Is your child a Kinesthetic learner?

I am a mother of four children. Most people say I’m crazy, I think I’m blessed. Like all mothers, I worry about my kids, want them to have the best education, want them to be happy, etc etc. My children are very young; in fact my oldest is only seven and just completed the first grade.

Your first is always a learning lesson. I feel sorry for the oldest of any family. My oldest boy was born and raised (to the ripe age of six) in the Caribbean. Moving back to the US was a major culture shock for him. Not only did he have to learn a new culture, he had to make new friends, get used to seasons and adapt to the very high paced, stressed out culture of the US. That’s not easy! To add insult to injury, the last school he was at in the Caribbean, did not bring him up to speed to where he should be at in the US…..so he was behind and had to catch up.

When a child is behind academically, it is such a stress on the mother’s heart. For one, you don’t want them to lose confidence and that is the first thing to go if a child feels he can’t do in school what the other kids are doing. Confidence is the MOST important thing a child could have in school and it dictates his/her success.

We worked with him all year and by the time the year ended, the comment I got was, “He is now finally at where he should have been at the beginning of the year.” I went home and cried in a corner. But here is what I have now learned and should have listened to my gut all along and not “traditional schooling” ideas. My boy is a kinesthetic learner and the majority of teaching styles in traditional schooling are not kinesthetic ways of teaching to help the kids learn.

Most would agree that there are three ways people learn best, auditory, sight and kinesthetic. A Harvard Psychologist named Howard Gardner discovered that there are actually seven ways (“intelligences”) that people understand and perceive the world. But for simplicity sake, we will focus on the three, but it is worth reading up on Gardner. All it means if you are a kinesthetic learner is that you learn best by movement or “doing”. If fact, science has concluded that ALL children are kinesthetic learners when they start out in school, but are forced to learn another style of learning because traditional school is so behind on how to teach kinesthetic style of teaching. Schools are slowly getting there, but it’s still a long way to go.

What I learned about my son is he is dominantly a kinesthetic learner and so am I still to this day. I was never able to adapt to a new style of learning and I can remember the frustration I had as a child to keep up. In fact, research has now realized that MANY children are getting misdiagnosed with ADHD and ADD and their child really is just a kinesthetic learner. These kids need movement, action, doing. The way that reading and writing are taught today is very linear. This is very frustrating to a kinesthetic child.

As soon as school ended I stopped listening to all the traditional advice and I went with my gut, which concluded that he wasn’t going to Summer school. I bought all kinds of manipulatives (manipulative materials are any concrete objects that allow students to explore an idea in an active, hands-on approach. Manipulatives can be almost anything – blocks, shapes, spinners or even paper that is cut or folded.) I bought site word games, made Pictionary cards, downloaded computer games and anything I could think of that would help teach this child to read while being in action or required movement. The result in just one week has been astounding. For starters this kid picks up on a word after only seeing it once and using it in a Pictionary game. He went through 15 complex words for his age and in less than 30 minutes of Pictionary he knew them all! His tutor came the next day to review the words and she was shocked at how well he knew these words that weren’t first grade words…..these were harder words.

This wonderful kid of mine is growing every day in confidence now that I’m implementing kinesthetic learning. For the first time he asked if we could do the pattern of “family game night, then the next night reading books, then the next night family game night and so on” - as he said to me just the other day. When school ended, he didn’t want to touch a book and started to cry and said he couldn’t read when I tried to push the subject.

Whether you have a child who learns best by kinesthetic style teaching or a child who is dominant in another learning style, all kids learn quickly and benefit from kinesthetic style teaching. Get playing with your kids, get moving with your kids, and get learning with your kids. If you have a child who is struggling in school or a child that you are wondering if they are ADHD (or has even been told they do have ADHD), I urge you to explore the idea of kinesthetic style teaching and implement family game night! From one mother to the other, it’s worth it!

Self Awareness…..Ouch!

