I was sick recently, and out of action for more than a week. (It’s hard to conduct speech therapy sessions when you have no voice…)
I found that recovering from laryngitis was like speech language therapy. There were times when I was feeling particularly deflated and frustrated with how long it was taking me to recover. I would look at my antibiotic tablets and not feel like taking it.
“What good is taking this little pill? I still feel lousy..”
I had to remind myself that it is not that one little pill that is going to help me recover. It’s the entire course of medication, taken faithfully, on time, one at a time, that’s going to make the difference, and get me back on my feet.
Well, I went from being really laid up, feeling as if nothing helped, and finally making some breakthrough, to gradually getting my voice back for a couple of hours at a time.
Then one day arrived when I was back to my usual self, able to teach all my classes for an entire day with my normal voice. All the inflammation and frustration was just a memory behind me.
In the same way too, there are days when I see ‘overnight success’ with my students. I have a session and see that “Wow, Keith has suddenly really improved his classroom behaviour!”
He’s not throwing himself on the floor, or repeating my instructions four times before complying, or refusing to write his answers!
Some students achieve success with steady, gradual improvements. Some work at something for months, then make a quantum leap. Even after all these years of therapy, I still get astounded at these seemingly ‘overnight successes’.
Yet I know, and Keith’s parents know, that it wasn’t his session last week that ‘worked’. It was turning up consistently week after week, and persisting for months, that made it happen.
And then it looked like an ‘overnight success’.
“Every Master was once a disaster.” – T. Harv Eker
What is your own experience of ‘overnight success’-that isn’t? What you did with ‘no expectation’, then turned out to be a cause for celebration?
Please share your thoughts and experiences.