Adolescent Mind Lab

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Helping adolescents understand themselves, strengthen themselves, and develop the knowledge, skills, and self-belief needed to navigate life’s challenges and create meaningful, successful futures.

TUESDAY THOUGHT ❤️HAVE YOU EVER PUT YOUR HEART AND SOUL INTO SOMETHING ONLY TO REALISE IT ISN'T WORKING? What you do nex...
08/09/2026

TUESDAY THOUGHT ❤️

HAVE YOU EVER PUT YOUR HEART AND SOUL INTO SOMETHING ONLY TO REALISE IT ISN'T WORKING?
What you do next takes more strength than most people realise.
It takes flexible thinking, courage, wisdom, and the ability to compassionately correct ourselves.

Today I wanted to talk about flexible thinking, a strength that is not often celebrated. We celebrate good marks, looks, followers, likes, winning, achievement, social rank, being good at something...

But flexible thinking? Not so much. And yet, I think it is such an important strength to have.

I know in my own life how hard it can be when you've put your time, energy, sweat and tears into creating something, really believe in it, and then have to face the fact that it's not working in the way you hoped it would. That's hard.

Because you've put so much into it.
And sometimes the easiest thing is to just give up.

But flexible thinking means being able to step back and say: “Okay... this isn't working. Let's have a look at why. What can I do differently?”

Sometimes that means going back to the drawing board.
Sometimes it means changing direction.
Sometimes it means starting again.

And that takes courage, strength, wisdom and the ability to be kind to yourself while you work out what needs to change.

I also think this is something we can learn.

And adolescence is such an important time to start practising it, because learning that changing your approach isn't the same as giving up is a skill that can stay with you for life. So maybe flexible thinking is one of those strengths we need to start recognising a little more.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO STEP BACK FROM SOMETHING YOU'D PUT EVERYTHING INTO AND REALISE YOU NEEDED TO DO IT DIFFERENTLY? I'd love to hear your experience. ❤️

If you're interested in learning more about these quiet strengths and how they support us, come and visit Adolescent Mind Lab

08/09/2026

68% — her best maths mark ever. So why did she want to quit?

Amy fell into the Sticky Measuring Trap — using someone else's result to measure her progress.

Full reel pinned on my Page.

Mini workshop: Create Your Better Than Yesterday Measuring Tool details in comments below.

THIS IS A POWERFUL QUOTE, BUT THE SMALL PRINT UNDERNEATH THE QUOTE IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.For me, this lesson took many ...
07/09/2026

THIS IS A POWERFUL QUOTE, BUT THE SMALL PRINT UNDERNEATH THE QUOTE IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.

For me, this lesson took many years to learn.

I used to look at the results of other people doing the same thing as me and compare them with my own. And often, this comparison left me feeling like I wasn’t good enough and that I wasn’t progressing.

PEGGY LOU CALLS THIS THE STICKY MEASURING TRAP.

I kept falling into this trap until I discovered the BETTER THAN YESTERDAY MEASURING TOOL.

It’s about identifying the things you can do to help you improve. Small things that, when put together, can make a huge difference.

But saying that, comparing ourselves to others can be helpful when we look at their progress and ask: WHAT DID THEY DO? WHAT STEPS DID THEY TAKE? WHAT PROCESS DID THEY FOLLOW? AND COULD THIS HELP ME?

But just because somebody else might make bigger strides than me, THAT DOESN’T MAKE MY SMALL STEPS ANY LESS VALUABLE FOR ME.

f you or your adolescent struggle with comparing your progress to others and would like to learn more about the STICKY MEASURING TRAP, the full video is pinned on my Adolescent Mind Lab

If you’d like to learn how to create your own BETTER THAN YESTERDAY MEASURING TOOL, I’ll put the details of my upcoming mini workshop in the comments. 💚

05/09/2026

Amy got 68%. It was her best maths mark ever. So why did she feel like a failure?

When we measure ourselves against friends, our best can still feel not good enough. That's the sticky measuring trap.

Full video on Adolescent Mind Lab explains how it changes how we see ourselves and the choices we make.





FRIDAY FUNNIES with a TOUCH of seriousnessI love the Far Side by Gary Larson and I love this joke because it captures an...
04/09/2026

FRIDAY FUNNIES with a TOUCH of seriousness

I love the Far Side by Gary Larson and I love this joke because it captures an interesting aspect of social comparison or as Peggy Lou would say “the sticky part of the STICKY MEASURING TRAP”

Adolescents & adults often automatically, compare ourselves to the people, and in adolescents the peers, around us to help us work out where we stand, how we fit in and whether we measure up.

