The Number 1 Indicator of Success in Students
When I was younger, I used to believe that people were just born naturally gifted at whatever it was they were doing. It makes sense as a kid, if your all running a 100m sprint, and someone beats you, they are just naturally faster. Or if you all do a math test and you fail, while others succeed, then you’re just inherently dumber.
This wasn’t and isn’t just my perception, as I still see plenty of students ranging from year 1-12 and even adults believing that ability and talent is just innate. Like most things, while this has a kernel of truth to it, it is blown vastly out of proportion.
You see, the kids who know success early on, learn content. The kids who learn failure early on, learn resilience. While I’m not making a case that students should aim to fail, on the contrary aim for success but accept that failure of some sort isn’t a matter of if, it’s inevitable. But the benefit of failure only comes from this process:
- Acceptance: You accept that some part of your learning process needs work
- Assess: You find what part of your learning process needs work
- Change: You change the part of your learning process that you feel failed you.
The problem is that most students hit failure and then just believe that they aren’t smart enough to get it when in reality, they just need to change their learning process.
The reason for this is that looking at your own failures is terrifying. But those who use those failures to learn more about themselves will inevitably see long-term success.
Which brings me back to the original question: ‘What is the number 1 key to success in students’
The answer: You need to accept that failure is bound to happen in some form along the way, and to embrace it. Learn to love bettering your process and you will build a resilience and perseverance to adversity not only for school, but for the rest of your life.
