Fishful Thinking Helping Parents & Educators Raise Optimistic Kids October 20, 2011

The 5 Ingredients  Optimism  Emotional Awareness  Goal Setting / Hope  Resilience  Empowerment

Optimism  Optimism is the skill of focusing on the positive – without denying the negative.  Channel one’s energy toward what is controllable.  Expect good things to happen and work toward creating positive change.  Parents - create an environment that fosters positive emotions and the belief in possibilities.

Emotional Awareness  Identify and express feelings  Have empathy for what others are feeling.  It’s the building block of a healthy emotional life.  Children have an easier time connecting with others  Parents - help your children express their feelings in healthy ways and learn how to cope.

Goal Setting / Hope  Hope isn’t passively wishing and waiting for something to happen.  Hope  drive to set & pursue goals, take risks and initiate action  Hope fuels problem-solving  Helps children develop personal strengths and social resources  Parents - teach your children how to  set positive goals  develop a system of appropriate rewards  promote strategies of thinking

Resilience  Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks  Learn from failure  Be motivated by challenges  Believe in one’s own abilities to deal with the stress and difficulties in life  Critical to a child’s overall success in life - it can be learned  Parents - talk to your children in ways that build their ability to thrive no matter what life puts in their path.

Empowerment  Empowerment (or self-efficacy ) is the belief in one’s self  Believe that they are effective in the world  Have learned their strengths and weaknesses  Dream big - because they believe in their capacity to work for their dreams.  Parents – can help build a sense of competence and mastery.

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