Signature Perspectives

The previous two exercises are designed to lead to the Signature Perspectives exercise, which is oftentimes the most powerful for students. Assumptions and beliefs usually focus only on one part of a student’s life. However, a signature perspective extends itself to all areas of their lives. Perspectives are incredibly powerful, and much of their power comes from how quickly they become habitual.

The purpose of this exercise is to give your child two or three “signature perspectives” to use as defaults. These signature perspectives, that we hold unique to ourselves, mold the fundamentals of our reality. It’s crucial that these perspectives are chosen consciously and wisely, and are strong and withstanding enough to fall back on.

Negative perspectives are simply unable to withstand setbacks and lead to binding actions with burdening evidence. Not that these perspectives don’t arise, but if there are concrete perspectives in place, students can see through the mire of their emotions and act based on those concrete perspectives.

How to Best Support Your Child

Spark a chat about perspectives. Identify your own molded perspectives and which one you use most frequently. Use your imagination and creativity to name these perspectives. This exercise leads to a fun and fulfilling conversation over a topic that may never have been directly addressed with your child.

From the Academic Life Coaching Workbook

Throughout our day we often slip into many different perspectives about the tasks that we are trying to undertake. The key here is to find the most empowering perspective and use it as your signature perspective (the perspective that is uniquely yours, fits you the best, and becomes the lens through which you view your life). Below is an exercise you can use.

Focus:

Perspective #1:

Perspective #2:

Perspective #3:

Perspective #4:

Most empowering perspective:

What’s possible from this perspective:

Cues to remind you of the perspective: