Success Breeds Success, and Meaningful Practice of Skills can Lead to Success, Ergo: Skill is Not a Bad Word

For most us, motivation follows success, it does not generally precede success. If we sit around waiting to be motivated to do something, we could end up creating quite a dent in the couch with the increasing magnitude of our rear ends.

Success breeds success. Once we become better at something, we tend to want to engage in it more. When we see the rewards of our efforts, we are more inclined to continue with the endeavor. If we’re just bad at something, we are unlikely to want to engage in it. It will be very difficult to get started or to stick with it.

In the previous post, I wrote about being bad at a new unnamed activity and trying to be okay with that. It is completely out of my wheelhouse. I look really awkward doing it, and if you know anything about me, you’d know I hate looking awkward. It makes me very self-conscious, and has likely made me quit many pursuits in the past. I probably look quite goofy (defined in multiple ways depending on the situation) in many circumstances, but I am just delusional enough to believe that I almost always look polished and professional. Please don’t burst my delusion, thank you.

Through a series of events I’ll explain another time, I’ve decided to learn how to bowl. I believed that bowling was mostly a game of luck. You pick up the ball, give it a good toss, and hope for the best. Well, it turns out that I was totally wrong and bowling is not a game of luck. As many of you probably already knew, there are definite skills involved. It involves way more math and science than I ever imagined. And as with most things, coaching improves those skills (thanks Diandra Asbaty!) Studying techniques, watching role models, getting tips from others, asking questions, and practicing, practicing, practicing…all help a person to improve. I am now spending time mostly working on my approach. It’s basic, but key. I don’t worry at this point about how many pins I knock down (or don’t knock down). I’ll get there, but it’s not my focus yet.

Let’s think about the concepts of motivation and skills as related to literacy. Success breeds success, so if we want to motivate kids to read, we have to provide them with successful experiences–genuinely pleasant, engaging, positive experiences that help them to feel they have accomplished something. We have to build on their strengths and think about what is key to initial success. We don’t have to worry at this point about having them analyze Shakespeare.

How do we make that happen? We read all sorts of different materials with them, we talk to them about what they are reading, we bring in technology tools to spark interest in topics they didn’t know they would be interested in, and we use the arts in our classrooms. We help them practice skills in meaningful ways so that their success does not rely on luck, but on increased ability.

And sometimes we let ourselves look a little awkward as we’re learning new things, because it’s okay to not always look as polished and professional as I do. (Again, please do not disrupt my delusions., thank you.)
Roxanne F. Owens, PhD
Chair, Teacher Education
DePaul University
College of Education