With all due respect to those educational administrators that are trying desperately to make a difference, I believe that if we are not teaching success in our schools, we are teaching failure through negligence. On the bright side, educational philosophy has always been about teaching our children math, science, reading, writing, social studies, history, and so on. We all know the basic subjects taught in our public schools, and we generally agree on the importance of these matters. More “specialized” curriculum – like “life skills” – are typically elective classes, and instruct children on the basics of financial management, and the like (life skills that deal in the linear, the exact, the non-abstract are generally regarded as teachable on an elective basis). On the negative side, however, we do not teach our children lifelong accomplishment – to succeed – and how to create abundance in all areas of living. We do not instruct kids on the commonly accepted elements of success, and therefore what it means to be a contented, productive, accomplished, or happy person, if you will. Any adult of reasonable intelligence and caring should be interested in why we do not teach such skills to our children, and indeed what those “hard skills” of success, achievement, and abundance would be/could be. I would argue that the core components of success have not changed (and are in fact readily teachable), but it is the terms of measurement – or what constitutes the actual acquisition of success – that is relative, inconsistent, and ever changing. If teaching these success elements were compulsory, we might repair many homes, create better professionals, reduce crime rates, and simply spread more hope.
The prevalent educational philosophy is that success skills are left to the parent(s) in the home (or arguably ‘the streets’, or the child’s peers); it is not the responsibility of our educational system to teach abundance and success. The skills needed to enjoy a successful life deal in the realm of the inexact, the intangible, and the arbitrary or capricious, as opposed to the realm of letters, numbers, empirical data, scientific hypothesis, and events in history. We can readily teach “uniform subjects” that are widely accepted as truths, proven, de facto empirical, but teaching essential emotional management skills, effective and realistic goal setting, and across the board abundance acquisition is messy, highly subjective, relative, and inconsistent. It appears that to our educators and those who determine proper educational curriculum, our school agenda and teachers cannot be adequately “equipped” to teach such controversial and “inconsistent” (non-uniform) subject matter. They cannot conceive of a universally acceptable curriculum to teach lifelong success skills. And beyond the educational philosophical matter, perhaps, is the political aspect. To enter into the responsibility of teaching “success” is intrinsically perceived as politically impossible; we cannot all “universally” agree on exactly what those skills to be taught would be – or what would be overwhelmingly acceptable – and conceivably it borders on the spiritual, or perchance the individual belief system, and therefore laissez faire.
Let’s take a peek at the murky waters of the subject of success (and why it is not taught in school). So much has been written about success. So many success programs, books, CDs, and other media exist on the subject. A Google search (conducted on 10/21/2009) on the keyword “success” returns over 312-million results. The term is like one tiny star in the cosmos. I think it’s safe to say that ‘success’ is/has been an over-used word throughout our human world and throughout (recorded) history. It’s also fair to say that success means something different for each and every person, and yet most would agree that a simple and accurate definition might be: to obtain a desired result (or results).
Perhaps Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) was among the first of the modern-day success gurus with his “Power of Positive Thinking” work (circa 1956). And today we have success consultants, coaches, lecturers, and millions more people who make their living in one fashion or another from/on the subject of success (I wonder if there would be fewer of these private instructors if success were a scholastic subject?). In just my amazing lifespan (I’m 47), the technology boom has contributed (information) so overwhelmingly that it has made our world smaller in many senses, and yet so much more confusing because of all the voices that are now heard, increasing sensory overload. But success has not changed, in and of itself; as mentioned, only the “terms of measurement” are ever changing.
I remember thinking as a teenager in school: why is there no ‘owner’s manual’ for living a successful life? I would ponder being alone in a cold world; born unto inadequate role models, cloned teachers, and empty influencers, and realizing that ultimately we must invent our own ‘success manual’ for living. An extension of much of my early thoughts was to be in awe of the humility of life; the more I learned, the more I realized how little I truly knew. As time progressed I studied the success gurus and motivational experts. It was then that a ‘success manual’ did emerge from my thoughts, and I committed it to book format; the content would easily serve as course curriculum.
As I’ve noted, the body of work on the subject of success is nearly limitless. Therefore it must be hubris to suggest that I have something of value to add to the issue of human success, right? No, I do not believe that to be true. I believe that I have conceived something of extreme value. At the risk of being perceived as turning this article into a promotional piece, what I have developed and refined is a six-step system that virtually guarantees success and abundance in all areas of life, and the ability to maintain success over a lifetime. It is only recently that I understand how effortlessly these materials could be hugely useful in our schools. In brevity, the six steps are these: 1) Motives/Motivation, 2) Preparation (emotional/mental/physical), 3) Goal Setting (workshops), 4) Research and Development (of a plan or vehicle for attaining goals), 5) Consistent Action, and 6) Flexibility (in order to account for the human element).
Every once in a while something special and unexpected comes along. True, not very often does something new appear on the scene, but it certainly happens. Yes, even though it might seem that success is an exhausted, and exalted subject – and thus far academically or scholastically taboo – I have assembled in detail the exact six steps that are necessary to achieve lifelong success.
The book is entitled: “Lifetime Success in 6 Simple Steps”. It is my sincere promise – as the result of decades of study – that this is a brand new approach, encompassing the very best of what is known about the components of success, and combining that knowledge into teachable, logical, and progressive steps that ensure sustained, lifelong success. I invite you to check it out for yourself. If this work helps a pondering teen, makes our educational system take notice, or helps any of the millions of unemployed to a new, successful life then I am thrilled! Here is the link for the book: http://success-dude.com/lifelong-success/. Let’s teach our children to be a success!
