VALUE 4 : CHANGE IN ATTITUDE AND MINDSET

This module consists of two parts:

  • Characteristics of Attitude
  • Characteristics of Mindset

Overall view

The objective of this program is to assist trainers to understand and impart these values in the most practical manner to children/teenagers/adults using the most appropriate teaching methodology in delivering the teachings.

Module Objective

By the end of the training, trainers who are teaching this module should be able to impart the following values:

  • Define the characteristics of values related to Attitude.

The Attitude to have is the willingness to change positively. Explain that Attitude here comprises the following ideas:

  • Self –improvement
  • Progress in life
  • Happiness
  • Define the characteristics of Mindset which will cover:
  • Mind’s focus towards progression
  • Overcoming Resentment
Learning Outcomes:

1)         Improved understanding of attitudes and willingness to change

2)         Awareness of the strength of your mind and self-effort

3)         Understand that success and failure starts from one’s own mind (thoughts we allow)

4)         Self-evaluating and reflecting on own actions/behaviour and plan for change/improvements

5)         Being aware of opportunities for personal growth and development

6)         Instil team spirit, make decisions and believe in group’s goal/s. (relate to game)

 

  • Mindset – Define what is mindset?

Meaning of mindset – habits of the mind formed from previous experience. Established set of attitudes held by an individual.

  • In this context, the trainer is required to tell participants the importance of directing the mind to be focused towards achieving progress rather than to show resentment. ( Relate lessons learned from the video on ‘Peasant and Queen’) – How the queen was so focused and determined to bring about a change in the peasant’s way of life.
  • Similarly, children/teenagers can achieve their dreams by staying focused in what they do, set priorities in life to achieve success in their studies and in all other activities and being focused towards achieving those dreams/results.

Takeaway:

  1. What have you learned today?
  2. We create our destiny/we can make or mar our life. Our future is in our hands.
  3. So, you can make that change to bring improvement in life to be successful and happy.
 WEEK VALUE ASPECTS METHODOLODY / RESOURCES
11 Change in Attitude and Mindset Attitude – willingness to change for self-improvement, progress in life and happiness.

 

 

Change is not easy. When we are used to certain habits, it is not easy to change it. The Poison and Nectar game can be used as warming up activity. In this game, children learn to act quickly when facing danger. Those who are quick to change their position though become stationery; they still have a chance to continue playing when someone rescues them. However, those who could not change are out of the game!

 

Process:

1)    Define and explain what is Attitude?
It is a mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values, and characters that make you act in a certain way. Provide examples.

2)    Personal change

A desire to improve your life which starts with the mind. If you change the way you think, you can change your life. Change can only happen if you allow it.

3)    What is change then?

Make or become different. What was it before and what is it now that has brought about positive values/improvements? 

4)    Self-improvement

That which brings change in your abilities, mental state and by learning new things which makes you more capable.  (relate this to the video on the “Peasant and Queen’)

5)    Progress in life

Improve the quality of life.

Self-improvement precedes quality of life. (relate this to the video on the “Peasant and Queen’)

Learnings from the video- trainer should then be able to engage with participants how the learnings can be reflected in their own life and how they can progress if they want to make/see that difference.

6)    Happiness

A state of mind of being content, joyful, delightful, pleasure, satisfied, freedom from sufferings.

As you think so you become, you are the pilot of your own destiny or life successes. This is illustrated in “The Queen and the Peasant”. 

 

How to change oneself?

How it was possible to conquer one’s evil habits as it is difficult to overcome them. “Old habits gradually become so much a part of one’s nature that they become practically impossible to eradicate. Even if one has conquered them, they come back at times with more than their usual force and thus reassert themselves. When boughs of coconut and palm trees fall off, they leave permanent impressions on the trees throughout their life. It has been aptly said that those whose nature is low cannot get rid of it even though they rise to great heights, for they behave like the digit 9. This is illustrated by “Number 9” game.

Bad habits are hard to overcome. It is difficult but not impossible. Constant practice and firm determination is required to bring changes. Therefore, it is better not to develop bad habits in the first place. This is illustrated in the ‘A Thief’s Pilgrimage’ story.

 

 

GAME: POISON AND NECTAR

Estimated time : 10 – 13 minutes

Materials : Nil

Description:

1.    All players including the catcher(s) will be inside the area.

2.    When a whistle is blown, players will avoid getting caught by squatting down when the catcher approaches them.

3.    Whilst in the squatting position, the catcher will place his hand on the player and say Poison.

4.    This player who is poisoned has to remain stationary, until another player comes, places his hand on his head and says Nectar.

