What’s the worst version of you? What’s the evidence that supports it?
I failed year 8 and repeated, I started to wear a hearing aid but my nickname soon became ‘Spaso’ and I started to resent my mum who had spent all of her time building me up. It had worn thin going into the world and being pulled back down repeatedly. I was given a pass mark from the English teacher, for my self-esteem, but my results were lousy. I took the report card home, being only fourteen years of age, I didn’t know how this was going to play out. However, my father knew before I got home what was going to happen. I was crying and upset at being a lousy student. My dad just said
“You tried and it didn’t work. No more school for you, you will be going to work”
It took me forty years to get over this. I had labelled myself a Deaf Dumb Idiot and what supported that belief was my schooling, the abuse, willing to be ignorant, my deafness and stutter.
Obstacles are about your struggle and resilience, hurdles are designed to test your mental toughness, disappointment is designed to test your passion, failure is designed to test your education about you and others.
Could You Identify Your First Lesson in Mental Toughness ?