I had some realizations this week that were really hard pills to swallow! But in the end it made me realize one thing – you MUST know who you are to succeed. And yes, that means the strengths and the weaknesses. It can be like a knife in your heart to discover some weaknesses and then try and strengthen the weakness! For starters, our weaknesses are weaknesses because it relates to an area of life that is hard to overcome otherwise it wouldn’t be a weakness! My realization, although may sound so silly to you, was that “Rome wasn’t built in one day.” I can hear you laughing. Of course I’ve heard that saying before and so has everyone else, but if you are anything like me, you have a ton of ambition, a ton of enthusiasm, a ton of optimism and you pull all those attributes together to create an awesome dream and whatever it takes you are going to get there by Sunday! Then when Sunday comes and you didn’t conquer the world you are so unbelievably deflated and have to start over to get there by next Sunday. Sound familiar?

I’ve been working with a talent management company. This company has been in business for decades and has mastered the art of developing leaders for Fortune 500 companies. They have lots of workshops, assessment centers, interviewing selection tools……basically a ton of ways of figuring out what competencies people have strengths in and what competencies are weaker areas and then putting them through the right workshop to develop those things they are weak in.

I was sitting with one of the Senior Consultants who is a master facilitator for this particular company’s workshops and he said something to me that was quite interesting. We were talking about all the “self-help gurus” out there that are motivating people towards success. He started his conversation with, “Firstly I think all the motivational speakers in self-help are doing nothing but selling lies!” (By the way, he openly admitted that he was a pessimist by nature.) Trying to keep an open mind I asked why he thought that. He simply responded by saying, “Because all they do is get up on stage, tell you how you can do anything you put your mind to and succeed while giving people all kinds of false hope that they really can do it without ever giving people the right kind of information about what it is about ‘them’ in particular that is preventing them from succeeding. That is what we do in here – we show people what their strengths and weaknesses are and then go to work on their weaknesses. Can a motivational speaker give you that?” Pessimistic? You bet! Just to put the record straight, I believe there a MANY motivational speakers and self-help gurus out there that have helped millions of people. I don’t believe they are ALL selling lies. There are many ‘greats’ out there lifting the earths vibration every day with what they do. However, this guy got to me with what he said. Since I believe that you need to keep your mind open to everything and attached to nothing, I deeply pondered his comment. He was right about one thing – you can’t completely succeed unless you know who you are – the whole package, strengths and weaknesses.

Of course given my personality, I went into deep self-reflection. Ouch! It kind of hurt and I realized that in order for me to really succeed the way I want to, I have to take one step at a time. May sound simple to you, but this is a big WOW for me. It isn’t always about going after the big whale; it most often is about going first after the small fish and letting the small fish grow. The path to success is through self-realization. Once you see yourself for who you really are you know WHY things in your life aren’t working. So for me, my BIG success will come one step at a time and taking the proper amount of time to do it.

I have big dreams and big goals. Have I hit all those goals? NO! I want whomever that will ever read this blog to go on a journey with me. I want this blog to be upfront and honest. I want to post things on my journey that are true and inviting for discussion. We are getting so inundated with all the hype these days that it seems that everyone is selling lies. Everyone has to make it ‘look’ like they are bigger than they are in hopes that that will get them the success they need. So although I would like to hide the fact that I’m still working on those goals (since society has taught us well to cover up) , the truth is I still have a long way to go, I also know I have A LOT to offer. So I’m going to take a deep breath and take one step at a time, even if it is painfully small and takes more time than anticipated to take that step before going onto the next step.

I encourage you all to dive into self-awareness and see what you may find. I know that there are GREAT things in there. But if you aren’t where you want to be yet, just like me, then what is it that is holding you back?

Perseverance and Courage - A personal note from Carolyn

I’m back everyone! It’s been a long time since I last posted anything on this blog. So let me give you a run down of what I’ve been up to since my last post. In a nutshell, I’ve had two babies over a 20 month period. And I already have two other kids at home. That’s right, I now have four children 5 ½ and under. Whesh! After all, I’m not a spring chicken anymore so whatever I was going to have I needed to get a move on.

I have to admit though; my four pregnancies weren’t easy to carry. In fact, all but one (the last) were preemies. My first baby was 10 weeks early! My last baby made it two days shy of full term. With each pregnancy I must have gotten better and better at keeping them in, but boy was it tough!

I spent many days in the hospital with all four pregnancies trying to keep the babies in. I often wondered if that was what it was like to be in prison…confined to four walls, never seeing the naked blue sky and eating horrible food. At least for me I knew that I was getting something very special out of it. And besides, with this last delivery there was a new head cook I had gotten to know and she made me special meals - whatever I wanted - and I have to admit they were pretty good.

