Thoughts From the Heart of a Teenager ~ Ashley Rice

After reading this article, i reflected back on my own teenage years. This reminiscence is hard to describe in words. It is kind of interesting and heart warming. Having went in and out of teenage years in a daze, this article depicted feelings and thoughts that i am not conscious of till now. Enjoy...

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Give us our little wishes, our own clothes, our harmless rebellions.
The chance to make our own mistakes, to grow our special gardens.
Tolerate our musings, as we learn and change our minds.
Don’t lead or we won’t learn to walk alone, to see, or speak our minds.

Listen before you judge us; we feel deeply and have reasons, too.
Remember we must chase different dreams before we find what we best can do.

Trust our actions and our choices, however different from your own.
Give us the courage to take chances, to know if we fall we are not alone.
Have patience with our yearnings as we see our intentions through.
Let us know that where we are coming from is a safe place to return to.

Allow us the freedom to be creative, the opportunity to be wrong.
Teach us that we don’t have to be perfect to belong.
Give us our secret plans, our own music, our space to grow.
Learn with us as we discover these things.
When the time is right, let us go.

~ Ashley Rice
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It is such a good insightful read. However, to my surprise, a search on the topic did not return any real useful results except this newsletter by Advancing Youth Development (AYD) in the United States.

I especially like the part about giving the children a chance to make mistake, the courage to take chances. And still be there to support them in the entire process.

"Let us know that where we are coming from is a safe place to return to." I guess it boils down to the importance of home and family support.

I believe there is still a bit of teenager in everyone of us. Most of us would still have some of these thoughts... Right? =D

P.S. If you think write out like these are interesting and useful to you. Feel free to sign up for my mailing list. Due to time constraints, emails from me will be infrequent BUT valuable and relevant to the areas of learning, education and self-improvement.

4 Strategies and Techniques to Achieve Greater Success

1. Know What We Want.

Simple enough? This is a very simple step which a lot of us do not know. You will be surprised by the vast number of people who go about their lives not knowing what they want.So what do you want to achieve? Dream Big Dreams. Many great successes and achievements in life started from a dream. Write what you want down on paper. Construct a plan, detailing how you can turn your dreams into realities. Set goals and use them as your milestones.


2. Use “Divide and Conquer”

Divide and conquer is a time tested golden rule. Look at what we want to achieve, break it up into smaller, easier to manage pieces. Ask ourselves, is this the smallest possible step to take? Can we break it up further? If this is the smallest step, what is the most immediate action we can take?


3. Set FINITE time to reach each of the small pieces

Without a fixed date, it is almost impossible to drive ourselves towards our goals. Mark each of our milestones with a deadline. Goals are like destinations, deadlines help us set the speed that we can reach our destinations. Deadlines provide us the “push” towards our goals. Imagine, “The Amazing Race”. We need to reach the checkpoint for us to stay in the game. The deadlines for each small step are our checkpoints.


4. Know your priorities

Look at each of the “checkpoints” that you need to reach. Plan your route. Think about which one should be reached first. What is the most logical sequence? Sort and arrange each mini-goal by its order and priority.

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