We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Today we discuss the 3rd pillar of self-esteem… making small commitments to yourself. When you accomplish something small by keeping a commitment to yourself, your self esteem goes up. When you break a commitment to yourself, even a small one, it has a negative effect on how you feel about yourself.

Brianna joins our discussion again and gives some personal examples that we can all relate to. Mat confesses his powerlessnes against candy and treats. Summer gives everyone a challenge to accomplish during the week.

Before I get into the podcast description I want to announce the addition of another member of the Teen Esteem Council. Her name is Brianna and, as you will find out in this podcast, she is wonderful.

Today’s podcast continues our discussion of the 4 pillars (I will give anyone a $25 gift certificate if they can come up with a better term for pillars than pillars) that we started last week. This week we talk about choices. Brianna has some great insights as we discuss why teenagers choose to do some of the things that they do.

Summer and I had a marvelous opportunity to speak at the 24th Annual Conference on Child Abuse & Family Violence. We want to thank those who made the presentation possible. We also want to thank those who chose to come to our workshop on helping teen girls develop a positive self-esteem.

We had a lot of stories that we did not have time to share at the conference, so we thought that we would share some experiences that were shared with us by young women that we have worked with that have been able to develop great self esteem and create wonderful lives.

Here is the picture that we talked about last week.

We are happy to have Rachel back with us again. Last week Rachel talked about how she realized that the paradigm, or worldview that she was living by was not working for her and how she changed it. Today she joins us to talk about the importance of making choices that take you toward what you really want in life. We also talk about how much relationahips effect the self esteem of teenage girls.

Amanda does the intro today for the first time. She was nervous, but she does a great job. Summer treats us with a Tuned-In Moment. There are a lot of people who almost do an act of service for someone, but then they don’t follow through. Summer gives us an example of following through.

Today we talk about journaling. It is something that I think is super important! We talk about why journaling is important. We give you some tips that may help you start journaling or make your journaling more meaningful.

Even though we joke in the podcast about what is in our middle and high school journals, I am incredibly greateful that I wrote in them and kept them. It reminds me of how important my relationships and experiences that I had were. They are the experiences, relationships, and feelings that are shaping the rest of your life.

What would you do to be popular? Mat and Summer discuss a few answers to this question on today’s podcast. Some other questions that are discussed are:

Why is popularity so important?

How can you become more likeable?

What are some people willing to do to find popularity?

Mat gives his update on his work regarding ‘the movement’. We are still looking for a name for ‘the movement’. We have some suggestions, but we are keeping the contest open until Feb. 5th. We will make our decision then. Remember that there is a $25 gift certificate for the winning suggestion.