Leading up to my last delivery was months of agony. I passed two couple kidneys stones while being pregnant (with each stone taking weeks to finally pass), rushed to the hospital to stop labor more times than I can count and had the flu twice! It seemed my pregnancy would never end. The entire staff of the hospital knew me, including the cleaners. But I kept my cheery disposition, joked a lot and poked fun at my pain.

Then the day finally came – the delivery. I thought it was going to be quick, easy, and over with in no time. What would happen next put everything in life into perspective. At six centimeters the baby was in distress and the doctor lost her heart rate. It was a matter of getting the baby out in five minutes or she would die. It seemed as though a whole team of people were around me helping and through pushing, pulling, stretching and manipulating my body…. five minutes later, I actually delivered at seven centimeters….with no painkillers.

The baby revived herself well as the doctor whisked her away to an incubator. The pediatrician checked her over thoroughly and she was doing just fine. Everything was finally ok. Or so I thought. I passed out and woke up to the team, back in the room working on me! It was all so confusing, but I quickly learned that I couldn’t stop bleeding. My blood pressure dropped to ultimate low levels and the emergency team came in. I innocently asked what would happen if they couldn’t get it to stop and a nurse simply said, “You will bleed out.” How could that be? I was about to die? This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.

The next thing I knew I was being rushed (still in my bed) to the operating room. All the way to the OR, people were still working on me. I’ll never forget the look on my husband face. It was a look of helpless despair. I wasn’t in the OR long before I was knocked out.

My next memory was 2am. I woke up to unbelievable pain. My bed faced a window where the staff could observe me. I was hooked up to more leads than I care to remember, IV’s on both sides of the bed, one was for the blood transfusions I was receiving. In the end I was told that I lost almost three liters of blood and had an emergency hysterectomy to save my life. I never thought anything could happen to me. Life can be so fragile.

As I laid there for another week in the hospital I realized that this would be an adventure I had to persevere. My husband was there with me in the hospital, but only temporarily as he was working overseas. How was I going to take care of four kids on my own? How was I going to keep the business going? How was I even going to do the grocery shopping when my body felt like it was run over by a truck!?! Complete anxiety took over.

But I did it. Almost three months later, I have pushed through, my body is healing, my blood count continues to go up and I am so grateful to say that all four kids are healthy and thriving. What did I do? I put one step in front of the other. That’s it. Just kept going.

And so I am back with a vengeance and ready to rock and roll. Life has its ups and downs, its twist and turns. Things happen that you don’t expect. But you keep going. Just put one foot forward and take that step. Just keep going. When going for big grand dreams, sometimes it just feels like you can’t go anymore. But I’m here to say you can!

My whole focus right now is on YOU! The reader of this blog. I want to do whatever it takes to help you succeed. I’d like to give you a FREE book. This story is one of complete and utter perseverance. It’s a tale of a special man who never gave up. It’s a story that will give you all the inspiration you need to realize you can have anything you want in life and will allow you to keep going until you get there. It’s called “The Courage to Act” and if you email me at carolyn@thecouragetoact.com and tell me you want your FREE copy, I will send it to you. The only thing I ask in return is you write to me and let me know how you liked the book.

The past few months have not been easy for me. But I made it through. I’ve got lots to do still. Just to let you in on a little secret, even though the past few months have been rough (and clearly I was a baby machine), I still was working hard on a very special project. This project is dedicated to helping ANYONE reach any goal they desire no matter how small or how big. You can get a little insight on the project by going to www.achievementforlife.com. If you sign in you will get two modules for FREE. In those modules alone gives you the secrets you need to start building the foundation of success. It’s my gift to you. Ok, so I wasn’t JUST having babies. It was this program that got me from A to Z. It was this very program the gave me The Courage to Act.

Sincerely,

Carolyn

3 things you MUST know if you want success

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

Micheal Jordan



Only those who have achieved success know that they had to fail just to succeed. Mistakes and failure are our greatest assets for determining how to succeed. I don’t know a single successful person that hasn’t failed numerous times. The difference between being defeated and succeeding is whether or not you accepted your last defeat as the last one and gave up. Only then have you truly failed. Those who succeed never accept their last defeat as the last say and use the lesson learned to go on and succeed.



