Garbage IN Garbage OUT

My new book Called Into Motion: Lesson Plans for Life is available through AuthorHouse.com
I know it will help you think about some important things, ask yourself the right questions, and formulate some answers! Let me know what you think.

Monday I shared some of a fascinating conversation between David Gergen, editor of U.S. News and World Report and Dr. Ben Carson, world-renowned neurosurgeon and author of The Big Picture: Getting Perspective on What's Really Important in Life. If you missed it, it's about the value of hardship and is worth the quick read.

Dr. Carson also talked a lot about his mom - a wonderfully wise woman despite a third grade education. She never embraced a victim mentality, never felt sorry for herself or her boys, never accepted excuses. He remembers her lesson on racism. "...if it comes to something like racism, for instance, my mother used to always say, 'If you walk into an auditorium full of racist, bigoted people," she said, "you don't have a problem. They have a problem.
Because when you walk in, they're going to cringe and wonder if you're going to sit next to them, whereas you can go sit anywhere you want. So let them worry about it if they want to. You don't have to do that.' And, you know, that's the whole concept in terms of the victim's mentality. You either accept it and become a victim, or you deny it and become a victor." Sheer brilliance!

David Gergen asked him what happened between ages 10 and 12, when he went from being the dummy to one of the brightest kids in the class. Here comes some more Mama Carson brilliance!
His mom prayed and asked God for help in raising her boys. (First brilliant step) She limited t.v. to just a few shows a week and required two books, complete with book reports, to fill the extra time.

Lo and behold, he began to enjoy reading. (We have lost the joy and wonder of a library card and limitless choices)

"Because we were desperately poor, never had enough money to do anything, but between the covers of those pages, I could go anywhere in the world, be anybody, do anything.
You know, my imagination began to run wild. I began reading about research chemists, and I could see myself in a laboratory, pouring things from test tubes, the beakers and seeing the foam rising.
And I became excited and began to visualize myself in intellectual capacities, and, you know, within the space of a year and a half, I went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class."

This is loaded! It is about raising expectations, stimulating imagination, fostering interest, encouraging those interests, engaging in discovery conversation, banishing negative labels, and nudging more and greater accomplishments. Andi it is about unplugging...

In my book Called Into Motion I use the computer term GIGO in one of the lessons, Garbage IN Garbage OUT. Words and images have power. The Law of Exposure tells us that our mind will think about what we expose it to. If we fill our minds with vacuous and negative words and images, something less than enthusiasm and brilliance is likely to come out. What are you exposing your mind and heart to that is less than you would like, less than uplifting or worthwhile? Are you willing to change that exposure? Get a copy of the book and work through the lesson. Let me know what you think.
Blessings,
Beth