Sunday 1 December 2013

A LESSON FROM 7 YEAR OLD TERRY



If we all had the ambition that children have, we would be very successful. Children set their sights on the highest of goals which they believe is achieveable. One such a child is my 7 year old cousin, Terry.

Terry just got his report form and is back for holidays. When I asked to see how he performed in school, he reluctantly handed over his results to me. With such a disappointed look, he said to me, “I should have done better than that”. “I’m capable of so much more and I’m not happy with those marks”, he continued. Just to let you know, out of 14 sets of activities and subjects Terry has to do, he scored nine A’s, four B’s, and one C. His annual average was 87.86% which I thought was really good. To Terry, this was not good enough. His goal is to score straight A’s all through with an average mark of 100%. He is aiming for the highest and has refused to settle for less. His promise to me was to get back to school next term and give it his absolute best. He does not want to be the best in his class. He just wants to score straight A’s regardless of what other people have scored (Talk about being your own competition). He wants to prove to himself that he is better than his previous marks. I see a very successful man in this little boy.

You should have seen the embarrassment I felt. This little boy was teaching me what I thought I should have been teaching him. He got me thinking and made me critically look into myself. I realized how low some of my goals have been. How many times have we settled for less than what we really deserve? How many times have we settled for just average? Terry is essentially challenging us to know our worth and set Big Hairy Audacious Goals. All he is saying is, “Only the best is good enough”.

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