Patterns

This time of the year often has many reflecting back on the last 365 days. And while many say it is the tradition itself of making resolutions that is flawed -- the failure rate is 80% with most dropped by mid-February and a third not making it out of January -- the desire for improvement still seems commendable.

One year a colleague of mine decided to put a sign above his classroom door that read “1%.” He thought the 1% Rule would be worthwhile to share with his middle-schoolers, helping them strive for small improvements each day. By the end of that year -- assuming that one does improve every day -- one will end up 37 times better. It made me wonder how does one actually go about doing that (if that answer interests you, James Clear offers some good feedback on Continuous Improvement).

Reflecting on it later, I realized that while I did not frame it as the 1% Rule, I actually tried to teach my students the same thing. Each year I did an activity where students would volunteer to do push-ups, seeing how many could be achieved at one time -- a nice way to get a little movement in an English class. Afterward, we discussed the possibility of instead of trying to do 100 at time on just one day a week, would it be more achievable to complete twenty in a day for five days that week. Our extension was that it would not only be more attainable but also a lot easier to add a couple per day, equaling 110, than to try and do ten more on top of the 100. This really seemed to make sense to them. In the end, my purpose was to help them understand the importance of creating patterns in their lives: A regularity in the chaotic world of middle-schoolers. These patterns would be predictable repetition that they could leverage for success in studying, practicing a sport or musical instrument, or even in their words and actions.

Years later I am reflecting again on the patterns of life and how these patterns not only shape us but also that they have the potential to connect us. Everyone goes to school, everyone has a family, everyone has friends. And while each person has a unique understanding of attending school, how family is defined (including that sometimes it is defined by the lack of a solid, supportive home environment) and who one’s friends/relationships over a lifetime are, each person’s experiences follow a similar pattern that connects us to one another while also providing opportunities to reach out and see what is different in those patterns that make all of us special; we need only ask.

Every day over our loudspeakers a student-leader reads the announcements for our school. She or he is a volunteer and is responsible for reading them Monday through Friday. The closing each day is Have a great day, knowing that you belong here, and with humble confidence and your best efforts, today will be a success: Go Sting! (that’s our mascot). This conveys to all the students that we see you, we would not be the same without you, and by giving whatever is your very best that day, you create a pattern that not only benefits you in the moment but shapes you for your life. I like that!

#patterns, #improvement