[Music]
does what you think about yourself
really matter if you had asked me that
question about two years ago my response
would likely have been no not really but
after two years of going from the
negative stressed-out teenage girl I was
my freshman year to the more positive
joyful person I am today my response is
much different what you think about
yourself is the foundation of your
perspective your mindset and your view
of the world during my freshman year of
high school I started off strong but
then my mood began to change I got
caught up in the trap of perfectionism
and I felt the pressure that came with
it I grew tired and stressed out of
course this was not every day the word
the days when I felt on top of things
content and happy with my friends my
family in my life but other times when
the feelings of negative negativity
crept in it was hard to make them go
away and I saw many of my friends going
through the same patterns of stress and
negativity we were not alone teenagers
across the country share similar
experiences national trends indicate
that among suburban middle and
upper-class girls as many as 30 percent
have experienced anxiety related to
achievement pressures according to the
National Institutes of Health I didn’t
realize the reason for my outlook until
I heard about the research on different
mindsets last year I read Carol Dweck’s
book mindset professor Dweck the Lewis
and Virginia Eaton a professor of
psychology at Stanford University has
done extensive research on the two main
types of mindsets fixed and growth in
the fixed mindset one believes that
knowledge skills abilities are fixed
that is we are each born with a certain
out and there is little we can do to
improve the growth mindset on the other
hand recognizes that through practice
grit and perseverance we can improve our
skills when I read this book I realize
this is why I had believed that I was
naturally good at some things and forget
about the rest
I had bought into a common results of
the fixed mindset the trap of
perfectionism and the fear of taking
intellectual risks reading this book
opened my eyes I could put a name and a
reason to what I was feeling and even
better I could see the solution moving
to the growth mindset it started with a
decision and as I was looking back
through an old journal I saw that it was
the decision I made on the new years of
my sophomore year 2016 I wanted to have
a more positive outlook I didn’t want
stress to consume me anymore I didn’t
want to have a happy facade covering
negativity underneath so I made a
decision that began was shifting my
mindset I wrote down a simple goal in my
journal when I feel like complaining I
will look for the positive in the
situation instead and I will focus on
improvement and growth rather than
perfection as most goals are my decision
to shift my mindset which was much
easier and simpler on paper the struggle
was in the everyday situations and I was
my own opponent it takes time to break
habits especially habits of thought
breaking my habit of negativity require
not only a decision at the beginning my
resolution but also a million decisions
along the way decisions such as no more
complaining about difficult classes
embrace the challenge and work harder
instead start the day with an
encouraging quote reconnect with my
faith and make time for prayer and
reflection take an extra minute to ask
someone how their day is going stay
positive
smile
I have come a long way since that New
Year’s resolution of course I still face
days when the struggle returns more
acutely than ever I feel the pressures
and stress not only from school but from
the stuff that happens in life
relationships the things we all face but
the difference now is how I deal with
those challenges my perspective has
changed no longer do I succumb so easily
to the trap of negativity positivity and
growth are the lens through which I try
to see my world I’d like to tell you a
few stories of people who have overcome
challenges by shifting their
perspectives these people whether
fictional or historical led very
different lives but share one thing in
common they all come to realize the
importance of perspective in overcoming
adversity so let us journey through a
fictional high school inside the
concentration camps of the Holocaust and
to the height of the civil rights
movement in America in the movie you
again the main character Marni Olson
teaches an important lesson about
perspective the movie opens with Marni a
high school sophomore filming a part for
her small town high school time capsule
the scene soon shifts as she narrates
her experiences with bullying by the
popular girls in her school everyday
Marni faces some new ridicule whether
about her acne embraces her lack of
social skills or even her initials m oo
mu every day she comes home feeling
horrible about herself
as she continues to narrate the film
fast forwards to a speech Marni gives at
her workplace a major PR firm she
concludes her speech with a reflection
on how far she’s come and she tells her
audience you can’t control the things
