Friday Mindset #149

Happy Friday fellow travellers.

No jokes this week. Instead we’re starting with something profoundly true and necessary from Actor, Comedian and Buddhist Duncan Trussell:

One to bear in mind and share with students…

OK, onward. Let’s dive in.

Something to try...

A simple, but very powerful, start to a tutorial or assembly here; we’ve got a powerpoint slide with two audio clips. That’s it. A picture and two clips. But you’re going to hear Dr Mark Williams tell an extraordinary story about the power of target-setting, which could be a vivid, memorable and inspiring opener for a discussion about targets, expectations, and self-limiting beliefs.

Of course we’re not suggesting anyone could have gone on to achieve what Williams did if only they’d set themselves higher targets. That’s not the point - for one, Williams is self-effacing and modest about the huge amounts of hard work he clearly put in. So instead, we’re aiming for a discussion and a reflection; an awareness-raiser through questions like -

• What kind of expectations, conscious or otherwise, do I have for myself?

• Are they self-limiting?

• Is there any way I could liberate myself from an old set of beliefs, and replace them with a new set?

• What element might hard work play in any future success?

So, enjoy this remarkable and moving story and remember - you might need to download in order to hear the clips!

Something we're reading...

We were taken by this short piece written by Will Parker Anderson. Anderson’s a senior editor at an imprint of Penguin Random House. His professional focus is on religious non-fiction, but his advice for writers applies way beyond the boundaries of his specialty. In this piece, Anderson looks at how hard it an be to take criticism, beginning with a story about a student in a university journalism class who finds constructive criticism of their work almost impossible to bear.

This is a good one to share with students. A short and easy read that’ll suit a tutorial perhaps. Great for encouraging students to move through those phases of response, managing their reactions until they can really hear the advice they’re being given.

Our latest offer...

Martin has been working on a new book with his co-writer, university teacher Dr Jo Phillips. It’s called The Backpacker’s Guide to University, a guide for students who want to adjust well to the demands of university study, and get the most out of their time there. Advance reader copies of the text are out with reviewers now.

Martin and Jo are organising their summer terms to make sure they’re available to talk to year 12 students in their post-exam, pre-university-application season, all about what to expect of university study.

You folks have first dibs on booking a session if it’s something you’d like. Want to hear more about the sessions, or indeed request a particular focus? Get in touch with Martin at [email protected], and he’ll book a meeting with you.

And that’s it for this missive folks. Get yourself out into the weekend!

All the best to you and yours,

Martin, Steve and Tony

p.s. Lots of people sharing this report. If you’re charged with - or concerned about - improving school/college attendance, this absolutely is essential reading. TL:DR? Skip to page 24 and go forward from there:

p.p.s. hidden track, included for what it does at 2:17, a driving-home-on-a-Friday-afternoon outro so joyous it should be played on a loop until Monday morning: