Book Review The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

“The Secret” was released first as a DVD in 2006. Now it’s available in a book and has been causing quite a stir among the book worms all over!

First off, I must say it’s a very attractive book. The pages are glossy, and have the look of parchment. The cover is embossed with the Secret logo, and looks like an ancient manuscript. It has 10 chapters, the biographies of the contributors and is 198 pages.

The chapters are as follows:

The Secret Revealed

The Secret Made Simple

How to Use The Secret

Powerful Processes

The Secret to Money

The Secret to Relationships

The Secret to Health

The Secret to the World

The Secret to You

At the end of each chapter there is a list of “Secret Summaries” which sum up the information in that particular chapter.

Overall, “The Secret” is about the law of attraction, or “as a man thinketh, so shall he reap…” The Secret speaks of taking responsibility for ourselves and learning to go inside ourselves for happiness rather than counting on someone else or some new situation to make us happy.

Have you ever made any of the following statements to yourself?

”If only I had more money, then I could do what I wanted to do and be happy.”

”If only I could only loose this excess weight, then I’d be happy.”

”If only I had a romantic partner, then my life would be perfect.”

If you have ever said any of these statements to yourself (and we all have!) then you are looking toward something outside yourself to make you happy. Honestly, it’s all already inside of us! We don’t need anything to make us happy; we can do that on our own.

If you think this sound too good to be true, well, you’re right. It is. But it doesn’t change the fact that it works!

Honestly, “The Secret” isn’t the first book to come up with the theory of the law of attraction, and any internet search will come up with thousands of articles and books on the subject. But it’s the first I’ve seen to put the law of attraction so simply. And it’s the first I’ve ever seen that has had so many quotes from so many sources (including the Bible) and so many contributors, including scientists, doctors, life and business coaches, authors, ministers, and metaphysicians from both the past and the present.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is finally ready to make lasting changes in their life. I will be the first to admit that sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in our dramas. But our dramas only bring us more of the same. The Secret helps us to create a new way of thinking so that instead of attracting those same old dramas, we attract happiness and the life we’ve always dreamed of.

To buy online: The Secret

Read, Learn and Flourish!

For your Success and Glory!

Top 10 Ways to Empower Your Staff!

1. Set the example; in every area. Your team will follow if you lead.
2. Delegate and empower others. Everyone learns best by doing.
3. Create enough space for individuals to make mistakes and grow. Step in only when safety is a concern or a potential gross misuse of resources.
4. Teach others to accept responsibility, but develop trust by maintaining overall responsibility.
5. Focus on developing your team; individually and collectively.
6. Use daily situations to coach and develop others. Convert mistakes into lessons learned and coaching opportunities.
7. Communicate, communicate, communicate; and do so clearly.
8. Continually move towards creating a positive work environment.
9. Apply the golden (platinum) rule; treat others as you (they) want to be treated, and the rest will come easily.
10. Treat others with respect and dignity first; it will be returned beyond measure.

Give serious thought and effort toward empowering your team. You'll have more time and accomplish more by doing less.

The rewards are beyond expectations!

Read, Learn & Flourish!

For your success and glory!

Behavioural Management Tips

I’ve had to deal with some fairly awfully-behaved classes in my teaching life. At the same time as I don’t profess to be an expert on behaviour management, I have found that the strategies mentioned below have helped settle classes and bring them into line. These ten tips aren’t the beginning and end of sorting out classroom behaviour, but implementing them should lead to some kind of improvement!

1. Don’t shout: Absolutely fundamental. Shouting is what you do to give people a short, sharp shock and, as such, should be used rarely but to good effect. If you shout every lesson at a class then they will ignore you in the end.

2. Teach well: It’s tempting to fall into the trap of thinking that if pupils aren’t doing their best for you, then why should you do your best for them? Although it may not be politically correct in the teaching world to say so, the quality of your teaching has a direct influence on the behaviour of your class. Obvious really, but it may explain why that class who you always give worksheets to in order to ‘keep them quiet’ always play up.

3. Smile: Many pupils I come across have fairly dreadful home lives, from what I overhear and what they tell me. If you always greet them with a smile on your face – no matter what their behaviour was like in the previous lesson – then they are more likely to look forward to being around you. This has obvious repercussions for how they will behave in your lessons.

4. Mean what you say: If you tell a pupil that if they do x then y will happen as a result and they subsequently do x, then y must happen – no matter how sorry they are. Pupils must learn the causal link between their behaviour and your sanctions.

5. No ‘earning back’ time: Help pupils to understand the difference between good behaviour and bad behaviour by separating them out. Praise them for the good and reward them for the bad, but don’t get them mixed up. By allowing children to ‘earn back’ the time that you intend to detain them encourages them to ‘play the system’ and act awfully at the beginning of the lesson and then rush their work off at the end. Apologise if necessary, but stress that their actions have certain consequences which you will either reward or punish.

6. Make your classroom your own: Children should feel comfortable in your classroom but also realise that when they enter your classroom they are entering your domain where your rules apply. Do this by having a seating plan (but allowing them to choose their own groups/partners from time-to-time), making the area round your desk a special area, having a place for everything, and so on.

7. Be consistent: Consistency is a very important quality in a teacher. Many children may be used to an inconsistent adult figure of authority in their home life, one that their persistence may break down. No matter how you feel, how much a class is wearing you down, be consistent in the standards of behaviour and work you expect from them. Inevitably, you will have to meet them somewhere in between what they want to do and what you want, but make sure it’s closer to your end of the spectrum!

8. Give them a fresh start: Tell pupils right at the beginning that every lesson with you is a fresh start. Tell them that you’ve got a selective/defective memory and that you only remember the good things that happened. Emphasize this through smiling and not reminding pupils of their previous bad behaviour. Expect that they will behave well and express your disappointment if they don’t.

9. Separate behaviour and personality: Make students see that you ‘like them as a person’; you ‘don’t like their behaviour’. Everyone wants to be liked, so give pupils a chance to be liked by you ‘even more’ by showing them the difference between their behaviour and their personality. Tell them how it makes you feel when they behave in a certain way if necessary. Make them think that you think that they’re, at heart, different than the behaviour they’re exhibiting.

10. Get parents involved: Although students will, inevitably, tell you that they don’t care if their parents are informed of their behaviour, they will be. Even the most irresponsible and uninterested parent doesn’t like to be asked to come into school to discuss their child’s behaviour. Threaten this and carry it out with the most persistent offenders. When you meet their parents, work out 2-3 targets for them to achieve even as they’re ‘on report’ to you. Contact parents weekly to inform them of their son/daughter’s progress. Watch the rest of the class come into line.

Read, Learn & Flourish!

For your success & Glory!