that we live in a world of thoughts and dreams. The reality we create is not true but one that is influenced by our own events and experiences.

This is why people can view the same incident or hear the same conversation and yet have completely different interpretations from them. In education, we know this as perspective or “framework”.

We all have internal dialogue or voices that tell us things to do or remind us of things from our past. These voices are what the Toltec called mitote. We hear these voices constantly throughout the day and night…

The only way to make sense of those voices all talking at once is to listen to those that we trust and believe. Those voices are NOT always the best ones or the ones that build us up.

Humans are the ONLY species on the planet that make a mistake once and yet punish ourselves for it many times. Other animals make a mistake and learn from it BUT they move on.

To punish yourself is to “believe” in the voice that tells you that you made a mistake and then to listen to that voice over and over again…

In order for us to break that cycle of crowd noise and punishing ourselves for past mistakes, we must create a new perspective for us to operate under…

 Be Impeccable With Your Word  Don’t Take Anything Personally  Don’t Make Assumptions  Always Do Your Best

 Be honest.  Be respectful.  Stay true to your word.

The most important part of this agreement for many is… YOUR WORDS HAVE STRENGTH – especially for students that listen to what we say and internalize it… EVEN WHEN WE DON’T THINK THEY ARE LISTENING!!

 What someone does or says should have no meaning to us and shouldn’t affect how we think, feel or operate.  Maybe someone else needs to express an emotion or frustration and it has nothing to do with us. To internalize what they have done or said is to believe something that we may not be or we accept their perspective – true or not.

 We have a tendency to fill in the gaps in information according to our past perspective.  We listen to inner dialogue voices (normally that tell us the worst) or create a whole perspective that is most of the time NOT accurate. Our students do things we don’t understand because we are not in their world. To make sense of it, we try to fill in gaps or relate it to what we went through or what we “think” has happened.

 No one will be perfect 100% of the time. However, the only way to rest soundly is to know that in the situation and with the strengths you have, you did the best you could. We ask our students to try again even when they fail. We should ask the same of ourselves when something doesn’t go well or could be handled differently.

Presented by Dr. Wesley Wilson Director, Developmental Mathematics