Kia ora te whanau o te kotuku

Resilience and staying for the long game. Something to think about as the academic year and year in general starts to get a bit tougher is developing resilience and a can-do attitude.

Star baseball players only hit the ball about three out of every ten times. How do they live with such a high failure rate? By focusing on the law of averages. They know that if they just keep swinging the bat, they’ll get on base.

In 1952, Roger Bannister ran in the Olympics and finished in fourth place, failing to win any kind of medal. He refused to quit, up until this time many experts considered it humanly impossible to run the mile in under four minutes. Yet that was Bannister’s goal. On 6 May 1954, he became the first man to do it. Now runners do it regularly.

If you refuse to quit when you fail, you’ll ultimately succeed. You just have to be willing to get back up and keep moving forward. In 1832, Abraham Lincoln was defeated for the State Legislature. In 1833, he failed in business. In 1835 his sweetheart died. In 1836, he had a nervous breakdown. In 1838, he was defeated for Illinois House Speaker. In 1843, he was defeated for nomination to Congress. In 1854, he was defeated for the US Senate. In 1856, he was defeated for nomination for Vice President. In 1858, he was defeated again in a US Senate race. However, today he is considered one of America’s greatest ever presidents.

‘It’s a mistake to suppose that people succeed only through success; they often succeed through failures.’

You’re never defeated until you allow past defeats or failures to take your focus off the future. So don’t be afraid of failure, be afraid only of giving up.

In our ever-changing world, opportunities will continue to be offered to those who are prepared, imaginative, resilient, hardworking but most importantly trustworthy. This formula has stood the test of time. The path to the right decisions is not always clearly marked – the signs say only ‘quality’ and ‘excellence’.  The path offers no other directions but your gut instincts or your moral compass do provide internal signposts to guide you. Those that navigate the path to success and happiness start where their feet are now and take the next positive step in the right direction.

Nga mihu nui
Gary Moore

Assessment Calendar: Term 2, Week 9
Monday, 28 June
11 EL3 US30997 – all week
11 ELC US 31004 – all week
12 EL4 US 30508 – all week
12 ELB US 28000 – all week

Tuesday, 29 June
11 EL3 US30997 – all week
11 ELC US 31004 – all week
12 EL4 US 30508 – all week
12 ELB US 28000 – all week

Wednesday, 30 June
11 EL3 US30997 – all week
11 ELC US 31004 – all week
12 EL4 US 30508 – all week
12 ELB US 28000 – all week
13 CAW US 108

Thursday, 1 July
11 EL3 US30997 – all week
11 ELC US 31004 – all week
12 EL4 US 30508 – all week
12 ELB US 28000 – all week

Friday, 2 July
11 EL3 US30997 – all week
11 ELC US 31004 – all week
12 EL4 US 30508 – all week
12 ELB US 28000 – all week
11 Accounting AS90977
11 Art AS 90915
11 History AS 91002
11 Science Applied AS 90935
12 Early Childhood US 29858
12 History AS 91230
12 Mathematics Applied AS 91259
13 English AS 91479
13 Science AS 91415