Motivation Vision Board by Charles Thompson

Finding a Mentor

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 04:28:56 UTC

A mentor is someone you look up to, even if they aren't in the same field, they can be a large help in making you into the kind of person you want to be. To this end, speak to those people you look up to, try and get what wisdom you can from them to become the kind of person both of you can be proud of. As an additional benefit, some mentors can open doors for you that may have been closed otherwise.

Mentors and Teaching

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 04:31:31 UTC

Mentors in education can be anything, from teachers from your childhood to teachers of old like Plato. Personally my mentors are all from my family, people who were teachers and can help guide me through the process of becoming a teacher from several different eras of teaching.

Know Your Strengths

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 04:42:31 UTC

Bringing out the best in yourself requires you to understand your own strengths, which itself means being able to look at yourself from different angles, and see where you do things better than the average person. By finding one's own strengths they are able to capitalize on them and make their lives better for it. In the realm of teaching, knowing your strengths allows for you to create lessons that you will be able to help others understand implicitly, but in that same vein, being able to see where others strengths lie will allow you to create lessons that benefit the class at large. In this way, as a teacher you will need to bring out the best in yourself to bring out the best in others, creating a cycle of improvement throughout the classroom.

Building your Self-Esteem

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 04:48:23 UTC

The best ways to build up your self-esteem is to be kind to yourself, allowing yourself to be carefree, recognizing your achievements, respecting your own abilities, and accepting challenges as they come. By doing all of these you create a mental environment that allows you to more effectively bring the best out of yourself. As a teacher, having self-esteem will also help you be more confident when you speak to your class, which itself will allow you to get your points across better, and hopefully keep the attention of the class, which itself will allow them to learn better and you to be a better teacher.

Make A Map!

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 04:56:59 UTC

By charting your life you create a gameplan or a map for where you are in life and where you would like to be, this allows for you to have a clear and focused goal. Doing so physically helps keep the idea fresh i your mind and has the added benefit of making the "map" more real as well. This kind of clear and consistent planning also helps against the challenges that come up, by letting you know where you need to go, even big changes can be planned for. As a teacher having a good plan allows you to be able to point to something and show the students, "This is where we are, this is where we need to be" it gives them clear and consistent goals, allowing them to understand how far they must go, while also showing them how far they have come. This kind of planning also helps the students get into the mindset of planning ahead and preparing for stuggles in their own lives.

Creating Opportunities

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 14:01:59 UTC

Opportunities don't grow on trees, they are rare and can be the start of a new chapter in your life, or just another good experience waiting to be had. To stop waiting for them to happen to you and to cultivate opportunities, you should set realistic goals, believe in yourself, take initiative, be willing to work hard, network and make connections, pay attention while being open to possibilities, be prepared and flexible, be curious and open, and don't fear failure. As a teacher, creating opportunities will also mean creating opportunities for your students, asking people who have the time to come in and talk with them can be helpful, but there is opportunity in many things, and showing the students how to create their own opportunities will allow them to get much more than just information out of a class.

Fail to Plan and you Plan to Fail

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 14:21:16 UTC

Planning is what allows for someone to create a roadmap the future, and therefore get a better handle on their needs in the long term better than those who don't plan. This allows for those who plan to have a significant advantage over those who fail to plan. Planning also means thinking through your own actions, making you think about if your wants and dreams are things that are both achievable and good for you in the long term. This part of planning acts as a time of self-reflection and allows you to ground yourself when you may start to get ahead of yourself. As a teachers, planing is a part of everyday work, using lesson plans for the lesson, planning what needs to be known by the end of the year, planning around holidays and weekends, preparing the students for the next year, all of these plans are things that must be taken into account as a teacher, and for your students, teaching them to invest in planning will allow them to stay on top of their own responsibilities, and hopefully help them feel less stressed in the long term.

[Desire = D x V x P] > Cost of Change = Motivation to Change

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 14:26:55 UTC

Making change starts with the self, the first steps to any change start in the mind when you realize that there is something to change. When you are unable to accept the status quo, either an internal or external status quo, and are pushed to make the change if you realize it is possible. In day to day life, realizing that you can just decide to do something new so long as there isn't a large cost of change is a wonderful experience, and can lead you to new opportunities and meeting new and interesting people. As a teacher, changing for the better means becoming a better teacher, or teaching in ways that allow your students to best understand their environment. This does not mean that all change will be good, but that comes with the territory, some changes will make things worse temporarily, and from there you can either change back, or change what parts are not working.

Using Loss for Gains

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 14:36:06 UTC

Loss aversion is a natural human experience, we are hardwired to hate loss, and this can be used to our advantage. If you make a bet you can use that as motivation to do something that you normally wouldn't, or if you think that not doing something will lead to a loss of reputation or status, that can be great motivation for change. Not wanting to lose can be just as good of a motivator as wanting to gain something, pushing yourself to create a win or stay where you are without losing something you care deeply about is important to motivation. As a teacher, losses look different, they can be students failing the course, or it can be students acting out, but whichever way that loss manifests itself using the fear of that loss as motivation to improve your ability to teach is a better than letting it keep you up at night. Teaching your students to use that fear of loss as motivation won't require much effort, as many who fear losing their GPA already understand, they might not just see it the same way.

It's Dangerous to Go Alone

charlesweselythompson — 2025-09-10 14:40:03 UTC

There's a common saying "Love your job and you'll never work a day in your life", and this tip is built around that entire concept. If you make it a competition, allow yourself to be immersed in work in a positive way, get a friend who's on the same wavelength, you can improve your own morale at your job. As a teacher, this could mean talking with other teachers and comparing test scores, or this could mean simply trying to make the classroom entertaining, but as long as you can enjoy the act of teaching you will likely be using this tip. Teaching children to turn work into play will also help them want to learn, allowing them to flourish in their own ways.

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