Partnership Educators,
Baseball season comes to an end and what an end it was. The Washington Nationals won the World Series by beating the Houston Astros 6 to 2. This was the first year that all games were won by the team that was on the road. All seven games were won by the away team. So much for home-field advantage. The larger story is the Washington Nationals.
In May of this year, the record for the Nationals was 19 wins and 31 loses. They were already falling behind and many sportswriters were calling them "on life support". By mid-September, the Nationals were a 22 to 1 underdog to win the World Series. They didn't win their division. They didn't win 100 games during the regular 162 game schedule. They were ranked eighth-best team in the majors at the start of the postseason. But they still won.
Running can be cruel at times. Don't get me wrong I love it, but keeping it going and having the motivation to run each day can sometimes be hard. I have tried all kinds of techniques to not lose motivation to run each day. I've rallied my will as I get up in the morning or when I get home to just get out there and do it. I've tried to visualize myself out there running each day and how great it will feel, but I just end up visualizing how great sitting down and resting will feel.
I have tried positive thinking. Oh, how I have tried positive thinking. Believing in my own greatness, repeating motivational mantras, concentrating on my willpower. But positive thoughts are no match for how great a couch feels after a long hard day. In fact, positive thoughts are no match for any goal that requires effort and dedication.
The walls of many schools serving disadvantaged students are decorated with inspirational quotes encouraging positive thinking, "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it" or "If you can dream it, you can become it." Motivational scientists all agree that this isn't a bad thing and in general, these mantras are good to have around but it just isn't enough. A widely held belief, particularly among members of the public, is that thinking positively about the future motivates self-regulated behavior change in the present. The wisdom is, put simply, dreams are supposed to excite us and inspire us to act. It just isn't the complete picture.
Angela Duckworth (Professor of Psychology at Unversity of Penn), Teri Kirby (Professor of Psychology at Exeter University), Anton Gollwitzer (Psychologist with Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Emotion Laboratory at Yale), and Gabrielle Oettingen (Professor of Psychology at New York University) found in their studies that successful people who follow and obtain their dreams do something more. Really what they found was that the more that people positively fantasized about getting a good grade or eating less or finding a relationship the more it tricked their brains to think that they had already accomplished it and so they did less to actually accomplish it. Because their brain was getting the positives from the positive thinking it didn't need the actual event to happen.
Don't misunderstand me here. Positive thinking and visualizing a positive future isn't a bad thing at all. The positive fantasy of your desire gives you direction to what you want and is the beginning of the action. But it is only the beginning. This is where most people stop. The powerful research-based strategy for positive thinking that we should teach to our kids, and ourselves, is called WOOP (a geeky term: mental contrasting with implementation intentions). Yikes, that is a crazy term. But let's take a look at how it might work for me and running.
Let's say I have a goal of not procrastinating on running. I might have a greater wish to run a marathon but I have worked that larger wish back to a smaller one first. Now, your inner pessimist is saying, "There's no way I'll run tonight; Netflix is just too powerful and the couch is amazing." Tell that voice to chill for a minute. Time to channel your inner optimist. You know the one that believes in you and knows the value of succeeding. Time to WOOP it.
Wish - (what is the goal) - "I want to run before I get my leisure on."
Outcome - (what personal benefit will you gain by accomplishing your goal) - "By running, I'll have a euphoric feeling of accomplishment, I'll have less stress and my body will be in better shape."
Obstacle - (what factors, inside of me, that are getting in the way of your goal) - "By the time I get home, I usually am so tired that I just sink into the couch and hit up the show on the tube."
Plan - (how will you overcome obstacle written in an if-then statement) - "If the couch will destroy my motivation, then I will change my clothes into running clothes and stand in the kitchen to talk to my wife." or "If I'm too tired when I get home, I am going to bring running clothes to school and run before I get home."
The Washington Nationals are World Series champions. All baseball teams want to win the World Series and they all fantasize about that possible outcome. The teams that can learn to see the inner obstacles and find ways around those obstacles are the ones that make it to the top.
I highly recommend that you check out more on the research behind WOOP (Click Here) and start setting goals around how we can teach our students to take their natural ability to fantasize a positive future and turn it into action that might lead to an actual better future.
Thanks for all you are doing for the students in our partnership. We are doing amazing things here and I am so excited about the progress we are having with our students and families. I fantasize about our outcomes all the time and literally use if-then statements to work on daily actions that can help us move towards them. Don't be afraid to think of a wish for your kids and figure out little steps to get there.
Have a great weekend,
Rob
Superintendent
Redding Elementary School District
New Millennium Partnership
5885 East Bonnyview Rd.
Redding, Ca 96001