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Helen’s Place LLC | Transcripts | Cognitive Science: Emotional Fitness Update: November 30, 2022
Ch. 4: Constructive Action Rules, from Antidote to Social Media for Children Living in the Disinformation Age
Constructive action rules change as new information is available.
PURPOSE:
A commitment to including cognitive science/emotional fitness rules for constructive action in school curriculum is important to help students develop constructive action habits in their lives. This includes a one step at a time practice to accomplishing goals.
CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION RULES:
1. Keep a list of accomplishments and what you consider failures. Review the list often, and figure out what you learned from each item. You can often learn as much from your successes as failures.
2. Decide on at least one thing to do the following day, whether you want to do it or not, that will help you achieve your goal. If that day goes by and you don’t do anything, decide again the course of action for the next day. Eventually, you will establish a habit of action. To live a constructive life requires practice, and a decision to act one step at a time.
3. Remember that not every action you take will work out. Disappointment is just a roadblock to get around, so grieve for your losses and move on.
4. Don’t blame anyone for your mistakes. It’s better to accept what happened as part of the learning process, and then focus on your present moment and where you’re headed next.
5. You will learn more from what you turn to rather than what you turn from, so find inspirational role models to follow and keep moving forward, rather than backwards.
6. Harness the power of detachment. When you observe rather than react to the world around you, and link ordinary experiences to your work, you’ll get more out of your personal journey, including your time at work.
7. Stop your groundhog day moments. When you realize you are repeating the same pattern over and over, spend time getting clear about what it is you want for your life, and then manifest the habit of doing things differently, one small change at a time.
8. Don’t waste a moment. Use your time before starting something new to evaluate what went right and what went wrong about a past action that didn’t work out. Write down your thoughts and refer back to your notes often to modify them as you get more clarity about it. When you’re ready, choose again.
9. Practice conscious resistance. See and hear what’s going on without being stopped by it. Plenty of people have book-smart intelligence without emotional fitness, but to be an emotionally fit person requires staying in constructive action mode.
10. Accept responsibility when you’ve been given a bad hand in life. Adopt the mindset that the blame game stops with me. Say “I’m alive, and I own my life – the good, the bad and the ugly.” Then decide a course of action for dealing with what happened and move forward
11. Adopt a ‘work as a choice’ mindset. Understand that It’s the nature of the mind to put up roadblocks for why you can’t do something, so accept this reality, and devise ways to work around it. The main point is to remember that you’re in charge of your own life.
12. Be vigilant. Increasing your watchfulness for potential danger is something you must do to stay safe
For more information see Helen’s Place LLC’s related article,
“Maintaining Hope Through Constructive Action – One Step At A Time.”
