A dozen ways to build Identity Capital:

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Shaunigan

Dr. Meg Jay, author of “The Defining Decade,” borrowed the term Identity Capital from socioligist ames Côté to describe the task of becoming yourself:

“Identity capital is our collection of personal assets. It is the repertoire of individual resources that we assemble over time. These are the investments we make in ourselves, the things we do well enough, or long enough, that they become a part of who we are. Some identity capital goes on a résumé, such as degrees, jobs, test scores, and clubs. Other identity capital is more personal, such as how we speak, where we are from, how we solve problems, how we look. Identity capital is how we build ourselves—bit by bit, over time.”

Her Ted Talk is well worth the view:

I am struck by the idea of building one’s identity and how it can relate to leveraging one’s strengths. Inspired by Nicole Booz’s excellent list in Gen Twenty, I have crafted one aimed more specifically for high school students. I borrow heavily from her list, so credit is really due to her. I reorgnaized them so my list only has a dozen items.

Here are more than a dozen ways to build Identity Capital:

Identify goals you want to achieve in the next month.
Give back to a cause that matters to you by volunteering your time.
Keep your resume up to date.
Spend quality time with people you consider family.
Ask for more responsibility in one of your clubs.
Learn something new such as:
1. Read books from multiple genres.
2. Learn a new skill; practice it for six months.
3. Listen to TED talks and podcasts for inspiration.
4. Learn a new technique for something you already know how to do.
5. Attend a workshop for something you’d like to know more about.
6. Learn a new language.
Practice strong resiliency skills
1. Avoid comparing yourself to others.
2. Identify your natural talents.
3. Stop doing things you don’t truly enjoy.
4. Eliminate time-sucks in your life that aren’t productive.
5. Stop procrastinating.
6. Make a commitment and see it through.
Keep a gratitude journal.
What the heck:
1. At least once a month, try something you’ve never done before.
2. Cook your way through a professional cookbook.
3. Take a break from social media.
4. Spend a weekend cleaning out your closet and de-cluttering your home.
5. Wake up and start your day earlier.
6. Go for a hike and spend time outdoors.
7. Go to the ballet, opera, or a show.
8. Do something you’ve always been afraid to.
9. Plan a vacation to a destination filled with history.
10. Dedicate a few hours each week to a hobby that you enjoy.
11. Set a fitness goal and work to achieve it.
Schedule a meeting with one of your teachers and ask for feedback.
Engage deeply in some sort of personal expression or creative project such as:
1. Try your hand at a Pinterest DIY project.
2. Start a scrapbook.
3. Learn calligraphy.
4. Start a collection of something you enjoy.
5. Try your hand at writing a novel.
6. Start a blog and connect with like-minded individuals.
Dream big:
1. Make a https://www.bucketlist.org/ for the year; actively work to check off the boxes.
2. Map out what your dream career path looks like from beginning to retirement.
3. Write a letter to 80-year old you. What do you hope to have achieved by then?
4. Allow yourself to daydream about who you want to be… then go be it.

Shoutout to Eric for pointing me to the book the Defining Decade.

Tool for building hope in schools

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Shaunigan

Stumbled on this website today, Schools for Hope.

Schools for Hope is a new curriculum project developed by iFred, the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression. It is based on research that suggests hope is a teachable skill. Our aim is to equip students, educators, and parents with the tools they need to find and maintain hope even during the most trying of times.

The offer up a 10 lesson curriculum for teaching hope in middle school. Looks great.

