where all the students and staff alike
had a positive can-do attitude that was
uplifting encouraging and kind
unconditionally a magical evening ever
imagine everyone working and living in
our community has that same positive
can-do spirit
there was a blip Dean and kind as well
as welcoming and encouraging and helpful
imagine the positive energy that would
spark the passion in all of us
it would ignite us it would compound the
energy and help you achieve whatever is
it you were meant to achieve in life now
I don’t know about you but I’d call it
that there are some stuff I will to live
people out there and yes you heard me
say it right they literally sucked the
life right out of you they’re always
negative always a debbie downer
always have a reason why something can’t
work or that it shouldn’t work and
basically what I say to that is walk
along on the flip side of that think
about the people that you know who and
i’ma say are mostly positive because
they’re not always positive but they’re
mostly positive they’re a beat they’re
encouraging they’re kind you’re relaxed
around those individuals because you
know they accept you for you they’re
also optimistic and when I say
optimistic they’re positive thinkers
they’re solution oriented they’re
focused on results and they look for
what I call our win-win opportunities
and honestly you like to be around these
thinking about being better in a book
right here’s women favorites how full is
your bucket it’s by dr. Donald Clifton
and Tom Rath and in their studies and
their research they found that nine
ten people say that they are more
productive around positive people let’s
think about those who are closest to you
your friends your family how would you
describe them would you say they’re a
positive patty or a debbie downer how
about another one
Pepe Parker or negative man with you
basically what I’m asking you I know you
guys heard this earlier today are they a
cup half full person or they are a cup
half empty who would you rather hang
with maybe sit next to a class or be on
ball team with I’d even take the next I
would say who do you want a date maybe
even marry are you guys laughing come on
give me laughs all right so I don’t want
to think too long ago that you guys have
a whole lot harder left but seriously
attitudes are contagious and just like
an infection or disease negative
attitudes can spread toxicity poison and
destruction out of control but they can
make you mint or negative anxious –
doesn’t make you miserable they can kill
the spirit of a team or the momentum of
your vulnerability in a matter of an
instant and likewise that can happen in
your classroom or in the work
environment conversely the positive
attitudes think about them as a ray of
sunshine always be me down chilling
warming and touching the things that
comes in contact with helping it grow a
little bit maybe get a little taller
maybe give it a little bit deeper richer
color as yours can be just as exciting
or positive attitude to be just as
exciting energizing and inspiring they
can push you to new limits so I’m going
to ask you all today as you stay here
what kind of attitude do you want to
have now the cool thing is I didn’t ask
you what kind of attitude and when you
walked in this room today because right
now you all have a choice and it starts
today I’m going to share a little bit
about my own personal experiences that I
had how I’ve had handled negativity and
the challenges that I’ve had in life and
I hope that I’m going to provide you a
little bit of guidance as you move
forward with the power of positive
thinking and basically help you win in
life so I want you to believe it with
this is that you have a choice you
decide what your future holds and you
can make it happen so now I know you
might be thinking so why do they listen
to you and who are you anyway okay well
first I’ll say I’m a mom and I have two
kids in this school my twins Jayden
Katie Hopkins her face traders and you
might know Ally she’s a sophomore and
she’s soon to be 16 but beyond that for
20 years I’ve been serving as a teacher
a principal to coach from
pre-kindergarten all the way through
college levels I also have my doctorate
educational leadership and I’ll add to
this here in a minute but it might be
good to know that I also hire people so
a little bit about my life experiences
as you prepare to go into the workforce
yes I I’ve actually been involved in
hiring people for 19 years and for some
of you who’ve been on the Buchanan
campus you might know dr. Russell okay
dr. Russell teases me because he knows
that I’m always looking to hire positive
peppy passionate powerhouses what
anybody asks with their positive peppy
because they’re uplifting and they’re
encouraging and they’re cocked
I also like to hire what I call
passionate people because I know they’re
passionate about what we do and they
have the right core values and then I
say power houses because I’m looking for
people who want to get the job done they
take initiative they work hard and they
can follow through and because of that
they make our team stronger and they
make it much more fun to work with
beyond hiring you might be thinking well
