Student support groups are effective because the activities are designed for self reflection, healthy communication, and the development of problem solving skills. Today's group activity is a good example. It consists of three questions.

1. Think of a time in your life when someone tried to control your thoughts, feelings, or actions. Use one word to describe how you felt.
2. Think of a time when you tried to control someone else's thoughts, feelings, or actions. What happened?
3. Have you ever taken control of some aspect of your own life? For example, decided to stop a harmful behavior, chose to stop worrying?

After answering these three questions, we discovered some simple but powerful truths.
The only person you can ever control is yourself.
You have the power to choose your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
We can care about those we love, but we can't control them.

These truths have implications for educators. We may want to control the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of our students. But if we resort to control, we actually lose our ability to be a positive influence in our students' lives.

So how do we influence others?
Build trust. Be an inspiration. Encourage thinking. Model hard work and perseverance.

How do you influence others?