Remember Your Strengths First

Written by Whitney Clayton, Case Management Intern
During our coaching session, I could tell that my student was getting a little overwhelmed with the topic we were discussing and started to feel bad about himself. I grabbed the Empowerment statement card and told him to read them out loud to me.

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​The student responded by saying "Yes, those are all nice things." I then asked him which statement he felt most comfortable with and which one specifically he felt would be most supportive to him in his life. He responded by saying that the statement "I know how my strengths and weaknesses affect my life."  I then had the student come up with what he thinks his own strengths and weaknesses are and wrote them up on the board for him to visually see them. I pointed out to him that he had listed more strengths than weaknesses for himself. He appeared to be more calm and focused once he discovered his own awareness of these different aspects in his life. I encouraged the student to remember his strengths first when he becomes frustrated or feeling down and to also be aware of when his weaknesses are present and how he can use his strengths to overcome them. ​