remember your why
“Remember your why.” I first heard that phrase 35 weeks ago
in the stairwell of a hotel in Pierre, South Dakota, where Johnny was
conducting our first staff meeting of the week. He talked about re-focusing
each day on what we were doing and why
we were doing it. I liked the concept then. But I had no idea that I would be
teaching that very concept to students in China just a few months later!
This week, we taught the character quality of “enthusiasm,”
but since that word is so hard to say,
we just referred to it by the Chinese characters, “热情” (or, re qing). As my part of the lesson, I got to
teach about how to have enthusiasm
and energy and passion for things in life. I don’t think I’d ever thought about
it that directly before, but I immediately thought of that phrase, “Remember
your why.” This is how it went.
I asked the students if they thought re qing was important, which they
affirmed heartily. I asked if they are always happy and have lots of energy.
They said no. “So,” I asked, “if you don’t have re qing, how do you get it?”
Most of the time they didn’t have an answer. Sometimes they said, “eat food,”
or “watch TV,” or “play with friends.” “Maybe,” I said, but then told them a
story to give them the answer. Another character teacher we know who teaches at
a different school had told me the story last weekend, and it was perfect for
this lesson.
I got one student to be my “reporter,” which happened to be in their
vocabulary for the week. Bonus points. That student then asked what I was doing
as I acted out three different people, each of which was building a brick wall.
They first said gloomily, “Oh, I’m just building a wall.” The second said
dismally, “Oh, this is just my job.” But the third said enthusiastically, “Me?!
I can tell you what I’m doing! It’s amazing! I am building… this!” I clicked to
the next slide in the power point, an image of the Olympic Stadium, the Bird’s
Nest. The students laughed, but then started to understand the point of the
little drama: when you remember why
you are doing something, it gives you re qing in the act of doing it.
In most of the classes, we then told the story of Glenn Cunningham, who
was basically my hero during my competitive speech and debate years – you can
basically connect his story to any topic whatsoever! We considering telling his
story every week and letting the students figure out a way to apply it to the
character quality of that class. Just kidding. But Glenn’s story of persevering
through horrible burns on his legs as a young boy to becoming a world
record-setting runner got used in my lesson this week to illustrate how keeping his eyes on his goal, his
“why,” helped him have the re qing to accomplish it.
Then we got to the good stuff. Real life stuff. I clicked to a picture
of a boy doing homework. They all recognized that. “Do you have homework?”
“YES,” they all responded without translation. “Do you like homework?” “NO,”
another resounding answer. I would pick one student who seemed particularly
loud on both answers and begin on my deepest exercise yet: the WHY progression.
For example:
“Lisa, you said you do homework, right?”
“Yes.” I wrote homework on the chalkboard.
“Why do you do homework? 为什么?(wei shen me)”
“Um… to obey my teacher.” I drew an arrow straight down from homework
and wrote obey teacher underneath it on the chalkboard.
“Why do you obey your teacher?” Giggles throughout the classroom.
“Because I want to learn.” I drew another arrow and wrote learn.
“Why do you want to learn?”
“Um… to get a good job.” All the students nodded in agreement. I wrote good
job.
“Why do you want a good job?”
“Um… to have a better life.” Better life. I wanted to go deeper,
but time constraints and language barriers kept me from asking more about what
a “better life” really is. But it was
enough for my point:
“See? Lisa is just doing homework, and maybe she doesn’t like her
homework. But what is she really
doing?” I drew a big long arrow from homework down to better life.
“She is making a better life. That is very important! And that can give you re
qing!” We then went through the same progression with doing chores, and again
they would get to some very important conclusion, like “better life” or “happiness”
(I did ask why they wanted to be happy, but there wasn’t an answer for that
one…), or even “freedom.” We learned together that we can trace everything we
do back to a bigger purpose. Some of those purposes aren’t worthwhile, and it
reveals the action for what it is. Other purposes are what life is all about.
And it gives us re qing when we remember it.
I always ended up with only 30 seconds left. I wrote “Why am I alive?”
in giant letters on the chalkboard. “This is maybe the most important question
in the world,” I told them. I asked them to think about it, to spend time in
the next few days answering that question. Some of them probably completely
forgot about it. Some of them maybe came up with an over-simplified answer.
Maybe some of them are still trying to figure it out. I hope I can talk with
them all about it. Before I finished my part of the lesson, I told them once
again that remembering your “why” can give you the re qing to live life. “I
know why I am alive,” I said, “and that is why I am happy. That is why I love
every day.”
Why are you alive?
If you don’t have an answer for that question right now, make that the
most important thing on your to-do list.
If you do have an answer, ask “why” to that answer. And ask “why” to that answer. And again. And again. Get
to the bottom of it.
And then remember it. Remember your
“why.” It will give you enthusiasm for life, passion for your purpose, and
hope in trial.
What is your “why?”
Comments
Post a Comment
thoughts so far