Page 36 - SB-Too Birds

CONCLUSION AND EXERCISE
The world had changed and the birds had to adapt. For some,
their Too Beliefs (Stinky Thinking) was too strong and they let their Not OK emotions lead them into Thumbs Down behaviors and ultimately to extinction.
Our lives are constantly evolving. The life of a pre-school child is as different from a fifth grader as that fifth grader’s life is from that of an adult. Our ability to change and deal effectively with what life throws at us is a function of our flexibility.
That ability to be flexible comes with our ability to see life with it’s difficulties and opportunities as they are in reality, not filtered by our irrational beliefs (in this case, Too Beliefs).
Intelligence, good looks and athletic ability will be of little value in the world our children face in the future if they lack the ability to rationally deal with the changes they encounter.
The Exercise helps children identify the Too Beliefs that accompany some typical situations, “The teacher is not teaching us how to do these problems. She is a terrible teacher.” The Too Belief could be something like “These problems are too hard and it will take me too long to figure out how to do them.”
The next skill is to challenge (change into something more rational) the Too Belief. “These problems are difficult but the teacher is expecting all of us to do them. If the others can figure them out, so can I even though it may take me a lot of time.”
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