“In or out, yes or no, on to the next thing.”
This reminds me of the Yoda quote, “Do. Or do not. There is
no try.” from The Empire Strikes Back.
When you sit on the fence, you don’t make any progress.
Too many times, it is simpler to take the easy way out and say
I will try something. This makes me feel better if I fail. It also feels like that by only trying, I’m not giving my best effort.
When I do something, I need to put my full effort into it.
I know sometimes when I’m given too many choices, it is hard
to make a decision. When I’m overwhelmed, I tend to shut down and can’t do
anything. It is at this time that I try to pick my top three choices and then I
just stop overthinking it. I pick one and start doing it. If it isn’t the
right choice, I can stop and try something different but at least I’m doing
something.
By taking action, I’m making forward progress. Even by
making the wrong choice and changing to another option, I’m doing something and
not standing still.
I find that many of my students are so afraid of failure
that they are frozen and can’t make any progress. I have to work hard to
convince them that standing still is the failure and making errors is not a failure. Making errors are opportunities to move ahead.
I can tell my students this until I’m blue in the face and
many won’t believe what I say. Too many times words have betrayed them. I have
to show them by example. I try to learn new things and take risks. When it doesn’t
turn out right, I ask them to give suggestions on how I could have done it
differently to make it better. Then I try some of their suggestions until I’m
happy with how the project turns out. The more I show my students that taking
some risks are worth the effort, they become willing to learn new things and
take risks.
How do you get your students out of the frozen state of
indecision? Please share.
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