Love of learning…on overdrive

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Shaunigan

You can learn in many ways, from school to lectures, to conversation or experiences….all are valid. One of most accessible and popular is simply reading books. Ralph Waldo Emerson suggest that “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” Whil a book should expand our intellect, what we think about. You should move off the best seller lists and pick up some obscure titles for, as Haruki Murakami reminds us, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” But, you need to process it, you need to make it your own thinking. “Keep reading books, but remember that a book is only a book,” reminds Maxim Gorky, “and you should learn to think for yourself.” And it in thinking for yourself, you write your own meaning, which is the essence of reading according to W. Somerset Maugham: “The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.” As you construct your own meaning, your soul grows or so it would seem to Marcus Tullius Cicero who observed that “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

Some of us are obsessed by books, as Henry Ward Beecher warned: “Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” and Jorge Luis Borges confessed that “I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.” For people like us, the week and sleepless, we horde books like misers do gold. And the Japanese have a word for us: Tsundoku

The word dates back to the very beginning of modern Japan, the Meiji era (1868-1912) and has its origins in a pun. Tsundoku, which literally means reading pile, is written in Japanese as 積ん読. Tsunde oku means to let something pile up and is written 積んでおく. Some wag around the turn of the century swapped out that oku(おく) in tsunde oku for doku (読) – meaning to read. Then since tsunde doku is hard to say, the word got mushed together to form tsundoku.

It strikes me that people strong in Love of Learning or Curiosity may well experiecne this phenomenon more that people of other character strengths. I agree with Frank Zappa “So many books, so little time.”

And just spotted this one to continue with the theme:

IB Learner Profile meet the VIA Character Strengths

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Shaunigan

In a course I taught this summer, someone mentioned that they had seen a document comparing the IB Learner Profile with the VIA Character Strengths. An IB coordinator identifed that many character strengths are embeed in the IB Learning profiel but only provided a list of the traights, not explicitly linking it to any of the 8 profile statements: “Creativity, Ingenuity, Originality, Curiosity, Judgement and Critical Thinking, Love of Learning, Perspective, Valour and Bravery, Diligence/ Perseverance, Integrity, Honesty Vitality, Zest, Enthusiasm Kindness and Generosity Loving and being Loved, Social/Emotional Intelligence, Citizenship, Duty, Equity, Fairness Leadership, Self Control, Forgiveness, Modesty, Prudence, Caution, Appreciation of Beauty, Gratitude, Hope, Optimism, Playfulness, Sense of Purpose”

Having not been able to find a more specific document, I created my own; mine looks specifically for primary connections as opposed to secondary one. Certainly, for example, you could argue leadership is present when working indepeendently as stated in the inquires bullet, but it is not specific enough to

The IB Learner Profile

IB learners strive to be:

Inquirers

They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.

Strengths mined: Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Love of Learning

Knowledgeable

They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they acquire indepth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.

Strengths mined: Love of Learning, Wisdom

Thinkers

They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

Strengths mined: Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Creativity

Communicators

They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.

Strengths mined: Creativity, Teamwork, Social Intelligence

Principled

They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them.

Strengths mined: Honesty, Fairness, Leadership

Open-minded

They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.

Strengths mined: Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Love of Learning

Caring

They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.

Strengths mined: Kindness, Gratitutde, Social Intelligence, Love, Teamwork, Hope

Risk-takers

They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.

Strengths mined: Bravery, Wisdom, Leadership

Balanced

They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal wellbeing for themselves and others.

Strengths mined: Self-Regulation, Wisdom, Zest

Reflective

They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.

Strengths mined: Wisdom, modesty, Honesty, Hope

Training in positive psychology coming to Shanghai

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Shaunigan

Want training in positive psychology training? I will be doing some training in Shanghai in January 2016.

Date: Jan 16-17
School: Shanghai American School
Title: Flourishing in Schools: Utilizing groundbreaking research and tools from positive psychology to improve student’s wellbeing.
Consultant: Shaun McElroy
Coordinator: Janet Claassen, janet.claassen@saschina.org
» Download Flyer
» Registration

Developing Point-i-ness in your child

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Shaunigan

Many people have heard the mantra: “follow your passions.” Aside from being completely wrong as career advice, it leaves out how to even cultivate a passion that lends itself to what the world needs. This article goes into mor depth than the one published in Shanghai Daily.