5.    The player is now free to help other players who is poisoned being cautious of not getting caught by the catcher again.

6.    Those players caught whilst on their feet, or who step outside the area will be out of the game.

7.    After the game is over, the trainer can explain the importance of change factor in life.

 

VIDEO: QUEEN AND THE PEASANT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYSGlcAkJeA

Pointers for discussion:
Q1. What do you think of the story?

Q2. What do you think of what the king said – that God made them poor.

Q3. What is the main difference between the attitude of queen and peasant’s wife?

Q4. What is the lesson for us in the way the queen handled the dead snake that the peasant brought?

Q5. Why do you think the peasants were poor?

-peasant kept his word

-the queen was positive and accepted what peasant brought

-shows the faith the queen had in herself/ in approach to life/savings/shows the positive attitude of the queen.

The peasant’s wife made a mess in the palace.      

The farmer did not work together with his wife to achieve success.

They felt “This is our life, we should accept this” – however, the queen did not agree to this.

Queen’s attitudes: cleanliness, organized, wanting to improve, not complaining.

We normally say “Lakshmi visits your house when your house is kept clean and inviting.”

 

ACTIVITY 1 : Number 9

1.    Ask the children to do multiply by the digit 9. Give from small to big numbers, e.g 2, 22, 202.

2.    Whichever number you may multiply by the digit 9, the digits in the multiple when added together will always be found to be 9, provided the digits of the resultant sum are, if necessary, and again added together.

For instance:

9 multiplied by 2 is 18 and 1 and 8 added together make 9.

9 multiplied by 202 is 1818 and the digits of this figure make 18, which again yields 9.

This explains the unchangeable character of 9.

Whatever habits – good or bad – you form, would communicate their essential qualities to your actions and it is extremely difficult to get rid of them. Only by persistent efforts carried on for a long time can bad habits be replaced by good habits and a man’s nature fundamentally altered.

 

STORY : A THIEF’S PILGRIMAGE

Questions to probe:

1)   What was the weakness of the man?

2)   How did he try to change his bad habits?

3)   What alternate measure did he take to stop himself from stealing?

4)   What do you suggest that he could have done to change his habits?

ACTIVITY 2: THE ATTITUDE INVENTORY

Material: A piece of paper for each student

Colour pencils or pens

Give the students a piece of paper each and a pencil and ask them the following questions, one at a time. (If the child is not yet able to write well, it’s okay to have her dictate her answers to you.)

·         Write down the name of someone you think typically has a good attitude. Why makes you think so? Write down those qualities you observed or recognize?

·         Write down the name of someone you think typically has a lousy or bad attitude.

·         How do you know they have a bad attitude? Write down those attitudes.

·         Are there things in your life you’d like to change to help you have a more positive attitude?

·         If negative stuff is happening to you, what are the things you can do to keep your outlook positive? Name a few of them.

·         Ask children to list problems that affect them and then help them reframe their thinking into positive affirmations / positive attitude.

Probe with some of the following questions:

·         How do I feel about this?

·         Do I enjoy having this problem or do I want it to be solved?

·         Have I been blaming other people for this problem?

·         What will happen in the short-term if I don’t solve this problem? What about the long-term?

·         What little things can I do to work towards solving this problem?

·         How do I have to change my attitude to solve the problem?

·         What will happen once this problem is resolved?

 

STORY 1 : A THIEF’S PILGRIMAGE

Once, a group of villagers decided to go out on a pilgrimage to some holy places.  A thief thinking that it was time for him to stop thieving and to begin expiating the sins expressed his desire to go with them on pilgrimage. They agreed to the proposal, thinking that the pilgrimage was more necessary for a man of his type than even themselves and that it might help him to turn over a new leaf.

The party started for Benaras and thence they went to Mathura and Vrindavan. Every day in the course of their tour they had the curious experience of finding that some of the articles belonging to one or two of the party were missing and that they were mixed up with the baggage belonging to some other persons.

Being at a loss to account for this, they suspected the thief. One night some of the members of the party sat up the whole night in order to see who was at the bottom of the mischief. The thief was caught red-handed while he was transferring some of the articles belonging to one of the parties to the belongings of another.

When he was asked to explain his conduct he said, “My good Sirs, owing to my past habits I am unable to have a wink of sleep at night and I have to do something to keep my mind engaged. Having abjured thieving, the best that I could think of was to put one man’s articles into another’s package, and I am thankful that I am doing nothing worse.”

