Train Your Brain for Success by Randy Kulman

Author:Randy Kulman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Specialty Press/A.D.D. Warehouse
Published: 2012-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Self-control

How to Stop, Relax, and Decide

Matthew is one of the most popular kids in his school. He is friendly, full of energy, funny, and very athletic. Most of his teachers really like him, although sometimes they need to ask him to get back to work in class and stop talking to his friends.

Matthew is also one of the best football players on his high school team. He is very competitive and uses his energy to encourage his teammates to do their best. Occasionally he can get too competitive, and he has problems controlling his emotions. He hates to lose, and while this helps him put forth his best effort, his behavior after his team has lost upsets his coaches and his parents.

Matthew has also recently been having problems with a few of his teachers at school. He has always been a class clown, but most of his former teachers liked him so much that they didn’t mind when he would do something silly or blurt out things in the middle of class. However some of his new teachers are much more serious and do not want Matthew’s behavior interfering with the class. As a result, he has had a few detentions, and at one point his football coach held him out of a game because of his poor sportsmanship after the team’s loss.

Matthew recognized that these behaviors were not new. Sometimes he would act out in anger towards his parents when he did not get his way at home. There had also been other occasions when he tended to act before thinking at school and sporting events. Matthew recognized his difficulty with self-control and decided to do something about it.

First, Matthew worked on controlling his emotions. He thought long and hard about the types of situations that tended to set him off and decided that the best way to display better sportsmanship and control his feelings at football games was to put all of his energy into the game and then let it go afterwards. After talking with his best friend, he came to an understanding that there are many times in life when things didn’t go the way he wanted and that if he were really going to be happy, he’d have to be better at dealing with disappointment.

Matthew took a different approach to controlling his behavior. He developed a few strategies to stop himself from acting before thinking in class. When he got the feeling that he was going to blurt something out, he learned to put his hand over his mouth until the urge went away. He also decided to learn how far he could go with his different teachers, so that he didn’t find himself in more trouble.

Matthew’s behavior change has become very evident to his coaches and teachers. His coaches decided to make him into a defensive captain, and his teachers, who had given him detentions, began to compliment him for his performance in school.

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