But here’s the funny part about comparison…

What we notice and choose to compare ourselves to can be quite revealing.

So in this cartoon the ostrich on the left is completely focused on Norm’s awkward running style, calling him “goony” ALL THE WHILE being totally oblivious to the fact that he is doing exactly the same thing.

Sometimes we can become so focused on what we see in someone else that we don’t notice the very same thing in ourselves.

And I think that’s what makes this joke so funny and social comparison and THE TRICKY MEASURING TRAP so interesting.

Have you experienced this?

03/09/2026

This is a short clip from our latest free video on the Sticky Measuring Trap, a confidence breaker where comparison makes progress disappear.

Amy got 68%, her best maths mark ever, until her friends got Bs.

The full 8-min video is pinned at the top of our page Adolescent Mind Lab

TUESDAY THOUGHT: THE DANGER OF THE STICKY MEASURING TRAPWhether we’re adolescents or adults, we can sometimes fall into ...
01/09/2026

TUESDAY THOUGHT: THE DANGER OF THE STICKY MEASURING TRAP

Whether we’re adolescents or adults, we can sometimes fall into the Sticky Measuring Trap.

In this trap, we end up so busy measuring ourselves against others that we forget our own unique strengths and abilities.

For adolescents, this can be particularly dangerous.

The adolescent years are a time when you are building your sense of who YOU are.

When you constantly compare yourself to others, your own strengths and gifts can easily become overlooked.

And when you focus too much on what you think you lack, you can start building a negative self-belief instead of recognising the strengths that are already within YOU.

Sometimes, rebuilding self-belief starts with noticing what makes you, YOU. ❤️

For the full educational video exploring the Sticky Measuring Trap, click the link in the comments.

🌿 THURSDAY MUSINGS: WHAT WE DON'T SEE BEHIND SOMEONE ELSE'S SUCCESSOne of the things Peggy Lou talks about in Chapter 2 ...
27/08/2026

🌿 THURSDAY MUSINGS: WHAT WE DON'T SEE BEHIND SOMEONE ELSE'S SUCCESS

One of the things Peggy Lou talks about in Chapter 2 of The Confidence Breakers is the STICKY MEASURING TRAP.

And it got me thinking about how often I did this as an ADOLESCENT… and how often I still catch myself doing it as an ADULT.

I see someone achieve something and think:
"Wow, they're so lucky." 🍀
"Wow, they have it all."
"I wish I had what they have."
"It's so unfair."

But what am I actually comparing myself to?

👉 THEIR OUTCOME. I'm looking at where they've ended up without looking at WHAT IT TOOK TO GET THEM THERE.

And that got me thinking about how easily we can do this, especially when we're growing up.
This is also one of the reasons I believe my CONFIDENCE BUILDER WORKSHOP is so powerful and transformative. It is designed to help adolescents (14-23):

✨ IDENTIFY AND OWN THE STRENGTHS they already have
✨ UNDERSTAND how those strengths have helped them
✨ DISCOVER how they can use those strengths in other areas of their lives

Because before we can BUILD CONFIDENCE, we need to know what we're building with.

💬 If you'd like to learn more about the CONFIDENCE BUILDER WORKSHOP, comment WORKSHOP and I'll send you the details.

🎥 If you'd like to watch the full video about the STICKY MEASURING TRAP and how to get out of it, the link will be in the comments below.

⏱️ REMEMBER: This is an EDUCATIONAL VIDEO, not a REEL. It's just over 8 minutes long. If you found it valuable, please share it with other parents and adolescents.

You can also find it on Adolescent Mind Lab.

27/08/2026

CHAPTER TWO OF THE CONFIDENCE BREAKERS, ALSO KNOWN AS BRAIN BENDERS

This story explores the Sticky Measuring Trap and how comparing ourselves with others can affect the way we see our own progress.

If you would like to join us for the My Better Than Yesterday Measuring Tool Mini Workshop, learn more about the Sticky Measuring Trap and discover how you can create your own Better Than Yesterday Measuring Tool, please complete the Expression of Interest form. The link is in the comments.

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Somersetwes

Opening Hours

09:00 - 10:00

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+27630915735

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