WEEK VALUE  ASPECTS  METHODOLODY / RESOURCES
12 Change in Attitude and Mindset Mindset – bringing the mind’s focus towards one’s progression rather than resentment

–      You are the creator of your own destiny.

–      Think of your higher nature, not your lower.

We must be willing to let go outdated ideas and our false perception. Often, people who are egoistic will not accept changes. There are afraid of leaving their comfort zone and will not admit their ignorance. Such is the case of the “Frog in the Well.”

 

There are others who are willing to accept changes, after examining its worth. Only such people can raise themselves to the higher level or improve themselves to better ways. This can be seen from “The Lions’ Cub” story.

 

 

 

For Warming Up, use this video –

VIDEO: LAZY BOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3yZuSz1AhQ

 

Story 1: FROG IN THE WELL

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqdUSNeuz3w

 

Questions to probe?

1)    Why do you think the frog from the well refused to accept the story of the frog from the sea?

2)    What do you suggest, the frog could have done?

3)    Can you list out a few examples from your own life, when you have acted just like the frog?

Compare the Frog’s story with the Lion’s Cub story below:

 

STORY 2 : THE LION’S CUB

1)    How did the lion cub behave and why?

2)    What was the cub’s reaction when a lion approached it?

3)    What did the lion do to make the cub realize its true nature?

4)    Do you think that the cub will remain in his old habits after knowing its nature? What will happen if the cub refused to accept change?

 

Quotations:

“The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits.”

“Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character.”

“It is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.”

“It is character that pays everywhere.”

“Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.”

 

ACTIVITY 1 : BAKING A WORLD CAKE

 STORY 1: A FROG IN THE WELL

A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not but, for our story’s sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way, it went on and became a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.
“Where are you from?”
“I am from the sea.”
“The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?” and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.
“My friend,” said the frog of the sea, “how do you compare the sea with your little well?”
Then the frog took another leap and asked, “Is your sea so big?”
“What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!”
“Well, then,” said the frog of the well, “nothing can be bigger than my well. There can be nothing bigger than this. This fellow is a liar, so turn him out.”

 

STORY 2: THE LION’S CUB

A lioness that was pregnant, coming across a flock of sheep grazing pounced upon one of them and in the exertion, she gave birth to a cub. Shortly after, she died. The cub found itself amongst the flock of sheep and began to live amongst them and imitate them in all possible ways. In the course of a few months, its ways become those of a sheep. It learned to bleat like the sheep and live on grass and leaves.

One day, another lion came near their place and it was shocked to a see a cub eating grass. When the lion approached them, the flock bleated and ran away. The cub too began to bleat like a sheep and tried to run away. The lion caught and dragged it to some distance. Then the lion said, “Why do you bleat? You are a lion. You must roar. Why do you eat grass? That is not your food.” The lion then gave the cub a piece of meat. But the cub refused to eat it. The lion then dragged the cub to a stream of water and said, “Look into the water. See whether you look like a lion or like a sheep.” This convinced the cub and it ate the meat given by the lion. The taste of blood gave it a joy. In an instant, the cub realized its original nature, began to roar like a lion and its appearance and movements from that moment became truly leonine.

 

ACTIVITY 1 : BAKING A WORLD CAKE

Make a World Cake of human qualities and characteristics. This activity provides an opportunity for students to think about a better world, create and discuss what they think is important to their peers, parents, and teachers. (Students can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to bake the cake.)

Discuss:

  1. What are the finest human qualities you think should be in “World Cake”?
  2. Would all the ingredients be pure, or would you include some “not so good” ingredients to remind us we need to work together to remove those items that cause harm or hurt?

Instruction

Step 1 – Choose the ingredients. Make a list of the finest human qualities you would like to put into your World Cake.

Step 2 – Choose the amount of each ingredient. The amount of each ingredient can be measured in grams, kilograms, tons, percentages, or any other suitable way.

Step 3 – Mixing and baking the cake. Describe the order in which you would put the ingredients into the cake mix and explain how you would mix and bake the cake. (For example, use Peace chants, songs).

Step 4 – Presenting your work. You can record your work in any way you wish, simple, imaginative, creative, and illustrated. (Different techniques can be used like power point presentation, with sounds, visuals, drawing, dolls, etc.)

Step 5 –   Sharing your work. Talk about your World Cake with family and friends. Explain that the ingredients and the way it is baked make it taste the way it does. Invite them to share their feelings about your cake.