I read the story of teach called Crystal Jones the other day.
She started teaching in 2003 in a First Grade class in America (Reception to us).
In a fairly low achieving school.
“I had two or three students who could recognize kindergarten sight words, and I also had some that couldn’t even hold their pencils” she said.
She knew to getting the buy in of the pupils was key.
And that to do so, she had to put things to them in a way they would understand and be interested in.
The standard talk for such teacher was to “Take the CWT average to 3.0, The Asssessment of Comprehension score to 80% and Monster test level to ‘Transitional'”.
Pretty boring, no?
Not likely to inspire 4 and 5 years old.
Instead she told them “By the end of this school year, you’re going to be third graders.”
Not literally, of course.
But working at the level, not just where they should be, but a whole academic year further on.
Little is more aspiring to a young child than being as good as a bigger child.
I know this from my middle son who’s in Year 1 and loves nothing more than doing the Year 2 work as well as his own (he’s in a mixed year class).
If he can complete his own work and get some of Year 2 work done too, that’s a good day.
The days he manages to do all the Year 1 and Year 2 work before the last Year 2 finishes is a great day and his little face is beaming when he tells us later.
Needless to say, by the end of that year over 90 percent of the children in that class were reading at third grade level or above.
When people buy into a goal, everything else becomes so much easier.
But when they’ve got the wrong goal for them, the opposite is true.
It’s why we talk about people’s “Whys” so much.
Their deep seated reason for wanting to make the change they’re looking at.
There’s no right or wrong.
It’s individual to everyone.
But, until you get the correctly phrased goal and why for you, you’ll struggle.
Wanting to lose weight because you feel you should, or someone said something or the Doctor advised won’t keep you going when it gets difficult.
To find your, keep asking “Why?”.
Like an annoying child.
Until you run out of answers.
“I want to lose weight.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like the way I look and feel?”
“Why?”
And so on.
My “Why” is mainly to do with my kids.
Having enough energy to do everything I and they would like.
And the mental clarity withstand the challenges they bring.
And, hopefully, being around for a long time for them.
And being a good example of health, fitness, etc to them.
That’s a million times more motivating to me than a number on a scale.
Yours can be whatever you want it to be.
But until you find one that gets you out of bed early, that gets you there when it’s cold and wet outside, that means that slice of cake loses it’s appeal…………
Then you’re not quite there yet.
Keep asking “Why?”
Much love,
Jon ‘Freshman’ Hall and Matt ‘Sophomore’ Nicholson
P.S. One week left if you’re interested in finding out about transforming your life and body, starting in April 🙂 –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
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