Start with reviewing the VIA character results of your teen. Even better take your own so you can better understand it. It is free. You can get a foundational understanding in this movie:

Research shows that people who use their signature strengths regularly are less stressed, more fufilled, happier, more energized, report higher levels of well-being etc.

As you examine your teen’s interests, skills, passions etc, always come back to which character strengths is this feeding. Ken Robbinson calls this your element:

RSA Shorts – How to Find Your Element from The RSA on Vimeo.

His two books are well worth the read. You can learn more in this much more in-depth video. Another way of thinking about finding your element is asking what is your purpose. Conceptually, helping your teen find their purpose looks like this:

The world needs it

What does the world need? According to Fortune, here is the list of jobs with the greatest outlook in 2015.

1. Registered Nurses 2. Truck Drivers 3. Customer Service Representatives 4. Sales managers 5. Sales Representatives 6. First- line supervisors or managers of retail sales workers 7. Software quality assurance engineers and testers 8. General and operations manager 9. Managers (all other) 10. Accountants and auditors –

Forbes has a list of jobs requiring college degrees The problem of course is what if you do not like any of these jobs? You could look where the jobs are

Source: WalletHub

Oddly you can check a different source and come up with a different list.

You are paid for it

If you got to work, you may as well get paid for it. So which jobs pay the best? Payscale has an answer that a lot of literature majors are not going to like. Of the top 30, 28 are STEM degrees with a heavy emphasis on Engineering.

You are good at it

The theory goes that if you are good at it, it must come easy to you and you must enjoy it. While this idea does not hold up under scrutinity (many people are good at stuff they work hard at and you can be good at thing you do not enjoy), it does suggest the idea of getting good at stuff. And some stuff is actually wanted by employers. According to National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers desperately want college gradautes to

1. Ability to work in a team structure

2. Ability to make decisions and solve problems (tie)

3. Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization

4. Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work

5. Ability to obtain and process information

6. Ability to analyze quantitative data

7. Technical knowledge related to the job

8. Proficiency with computer software programs

9. Ability to create and/or edit written reports

10. Ability to sell and influence others

You can start helping your teen developing these transferable skills through school work and particpation in clubs, activities and itnernships. Binghamton has a worksheet to self evaluate which skills you are developing.

While you can focus on developing these skills, these skills show up in the most unqiue places, often unexpectedly. Rita J. King advocated the value of serendipity in career development:

This suggests pushing your kids for unique exeriences.

“You need to be exposed to many things. You should expose yourself even though you might not know if you’ll be interested.” Linda Caldwell

You love to do it

Steve Jobs’s famous commencement speech offered the following advice:

I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

A lot of people took this to mean “follow your passion!” Only that is not what Steve meant. He talked about finding what you love. Moreover he ends with this:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Passion is wonderfully energizing, but also complicated as Robert Vallerand explains:

“Passion comes from a special fit between an activity and a person. You can’t force that fit; it has to be found.” Geneviève Mageau, psychology professor at the University of Montreal.

Peter Benson, president of the Search Institute provides a path for parents to follow in coaching their children in the book Sparks:

In addition, I suggest you need to help your kids adopt and use a growth mindset:

You can learn more about Carol Dweck’s work at her website and this video.

With summer on the horizon, there is a great opportunity to explore new horizons:

Teen Ink has an excellent searchable database.
I have curated a list of great programs at International Counselor

For parents of introverts, I strongly recommend reading Susain Cain’s great book Quiet:

Possibly the best book I have seen for teens is Cal Newport’s “how to be a high school superstar.”

Cal Newport offers great advice on his blog, Studyhacks. You can get a flavour of his insights at his talk at Google in which he makes the case to cultivate your passion. As Cal Newport states, “Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”

As your teen explores their world, feeding their strengths and fanning the sparks of what may become a great passion, one that has transferable skills or gives them insight to their purpose on the planet, help them develop an attitude of gratitude. Martin Seligman offersa very simply, but powerful activity:

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”

e. e. cummings

Books recommended (kindle format)