27. Always try your best.

This briefly worded lesson seems to be an obvious truth. But as in many other lessons the most simply worded are often the most difficult to actually perform. I think that I can admit that I have pretty much always tried to do my best. I found my years of school were very successful because I had a good memory. School was easy, I was motivated by my successes and it kept me working hard and trying to continue to do well. If you are not too successful, extra effort may not come as naturally as it came to me. 

The challenge of working hard hit me for the first time in my first year of university. On my first physics exam, I failed it with a mark of 39%. I know that I was devastated as I had never ever received a mark that low in my life. I can still visualize sitting in my college room at my desk and feeling shattered. I did my usual analysis of a problem situation and decided that I had two choices. I could either quit university right then or I could devote twice as much time to studying physics that I did to my other easier courses. I didn't want to disappoint my parents by quitting, so I chose option B. I would try my best and just work harder. At year-end, I passed the course with 65%.

Had I not made the choice I did, my life would have taken a totally different path. As with most of life's lessons, there are a lot of interconnecting elements. Effort can lead to success, success can stimulate motivation, and motivation can lead to greater effort. This very real cycle was also very obvious to me as a teacher. One of my greatest challenges was working with a group of grade nine students who had failed at math for nine years. They had no confidence in math. I tailored my program to make the kids successful. I minimized the curriculum to small bite-size concepts and taught them slowly until every student could understand each concept. By moving slowly, not proceeding until mastery of a concept, it led students to become more successful. The more they succeeded, the harder they worked, and the better their math marks became. In months, they loved math because they had worked hard and become successful. I consider it one of my greatest successes as a teacher. Hard work by the students was the glue!