that happen to you but you can control
how you react to them it’s all your
perspective and that’s what PR is all
about throughout the film Marni has
every reason to give in to the constant
torment of her bullies but she comes to
realize that what she thinks about her
and her perspective on the situation as
a whole are more powerful than anything
those bullies could do to her others
throughout history tell similar stories
of people overcoming challenges by
shifting their perspectives one man
stands out in particular Viktor Frankl
the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust
survivor in his book man’s search for
meaning Frankel describes the
experiences between 1942 and 1945 in
four different concentration and death
camps including Auschwitz his parents
brother and pregnant wife were all put
to death during the later part of his
imprisonment the daily ration of food
was only a very watery soup given once
daily a small bread ration as well as
the so called extra allowance a tiny bit
of food that varied from day to day
having only these allowances the
prisoners were forced to perform heavy
manual labor in constant exposure to the
cold despite the suffering that he
experienced and witnessed Franco
maintains an incredible and admirable
perspective that we cannot avoid
suffering but we can choose how to cope
with it find meaning in it and move
forward with renewed purpose in other
words as Harold Kushner wrote franco
argues that forces beyond your control
can take away everything you possess
except one thing your ability to stop
your freedom to choose how you will
respond to the situation you cannot
control what happens to you in life but
you can always control how you will feel
and what you will do about the situation
it is so incredible that through the
beatings starvation and sufferings
countless other horrors that Franco
witness and experienced during his time
in the concentration camps he maintained
his philosophy that sought the meaning
and suffering and no matter what the
freedom to choose one’s response to
suffering
finally the experiences of an unsung
hero of the civil rights movement give
another example of the power of
respective Dorothy Height was an
influential yet lesser-known
member and leader of the movement she
reminds readers of the contributions of
those less visible in the movement
especially the women in her memoir open
wide the freedom gates from an early age
Dorothy faced discrimination and
Prejudice because of the color of her
skin and the deep reaching roots of
prejudice in the United States yet
throughout her life with the help of her
family and close friends she faces those
instances of prejudice with a different
viewpoint finding in them a spark to
refuel her resolve to fight for the
rights of African Americans one anecdote
dorothy shares in her memoir stands out
she writes about an incident in germany
after a conference at oxford in 1937 in
her words quote the day after i arrived
i was boarding the hotel van to go into
town when the only other passenger a
white american objected to my getting on
and deference to her the doorman called
me back I protested he muttered if you
were in your own country wouldn’t you be
lynched for getting in a car like that
that hit me hard and I fought back I
told him that Americans of all races
were working against lynching we are
free to work against it and we do I told
him feeling proud of my country although
giving in to discouragement and anger
and hatred would have been easy
Dorothy resists her perspective allows
her to endure that discrimination and
find a purpose in it a renewed resolve
to fight for her cause at the end of her
memoir she sums up her outlook on life
some people chide me for never giving up
no matter how hopeless the cause may
seem it is not that I am such an
optimist life has taught me that in the
face of man’s inhumanity to man we must
try to exemplify man’s humanity to man I
am glad that I was often in a time and
place where I could do what needed to be
done
we all have our struggles and our
challenges but no matter what faces us
we control our perspectives
Marnie Olson Viktor Frankl and Dorothy
Height all offer extraordinary examples
of this fact in their stories I too came
to realize the importance of perspective
through my personal journey maybe you
are also in a place where you need to
change your perspective maybe you need
to adjust the way you think about
yourself shift from a fixed mindset to
growth or find a new way to respond to
the challenges you face try this imagine
where you want to be set your goal make
a decision and then put up the fight
every day make a million decisions to
stick to your goal make your new mindset
a habit and then make it your lifestyle
we can find inspiration and courage in
the lives of these three characters and
countless others who refuse to let their
circumstances determine their outlook on
life we can pinpoint our own struggles
and challenges and then we can face them
head-on with a new perspective that will
help us overcome thank you
[Applause]
does what you think about yourself
