Success comes in many shapes and forms. What is success to one person may be less significant or unimportant to another. One thing is for sure though, position or money does not necessarily measure success. Many would agree that Mother Teresa was an outstanding humanitarian and more successful in her mission than anyone else – but she held neither position nor wealth. She stands as a beacon to our generation of what one person is capable of achieving and how we might best measure success.
Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the USA wrote:
“There are two kinds of success. One is the very rare kind that comes to the person who has the power to do what no one else has the power to do. That is genius. But the average person who wins what we call success is not a genius. She is a person who has merely the ordinary qualities that she shares with others and has developed those ordinary qualities to a higher degree.”
Young people can learn a great deal about success by applying themselves to achievable goals. Small successes can build confidence in their ability to achieve. By putting in extra effort to any task, whether in school, in sport or in a cultural program teaches young ones and older students about the concept of ‘no gain, without pain’. Success for most people is incremental…. It happens in small steps, small gains that over time realise much greater gains. It happens with dedication, committed practice and it happens because of perseverance in the face of adversity.
Noted author Dr Kerry Spackman tells the story in “The Winner’s Bible” of Loretta Harrop who like many young Australians enjoyed sport. Very early she decided that she wanted to be a professional athlete and set about training for triathlons. In order to receive funding she had to go through a process of ‘being measured’ by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) to see if she ‘had what it took’ to be a successful triathlon athlete. When the AIS finished its testing of Loretta they returned the verdict, that not only was she not championship material, but she was ‘below average’.
Rather than taking this to heart, Loretta decided that even if the AIS didn’t think she was champion material, she believed that she would be a champion. She had incredible self confidence and self belief that she would be successful. Loretta didn’t get her funding and almost in defiance of the AIS and so called experts, she continued her punishing regime of exercise and running – even after competing and not winning any competitions, she never doubted her ability to succeed. She had plenty of reasons to give up and try something different, but she didn’t. She stuck with it and continued the rigorous and painful training day after day.
This was not the only obstacle that Loretta Harrop faced. Bike racing is a dangerous sport. To toughen up, Loretta use to train with her brother, who was a top triathlete who had great bike control. She would learn more by riding with her brother. Tragedy struck, however; only months before the World Cup, her brother was killed while out training on his bike.
Devastated, Loretta went through a total loss of confidence and for the first time in her life, feared riding her bike. In her own words though, Loretta realised that she “had to face this fear head on.” She realised that she was more afraid of having to live with this stupid fear beating her, than she was in crashing. Facing up to her fear and riding competitively again, Loretta went on to win the gold medal at the World Triathlon Championships and a silver medal at the Athens Olympics. What an outstanding feat and a lesson to us all on determination and courage?
Life is not always a bed of roses and often there are many obstacles to overcome before we experience success. Working through these difficulties is one way that we build up our resilience – our capacity to ‘bounce back after a setback’. If young people don’t learn to overcome these obstacles independently and rely instead on parent or adult intervention, they often miss developing this important life skill. This is true of both school and interpersonal relationships.
Inspirational true life stories like that of Loretta Harrop make us realise what is possible within all of us. Others may doubt our ability or skills, experts may measure our potential and make judgements or guesstimates about our future, but when it’s all said and done, if we have confidence, and unshakeable self-belief and determination to succeed, we will.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sea of Problems or a 'Pink Bat' of Solutions
Do you sometimes feel as though you’re awash in a sea of problems? They seem to be everywhere we turn and regardless of how much we try, there always seems to be a never ending supply of them. It’s interesting how most of us see only problems while some people have the great ability to look at things differently and see that what appears to be a problem isn’t or to look at something and see a solution. It’s the way we think about what we see that determines whether we see a problem or a solution, whether we see a problem or a new possibility.
John Lennon’s lyrics in “Watching the Wheels” sums this up quite nicely:
Ah, people asking questions, lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions.
I recently read an extraordinary book “Pink Bat: Turning Problems into Solutions” written by Michael McMillan. I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of the book so I won’t tell you the story about the pink bat, but I do want to share with you a little of this new way of thinking about perceived problems.
McMillan tells the story about a perceived problem: The amenities were great but the elevators in a new office building were extremely slow and it became a major problem with people getting frustrated, angry and annoyed as they waited for the elevator. The building’s developer hired consultants to assess the problem and ended up with a short list of solutions which were: add a couple more banks of elevators, make the doors open and close faster, stagger business starting and ending times and have visitors come during off-hours. Everyone was so focused on the problem, no one was able to see it as a solution…. Well, almost no one.
So what was the solution to the slow elevators? Simple really: a large crowd still waits outside the elevators, but now the crowd is happy as they gaze up to look at the new video monitors that showed the latest stock market information, checking the weather and reading employee related news. The ‘pink bat’ solution was that the perceived problem became a solution. No one minds waiting for the elevators any more.
Solutions are all around us, we just have to think about things differently. Step back from the perceived problem and apply a different kind of thinking. Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when the apple fell on his head. Rather than considering this a problem he saw it as a solution – the Universal Law of Gravitation. While most people would see the falling apple as a problem, Newton saw it as a solution.
As McMillan points out:
For every problem, there exists a solution… and at the very least .. an opportunity. But it takes an open mind to see it… and intelligence and imagination to create it….. You can live each day in a world filled with “problems” or rise each morning and embrace a world filled with unseen solutions… eager for you to find them. The decision is yours… both worlds exist. The one you choose is the one you will create.
Karon Graham
Principal CCS
John Lennon’s lyrics in “Watching the Wheels” sums this up quite nicely:
Ah, people asking questions, lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions.
I recently read an extraordinary book “Pink Bat: Turning Problems into Solutions” written by Michael McMillan. I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of the book so I won’t tell you the story about the pink bat, but I do want to share with you a little of this new way of thinking about perceived problems.
McMillan tells the story about a perceived problem: The amenities were great but the elevators in a new office building were extremely slow and it became a major problem with people getting frustrated, angry and annoyed as they waited for the elevator. The building’s developer hired consultants to assess the problem and ended up with a short list of solutions which were: add a couple more banks of elevators, make the doors open and close faster, stagger business starting and ending times and have visitors come during off-hours. Everyone was so focused on the problem, no one was able to see it as a solution…. Well, almost no one.
So what was the solution to the slow elevators? Simple really: a large crowd still waits outside the elevators, but now the crowd is happy as they gaze up to look at the new video monitors that showed the latest stock market information, checking the weather and reading employee related news. The ‘pink bat’ solution was that the perceived problem became a solution. No one minds waiting for the elevators any more.
Solutions are all around us, we just have to think about things differently. Step back from the perceived problem and apply a different kind of thinking. Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when the apple fell on his head. Rather than considering this a problem he saw it as a solution – the Universal Law of Gravitation. While most people would see the falling apple as a problem, Newton saw it as a solution.
As McMillan points out:
For every problem, there exists a solution… and at the very least .. an opportunity. But it takes an open mind to see it… and intelligence and imagination to create it….. You can live each day in a world filled with “problems” or rise each morning and embrace a world filled with unseen solutions… eager for you to find them. The decision is yours… both worlds exist. The one you choose is the one you will create.
Karon Graham
Principal CCS
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