Hawkins easier said than done I haven’t
walked in your shoes or experience your
child’s and tribulations I get it I
haven’t grown up with the peer pressure
or social media or dealing with the
exclusions that you might find in the
media
that’s just snapchat Twitter Instagram
or email they gave me from and yes I
know exclusions happen there too because
again I’m a mom kids your age but I do
know that I can probably relate I grew
up in Flint Michigan and my parents were
divorced at early ages I remember
screaming and literally kicking walls
and being really angry of my parents I’d
even say that I experienced domestic
violence and Lana last need an
impression of my dad he actually took a
chair and lifted it up and put it into
the ceiling of our kitchen and I
remember the four holes but I laughed as
they patched it up after the divorce we
went to live with my mom their four kids
I have two brothers and sister
and because my mom didn’t work outside
of home we lived in what would be called
temporary poverty we even had
governmental food assistance I was a kid
during that stage I was the one in which
school with my hands didn’t get brushed
I was embarrassed cuz only the enemy
talents and it had socks it didn’t match
and because of that people judge you by
how you looked and so knowing the PE
class I can honestly remember being a PE
and be the last kid picked it’s funny on
a side note as I became a PE teacher and
back to my childhood so after more
difficult situations my mom gave are
still gave my siblings and I have to go
live with my dad and at that point time
things changed for the better my dad
started or actually at that point I
started putting all my positive energy
or all my negative energy into something
positive and for me that was school
sports because I knew that education was
my ticket out my dad was a single dad
raising four kids and back before they
had the TV show save you money that was
our life my dad was the extreme couponer
back then and that’s how he was able to
provide nice things for us and it was
during that time then I realized that
actually I have it better often a lot
other people because I started to see
things I had seen before I had friends
that when I’d go there cops they did not
have food in their cupboard and I had
friends that didn’t have bedrooms and I
I’ll tell you I haven’t had a voice
until today just so you guys know since
Friday I don’t have another voice part
of that you can think okay so with that
shared I’m going to show you this little
picture I have a little like for you
because I’m going to talk with you a
little bit about how life is not what
happens to you but it’s how you react to
it I’m convinced that life is 10% what
happens to me and 90% of how I react to
it and so it is with you we are in
charge of our attitudes now this is the
quote that I actually had given to me
from one of my coaches in high school
and it always kind of stuck with me and
there’s actually a much longer quote
that goes with it if you haven’t wanted
to look it up likewise dr. Mark Seligman
hams book I learned optimism and you
know I always think that readers are
leaders leaders are readers so this book
on learned optimism talks about how
light inflicts the same setbacks and
tragedies on the optimist and it does on
the positive or a pessimist sorry and so
basically he says that the optimist
whether it’s a storm so everybody has
what I call baggage that they bring to
the table but it’s how you react to it
that makes a difference even those on
the Satanist openness book that the
optimist deal with the same type of
tragedies in life will perform better in
school they are better on the field and
they’re better in life and maybe they
want to say that they’ll even live
longer and this book says that they’ll
live longer for about 10 years longer so
I have a positive attitude it’s kind of
major impact on your life so the first
thing I’m a challenge is stay positive
now I’m talking about substitute
behavior because what that means is when
things aren’t going well for you you
need to find out what you can invest in
it’s going to make you better
so whether it’s sports exercise maybe
it’s creating YouTube videos reading
books journaling whatever that is for
so let’s say you’re thinking positive
you found some group replacement
behaviors now I’m going to challenge you
to work hard to make it happen and I
wish no one asked you here because you
know that so when I say work hard to
make it out but I’m going to tell you a
little story when I because my dad was
like so super thirsty by the time I got
into high school there were five kids we
were in a blended family my parents made
enough money that we didn’t qualify for
aid aid but I don’t want to go away to
college they could pay kids through
school so my goal was to go as far away
from home as possible in a play ball and
because my dad was like so thrifty he
and I shared with you before he founds a
tiny little article in the journal about
murky and I went down to art work you
and I end up making a volleyball
scholarship well in addition to that
really my true love was basketball I
really wanted the mess hall so I went
down there to the college I had another
