We now have a merry band of trainers that deliver ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ in schools. Imagine the impact on society if teenagers learned to be happy, upbeat and confident, instead of indoctrinated into a ‘whatever’ culture? Basically, our challenge is for positivity, hard work and confidence to become cool. For flourishing to become the new black...
Andy's Blog
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Viewing entries tagged art of brilliance in schools
It’s hard to write something about the current UK riots that hasn’t already been written. And I’m sure ‘highlights’ is the wrong word, but here goes (all true)...
We’ve been delivering our messages in schools for a while. Being positive doesn’t mean that you deny the fact that some workshops have failed. I remember driving back from the south coast after battling with some 14 and 15 year olds, wondering why I had even bothered to make the journey.
But the vast majority of ‘Art of Being Brilliant’ school sessions have been very well received. I’m really proud of some of the results we’ve achieved and, to be frank, we go where other training companies fear to tread. Not only are school gigs 10 times tougher than corporate work, but budgets are much tighter so we often end up making a loss...
I’ve just finished writing ‘The Art of Being a Brilliant Teacher’ with Chris Henley and Gary Toward (if you attended the last 2%ers you will know them and their fab school). Fingers crossed that it’s a half decent book that connects with its intended audience. But one thing it has forced me to do is think about the issues faced by educators.
As always, I ask for your patience while I make my point. Please hang in there. This could be the most awesome 5 minutes of your day!
There’s a little known phenomenon called ‘Campbell's Law’. It states that if everyone knows what is being used to measure progress, you can expect corruption...
The American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced ‘cheeks-sent-me-high’) uses the term ‘flow’ to describe a deeply satisfying state of mind achieved by intense and prolonged concentration on difficult activities requiring a high level of skill. Eg, mountain climbing, writing a book, playing an instrument. Flow is characterised by effortlessness...
(I received this today, an irreverent view from Joey, aged 14)
God created the world. Crikey! He’s achieved some good stuff. And we look up to him (in all senses of the phrase, the great dude that he is, sitting loftily in the clouds). He seems to be a decent role model what with all those commandments and stuff. I mean, ‘thou shall not steal’, etc all makes good community sense...
Let’s start with a stat. The average life span in the UK is currently 82. That’s approximately 29,000 days, or, in old money, 4,000 weeks
Some people are lucky and get a few more weeks. Some are unlucky and get less. But we average 4,000 weeks before we croak. I’ll leave you to consider whether 4,000 is a big number or not!
One of my goals is to take ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ into schools. Which got me thinking, how can I make the point about life being so short to an audience so young? I remember being a teenager. Life stretched out lazily so far into the future that I could afford to waste the present (those days are long gone!). So, I had an idea...