really matter if you had asked me that
question about two years ago my response
would likely have been no not really but
after two years of going from the
negative stressed-out teenage girl I was
my freshman year to the more positive
joyful person I am today my response is
much different what you think about
yourself is the foundation of your
perspective your mindset and your view
of the world during my freshman year of
high school I started off strong but
then my mood began to change I got
caught up in the trap of perfectionism
and I felt the pressure that came with
it I grew tired and stressed out of
course this was not every day the word
the days when I felt on top of things
content and happy with my friends my
family in my life but other times when
the feelings of negative negativity
crept in it was hard to make them go
away and I saw many of my friends going
through the same patterns of stress and
negativity we were not alone teenagers
across the country share similar
experiences national trends indicate
that among suburban middle and
upper-class girls as many as 30 percent
have experienced anxiety related to
achievement pressures according to the
National Institutes of Health I didn’t
realize the reason for my outlook until
I heard about the research on different
mindsets last year I read Carol Dweck’s
book mindset professor Dweck the Lewis
and Virginia Eaton a professor of
psychology at Stanford University has
done extensive research on the two main
types of mindsets fixed and growth in
the fixed mindset one believes that
knowledge skills abilities are fixed
that is we are each born with a certain
out and there is little we can do to
improve the growth mindset on the other
hand recognizes that through practice
grit and perseverance we can improve our
skills when I read this book I realize
this is why I had believed that I was
naturally good at some things and forget
about the rest
I had bought into a common results of
the fixed mindset the trap of
perfectionism and the fear of taking
intellectual risks reading this book
opened my eyes I could put a name and a
reason to what I was feeling and even
better I could see the solution moving
to the growth mindset it started with a
decision and as I was looking back
through an old journal I saw that it was
the decision I made on the new years of
my sophomore year 2016 I wanted to have
a more positive outlook I didn’t want
stress to consume me anymore I didn’t
want to have a happy facade covering
negativity underneath so I made a
decision that began was shifting my
mindset I wrote down a simple goal in my
journal when I feel like complaining I
will look for the positive in the
situation instead and I will focus on
improvement and growth rather than
perfection as most goals are my decision
to shift my mindset which was much
easier and simpler on paper the struggle
was in the everyday situations and I was
my own opponent it takes time to break
habits especially habits of thought
breaking my habit of negativity require
not only a decision at the beginning my
resolution but also a million decisions
along the way decisions such as no more
complaining about difficult classes
embrace the challenge and work harder
instead start the day with an
encouraging quote reconnect with my
faith and make time for prayer and
reflection take an extra minute to ask
someone how their day is going stay
positive
smile
I have come a long way since that New
Year’s resolution of course I still face
days when the struggle returns more
acutely than ever I feel the pressures
and stress not only from school but from
the stuff that happens in life
relationships the things we all face but
the difference now is how I deal with
those challenges my perspective has
changed no longer do I succumb so easily
to the trap of negativity positivity and
growth are the lens through which I try
to see my world I’d like to tell you a
few stories of people who have overcome
challenges by shifting their
perspectives these people whether
fictional or historical led very
different lives but share one thing in
common they all come to realize the
importance of perspective in overcoming
adversity so let us journey through a
fictional high school inside the
concentration camps of the Holocaust and
to the height of the civil rights
movement in America in the movie you
again the main character Marni Olson
teaches an important lesson about
perspective the movie opens with Marni a
high school sophomore filming a part for
her small town high school time capsule
the scene soon shifts as she narrates
her experiences with bullying by the
popular girls in her school everyday
Marni faces some new ridicule whether
about her acne embraces her lack of
social skills or even her initials m oo
mu every day she comes home feeling
horrible about herself
as she continues to narrate the film
fast forwards to a speech Marni gives at
her workplace a major PR firm she
concludes her speech with a reflection
on how far she’s come and she tells her
audience you can’t control the things
that happen to you but you can control