oil scholarship my toxicants ranks
that’s a coach Frank’s plan suppose my
love I really wanna play basketball and
he went on and on about how hey we went
to Nationals last year we throw the
Nationals every year I’ve got all these
great players coming back fact you guys
know coop Scott so coach plot was one of
these like all-conference players that
he had honesty
he basically told me you’re not gonna
make the same so I kind of just prayed
about it and I went around to my life we
went around starting bowling ball and
awesome one day he posted on the school
campus wall it says open again I wanted
to make it happy cuz I love basketball I
went to practice every single day and
they look to be a practice player I love
the game that much I would have did it
so one day I just every day after
volleyball practice I’d go to basketball
practice and I was never told not to
come back and I was never really told
amenity but coach frank says everybody
try on shoes you know look around they
know you know what do I do so I just
pretended like I didn’t everybody else
is doing I’m trying on shoes dude and so
finally coach Frese come up to me and
say hey Smith and that’s what made me my
way they said what’s that you wear and
I’m thinking oh my gosh you know I
wanted to scream and I like oh my gosh I
can seem real casual just looked at him
I was like size 10 coat and so my point
of sharing that is I just really worked
my butt off to make it happen and you
can too and so I have I think about like
the some of the great for the
another persistence just to keep coming
back and keep going after day after day
I had another coat to inspire me that
used to give me this poem and this is
only one stanza of it I don’t want to
bore you at all but it says if you think
you’re being you are if you think you’re
not you doped if you’d like to win but
you can’t so certain pitch won’t if you
lose we’ve lost because out the world
refine the success beginnings with the
clothesline and that’s all in state of
mind so the gist of that is if you think
you can you will if you think you can’t
won’t
so you’ve gotta get to start thinking
about positivity the next challenge I’ll
share with you is about positive stuff
talking to you talk so the positive
self-talk side is you’re going to have
people that are going to be mean and
they’re unbeatable and when I talk with
kids every day or I talk to adults and
even as adults sometimes people quarters
mean let me around and so you have
entire self like positive rehearsal in
your mind like I can do this I got this
you own this sometimes I’ve even toolkit
a walk in act like you own the place
it’s just killing with kindness so
that’s your positive self-talk side the
team talks I know this little team right
here and you know most of the players on
this team they are now ranked 10th out
of 173 teams and I can tell you not only
do they work really really hard but they
have a lot of positives team talk so
I’ll give an example Matt some bug all
let’s say you’re gonna rain do what I
call serve receive means they’re gonna
serve you’re gonna receive it and let’s
say you go to pass that ball and you
shake it okay you don’t need your
teammates saying they’re telling you
what you did wrong you’ll need your
teammate oh come on
best of all or giving you a glare on the
court now you’re gonna make a space so
instead and this team is great example
this they’re gonna say hey you’ve got
the next one you’re ready now and then
they’re gonna give you a little
encouragement
I’ll give you a basketball example too
so let’s say you’re going to shoot a
basket and you’re playing a big rivalry
team and let’s say you air ball and your
teammate looks to you they’re like dude
pass the ball how does that make you
feel
instead what if your teammate said hey
you’ve got this
keep shooting you’re gonna make the next
one and they give you high five
obviously that’s a much better approach
and you’re going to have a better result
in your
Barnard I’m gonna leave you a few other
thoughts Mary Kay Ash is like one of the
most successful businessman woman she
was a founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics and
I’m not here to say sorry Mary Kay but I
had the opportunity before she had to go
to some her women’s conferences and a
couple of things that I have always
lasted with because she would say wipe
you off until tomorrow what you can do
today so kind of goes back to that whole
gathered on philosophy you know quit
procrastinating just get on it get it
done and then she always talks about
there being three types of people in the
world so I want you to think about this
think about you are you one of those
people who make things happen
do you watch things happen or do you
wonder what happened which one are you
and then she’d go on to say expect great
things great things will happen so
expect results expect success and then
miracles happen
and so basically in summary number one
you got to believe you got something
positive then you have to work hard and
make it happen because you choice you
have a voice on what your future holds
so you just have to find your passion
and best into it and then make it happen and then I’d say I believe in you