TWEEN ADVICE: How Saweet is it?

TWEEN ADVICE: How Saweet is it?

Here’s some tween advice to make your adventure more SAWEET!  If you’re a fan of the award-winning adventure novel for children called  Saltwater Taffy, by now you know how much we love to say SAWEET about anything and everything.

The question you probably have is ‘how does this fit in as advice to you for becoming a thriving TWEEN?’  Well, here’s my tween advice;

the SAWEETER you talk to yourself, the SAWEETER your life will get.  

Some of you tough guy tween boys might…

…think this is nothing but girly-girly positive thinking mumbo jumbo tween advice, because I can see you rolling your ‘I’m so Super Cool’ eyes at the computer screen right now, but you need to trust your Uncle E on this and listen up.

When you say SAWEET things to yourself ABOUT yourself, you feel the amazing energy of confidence, which is one of the main reasons I wrote Saltwater Taffyin the first place.  Through the awesome story of adventure, I was able to showcase how great life can be when you have confidence about who you are.  The number one killer of your confidence and overall happiness in life is negative self-talk where you trick yourself into believing a runaway thought of “I’m not good enough.”

The more you learn to have SAWEET thoughts to yourself ABOUT yourself,  you are developing one of the strongest mental muscles in life; love and appreciation for the person you are.  The older you get, the harder it will be to teach yourself to be nice to yourself, so get busy while the gettin’s good.  Trust me, it is a SAWEET way to be.

Life can either be an adventure or a nightmare.  It’s up to you, which is why I want you to begin to practice being nice to yourself TODAY.  Afraid that you won’t be any good at it?  Don’t.  Resist that kind of runaway thinking and remember that life is about practice.  The more we practice something the more it becomes second nature and part of who we are as time goes by.

How do you practice something like this?  Well, I want you to sit down and write a list of ten things you love about yourself.  Do NOT worry about someone teasing you for writing a list like this. Leave that fear in the trashcan where it belongs and JUST DO IT.  If you have more than 10 things you love about yourself, then good for you…write down 20…30…100!  The sky is the limit.  A friend of mine keeps a journal by his bedside and every night he writes down things he’s grateful for.  Even if it’s one thing, he writes something down every night before going to sleep.  Going to sleep with gratitude on your mind is certainly better than going to sleep with fear, doubt or worry, right?

Now, once you finish your list, I want you to read it whenever you feel lost, confused, or frustrated.  A great way to cement this into your subconscious mind is to read it every night before you go to bed.  You can also share it with someone you love.  The sooner you become comfortable with saying SAWEET things about yourself, the sooner you will leave behind the uncertainty that comes with being a tweenager.

When you are confident about yourself and confident about who you are becoming, the less likely you will care about what other people think of you.  What other people think of you is none of your business.  When you try to please everyone, all that happens is you end up feeling mixed up and messed up.  Drill down into your heart compass (that voice inside that cheers you on) and say SAWEET things to yourself about yourself.  It beats the negative thoughts of “I’m not good enough or smart enough.” My question to you now is this: ARE YOU READY?  Saweet.  Get to it.

Eric “Uncle E” DelaBarre is an award winning filmmaker and the author of Saltwater Taffy, the middle grade fiction novel that has been endorsed by 9 Teachers of the Year.  Copyright September 30, 2011.  All Rights Reserved.