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The Ugly Truth
Posted: February 3, 2021By Heather Tyson, Former Overcoming Obstacles Student, Indianapolis, Indiana
Although I’m not a writer I’m here to tell others to keep trying and they can manage their lives using life skills along the way. I just want to help another person by chance and if possible.
The ugly truth is that some households are lacking wise knowledgeable family members to inform us of right and wrong. My objective is to get others energized about learning life skills that help deal with situations such as conflict which I’ve seen firsthand in the field of mental health which I’ve been working in for years now. Overcoming Obstacles made me want to succeed beyond my teenage years in this fast-paced world. The lessons I learned had me think about my passions in life and try to communicate in a positive, thoughtful way. In the class, we talked about how it was possible to make it out of the horrible situations we were in by goal setting and ways to be a better person than the prior days. The teenagers in our city are getting more unruly and have no goal setting skills.
Life plus skills on how to overcome obstacles are as vital as the air we breathe. Without them, breathing is like having asthma, you can get choked up more quickly in the years of your life by not knowing how to treat the asthma symptoms, but when you know you can exercise the mind and body to be better in the long run, why not try? It’s always going to be a lack of doing for self and others if that’s not a priority.
Learning life skills really matters in all fields of work and play. Based on the memorable award I received back in 1996 for overcoming my obstacles, my dream today is that we can work together to help create communities filled with individuals who overcome the major and minor life obstacles so we can have a world of peaceful, loving, and caring people no matter their culture or religion. We all can learn how to pick up on some of the critical thinking skills to give ourselves self-control and personal power, instead of choosing to solve problems with weapons of anger.
Editor’s note: If you would like to teach your students the skills that impacted Heather’s life, here are several lessons from the Overcoming Obstacles high school curriculum you can download:
Communicating Constructively
Identifying Goals
Resolving Conflict
You can download the entire Overcoming Obstacles K-12 curriculum by logging in to your account. If you don’t yet have one, registering is fast, easy, and free—now and forever. Click here to get started. And if you think other educators would find Overcoming Obstacles’ lessons beneficial for their students, please share this blog with them.