You can’t chase success or catch it in your hands. Some people try endlessly to obtain success and left disappointed, while others seems to obtain it quite easily. There are reasons why success comes easily for some and not so easily for others. I could write books upon books about this, but I narrowed down 3 very common themes that exist among those that are very successful:



1. You need to acquire the beliefs of the successful. Everything begins with a thought. We cannot create anything without the thought first. Therefore, thoughts are things. Thoughts are powerful. Ask yourself what beliefs you have acquired as a child. Did you learn money doesn’t grow on trees, to save for a rainy day because you never know when disaster will hit, and that you must work more to get more. Or were you taught there is enough money to go around for everyone, that opportunity is everywhere and you must work more efficient not harder to obtain more wealth? Your beliefs deep in your subconscious actually dictate how easy or how hard it is for you to obtain great wealth. This is a subject where you must be totally honest with yourself and really think about your beliefs.



Take a little challenge and pick 2 or 3 people that have what you want. What do they believe about wealth? What do they do or not do that helps them obtain it? Write down your discoveries and mimic what they do.



2. Realize that success is a process. It is never an overnight process. Take all of your failures and write down on a piece of paper for each one: “What is great about this and what did I learn.” As I mentioned, we all fail from time to time. We all make mistakes from time to time. Those who succeed value and appreciate those mistakes because they light the path to success. Don’t ignore your failures, if you do you are ignoring clues to succeeding.



3. You must see the “End in Mind.” Visualize the end result that you want to create. Then picture the steps going backwards that got you there. Plan strategically the necessary goals that you need to create to get you to that “End” that you visualized. Write weekly goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals. There is no such thing as an unrealistic goal, just an unrealistic time frame. For example, if you don’t have two pennies to rub together and you set a goal that you will have $1 million by Friday you might disappoint yourself (that is of course unless you win the lotto or all of sudden get a large inheritance). And it should be mentioned as well that setting a goal to have $1 million is too vague. How are you going to make that million? What necessary steps do you need to take to obtain it? Be very specific in each goal. Each weekly goal will allow it to be easier to obtain the monthly goals which will make it easier to obtain the yearly goals. It will soon be very feasible to see your 5 year goals being achieved and even your lifetime goals if you start with one step at a time.



And it must be said, ALWAYS remember that you are capable of achieving far more than you ever imagined. Go ahead, write down grandiose goals and obtain all that you have dreamed of. And DO IT NOW! There is no better time than right now to straight living your dream. What are you going to do today to further your success?

Ask and you shall recieve

One of the most valuable resources you can tap into is the mind of an entrepreneur. Not just any entrepreneur, but one with decades of experience and a proven track record for creating and implementing new ideas, products and companies. Our founder at http://www.doppelit.com/, D. Scott McGregor, has more than 40 years of experience under his belt. And it's not just little things he has created. His creations have changed society as we know it. Just to give you a small summary about him......

....he founded over 14 companies, a major airline, some national and one global enterprise, and launched more than 40 patented inventions still in use today. In fact, he is the inventor of adjustable mortgages rates that got the real estate market moving in the late 70's and early 80's.

So why am I telling you this? Because Scott is a caring and loving man that wants nothing more than to foster the spirit of the entrepreneur and provide insight on what will help you achieve your big dreams and to learn from what didn't work for him. And he agrees to do it for FREE!

I won't lie to you, life wasn't always fun, exciting and easy for him. He has had his share of ups and downs. It's what has seasoned him into a professional and successful entrepreneur. If you would like to listen to Scott and submit to him the MOST important question for you as an entrpreneur, visit this link and submit your question today:

http://www.doppelit.com/addaquestion.php

Submit your questions and they will be answered in FREE podcasts recorded on Sundays and ready to listen by Monday morning.

Another GREAT resource and entrepreneur who has done amazing things in his career is Bill Bartmann. I've gotten to know Bill over the past few months and have to say I'm quite impressed. He is another entrepreneur that has created a vehicle for a VERY (and when I say VERY I mean VERY) low cost to you. But first let me tell you a little about Bill....

....Bill didn't always have it so good. He was homeless at age 14, a member of a street gang and a high-school dropout – Bill took control of his life by taking the GED exam and putting himself through college and law school. Since that time, he has been part of the creation of novel financial instruments still utilized today on Wall Street, graced the covers of national business magazines, listed in the Forbes 400 wealthiest people in America. One national magazine ranked him number 25. Not bad huh?

And for me the most impressive thing I think Bill has ever achieved is a testimonial from Mother Theresa! Wow!

So if you want to get in on his billionaire education program for less than $9 per month and tap into this brilliant mind, just go to this link to learn how you can personally learn from Bill (it's that worth it!):

http://www.billionaireu.com/go.aspx?AID=1379

In fact, I'm a member myself! I didn't want to pass up this opportunity!

I've just started this blog, but I am committed to you, the passionate soul who really wants to take a risk and go for your dreams. I would love to hear from you. Tell me your story, your questions, your passions. As I find tips and tools that can help you along your path to success, I will post them in this blog.

Wishing you all the success in the world!

Ponder this thought about finding your passion

I've had the wonderful experience of living outside of the USA. Yes, I'm an American and truthfully I love America. but I wouldn't take back for one moment the experience of what it is like to live in someone else's country, culture and way of living. It opens up your eyes to so many discoveries about human beings. With all of our differences across countries and cultures, it is amazing that we are all the same if we strip down the socialization of each culture. We all want to be loved, we all want a high self-esteem, we all want to be protected, we all fear the unknown and we ALL want to find what it is in life that we are good at and what drives us to live our passions.

I'm sure if you are the self development junkie like myself or an aspiring entrepreneur, you have heard all the questions you should ask yourself when attempting to figure out what your true gifts are and what your true passion in life is, "If you had all the money in the world and money was not an issue, what would you like to do?" "What makes you smile?" "What subject do you think about most?" "What do you love so much you would do it for free?" "What are you interested in?" "What subject or topic do you have a lot of knowledge about?" "What are people always coming to you for advice about?" etc etc. They are all great questions and questions you should ask yourself when finding your passions. But just like my experiences living outside the US and discovering the differences between cultures that you cannot understand in text books, finding your passion takes a similar route. To find your real passion in life it's about taking massive action across a wide variety of activities, mediums, venues, etc and discovering what you really love to do most. How can you possibly know what you love to do most if you haven't even tried very many things?

To understand what it is that you really love to do - become an "experienced connoisseur" of life. Try new things, look at things from a different perspective, travel and talk to new and interesting (or not so interesting) people. Try as many things as you can. Take for example Dr. Joe Rubino who participated in Doppelit's "Reinvent Yourself" series. Joe spent years of money and time to become a dentist. He gave it all up to live his dream by being one of the leading experts on self-esteem and reinvention with 11 bestselling books in 19 languages in 48 countries. Lisa Lockwood, another speaker in the series, has been in the Miss Illinois USA pageant, a Desert Storm Veteran, Police Officer and Uncover Detective. Today she has found her passion in helping people reinvent themselves and finding their true passions. Is it safe to say that Lisa tried many things along the way? Heck yea! In fact, another speaker in the series, Marcus Freudenmann has dabbled into fields that span from interior design and architecture to a brewery director and owner. Today he is a well known author, inventor and inspirator. There is no doubt that these inspirational characters expanded their minds, didn't stop when they feared the unknown and experienced as many things as possible and found what they love to do most.

Asking the questions I stated above is of course useful and you should ask them. The problem occurs when you are spending all of your time "thinking" and little time "doing". So how long should you be in a pondering state of thought? In my experience, if you begin to feel frustrated and disappointed that you can't find the answers, you have been there too long. If you feel this way it's time to board the "action train" to the world of the unknown and shake your world of discovery up a little!

If you are serious about finding your true gifts and passions, Doppelit's "Reinvent Yourself" teleseminar series is a great way to get you on your way. For more information on how you can learn from 8 of the most impactful reinvention artists, visit www.discoveranotheryou.com.

Happy American Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful day it is in America today. Just imagine - a day where we concentrate on what we are thankful for and what things have brought us happiness. I love it!


Start today to take a small challenge and watch the easiest method of putting the "Law of Attraction" into a positive effect that works for you. On this great day, write down everything that you are thankful for. Even if you can only think of 3 things, write them down. Do this little exercise for 30 days. At the end of 30 days you will discover that you can't stop writing! The more you are grateful, the more things will come into your life to be thankful for. Take that gratitude challenge and enjoy the next 30 days and beyond.