how you react to them it’s all your
perspective and that’s what PR is all
about throughout the film Marni has
every reason to give in to the constant
torment of her bullies but she comes to
realize that what she thinks about her
and her perspective on the situation as
a whole are more powerful than anything
those bullies could do to her others
throughout history tell similar stories
of people overcoming challenges by
shifting their perspectives one man
stands out in particular Viktor Frankl
the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust
survivor in his book man’s search for
meaning Frankel describes the
experiences between 1942 and 1945 in
four different concentration and death
camps including Auschwitz his parents
brother and pregnant wife were all put
to death during the later part of his
imprisonment the daily ration of food
was only a very watery soup given once
daily a small bread ration as well as
the so called extra allowance a tiny bit
of food that varied from day to day
having only these allowances the
prisoners were forced to perform heavy
manual labor in constant exposure to the
cold despite the suffering that he
experienced and witnessed Franco
maintains an incredible and admirable
perspective that we cannot avoid
suffering but we can choose how to cope
with it find meaning in it and move
forward with renewed purpose in other
words as Harold Kushner wrote franco
argues that forces beyond your control
can take away everything you possess
except one thing your ability to stop
your freedom to choose how you will
respond to the situation you cannot
control what happens to you in life but
you can always control how you will feel
and what you will do about the situation
it is so incredible that through the
beatings starvation and sufferings
countless other horrors that Franco
witness and experienced during his time
in the concentration camps he maintained
his philosophy that sought the meaning
and suffering and no matter what the
freedom to choose one’s response to
suffering
finally the experiences of an unsung
hero of the civil rights movement give
another example of the power of
respective Dorothy Height was an
influential yet lesser-known
member and leader of the movement she
reminds readers of the contributions of
those less visible in the movement
especially the women in her memoir open
wide the freedom gates from an early age
Dorothy faced discrimination and
Prejudice because of the color of her
skin and the deep reaching roots of
prejudice in the United States yet
throughout her life with the help of her
family and close friends she faces those
instances of prejudice with a different
viewpoint finding in them a spark to
refuel her resolve to fight for the
rights of African Americans one anecdote
dorothy shares in her memoir stands out
she writes about an incident in germany
after a conference at oxford in 1937 in
her words quote the day after i arrived
i was boarding the hotel van to go into
town when the only other passenger a
white american objected to my getting on
and deference to her the doorman called
me back I protested he muttered if you
were in your own country wouldn’t you be
lynched for getting in a car like that
that hit me hard and I fought back I
told him that Americans of all races
were working against lynching we are
free to work against it and we do I told
him feeling proud of my country although
giving in to discouragement and anger
and hatred would have been easy
Dorothy resists her perspective allows
her to endure that discrimination and
find a purpose in it a renewed resolve
to fight for her cause at the end of her
memoir she sums up her outlook on life
some people chide me for never giving up
no matter how hopeless the cause may
seem it is not that I am such an
optimist life has taught me that in the
face of man’s inhumanity to man we must
try to exemplify man’s humanity to man I
am glad that I was often in a time and
place where I could do what needed to be
done
we all have our struggles and our
challenges but no matter what faces us
we control our perspectives
Marnie Olson Viktor Frankl and Dorothy
Height all offer extraordinary examples
of this fact in their stories I too came
to realize the importance of perspective
through my personal journey maybe you
are also in a place where you need to
change your perspective maybe you need
to adjust the way you think about
yourself shift from a fixed mindset to
growth or find a new way to respond to
the challenges you face try this imagine
where you want to be set your goal make
a decision and then put up the fight
every day make a million decisions to
stick to your goal make your new mindset
a habit and then make it your lifestyle
we can find inspiration and courage in
the lives of these three characters and
countless others who refuse to let their
circumstances determine their outlook on
life we can pinpoint our own struggles
and challenges and then we can face them
head-on with a new perspective that will
help us overcome thank you
[Applause]
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