Positive Reinforcement

During high school, I was in a musical production of Monty Python's Spamalot. "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" was a song that stuck with me well past the final curtain call. While the song itself is a funny spoof about trying to find the "silver lining" in horrible situations, it teaches a valuable lesson about looking at the good in things instead of focusing on the bad which has become an important theme in my life.

Once good behavior is noticed, a person needs to be presented with a motive to continue that good behavior. This is also known as positive reinforcement. Too often in life, people focus on the negative things, whether it's about themselves or other people and they fail to notice the positive things. Focusing on the

My confidence was a circumstantial thing. Most of the time, I based my worth off my grades. Not even a cumulative grade, but a single grade on an individual assignment or test. It didn't matter if the rest of my work had outstanding grades. Now, I was a child who grew up thinking she was naturally gifted. I thought that school would always come easily to me and I wouldn't struggle like others. So, when I received a poor grade, I didn't know what to do. It didn't matter if the rest of my grades were all A's. I could only focus on that one B (don't even get me started on what happened when I got a C- once). I thought bad grade reflected who I was as a student and who I would be as an adult. It wasn't until I noticed those bad grade didn't affect my school achievements that I could pull my focus away from those negative aspects of my performance. Once I noticed that, I saw to what extent my good grades outweighed my bad grades. Everyone makes mistakes. It's not the end of the world if you make one, because it can be used as a lesson opportunity that can improve outcomes later. I stopped searching for all the disappointing things I did in my academic career, and it bettered my work ethic. Instead of worrying about getting a good grade on an assignment, I cared more about what I was trying to learn. I ended up expanding my knowledge more than I expected because of