Help your students (and yourself!) start off this school year right by staying positive. These tips, quotes, and helpful reminders for positive thinking can be perfect conversation starters for the classroom to keep kids feeling motivated to succeed.

Words of Wisdom
Instead of asking, “Why is this happening to me?” try to ask, “What can I learn from this?”

Replace the word problem with challenge. Problem suggests that what we’re facing has to be a downer, but it doesn’t. Life is about embracing challenges!

Avoid all-or-nothing thinking—thinking that something is either all good or all bad. Allow for choices, options, and compromise.

Remember that while you can’t always keep negative things from happening, you can control how you feel about them and how you react to them. You have the power to choose positivity.

Accept compliments from others! It feels good to be proud of your accomplishments and let people cheer you on.

Acts of Positivity
Embrace goof-ups, gaffes, and mistakes. Acknowledge what happened without shame or criticizing yourself, determine what you can learn from it, apologize if you need to, and move on.

Look for good news. Visit a good news website or sign up for a daily text or email from a good news organization. Google “good news” to get started.

Do something kind for someone else. It’ll brighten this person’s day . . . and yours!

Once a day/week/month, eliminate something negative from your life. You’ll be surprised by how many things you were holding onto that were holding you back.

Exercise releases endorphins that naturally make you feel happy and positive. So whenever you’re feeling down, get moving!

Eating healthy, nutrient-rich foods is not only good for your health, it can help you feel more positive as well. Make an effort to replace one unhealthy food option with something that is better for you every day.

Quotes to Keep You Going
“You can’t let your failures define you—you have to let them teach you.”
—Barack Obama

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
—Anne Frank

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
—Edith Wharton

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.”
—Les Brown

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
—William Arthur Ward

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.”
—Walt Whitman

For more ways to incorporate positivity into your classroom, home, or life, check out Stay Positive In a Jar^®: Tips, Quotes, and Questions to Spark Upbeat Thoughts and Attitudes

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