Creating Success Cycles
By Roberta Amos, M.Ed.
Performance and Strategy Consultant
Parents want their children to lead successful and happy lives. Creating Success Cycles may be a way to ensure this end result. Success Cycles can lead our children from repeatedly experiencing failure to experiencing success more often. Success Cycles are created by repeatedly choosing activities our children enjoy in areas where they may currently experience some success.
What is a Success Cycle?
A Success Cycle is a series of events that focus on the strengths and/or successes of an individual. The cycle is deliberately created in order for children to experience at least as much success as failure in their lives. These successes allow children to experience the joy of succeeding no matter how small or how large. Success Cycles require a definite action plan established with our children that focuses on and facilitates success.
Why create a Success Cycle?
We’ve all heard the adage success breeds success. If children experience success in their areas of strength, it can motivate them to work towards their goals and help to offset the failure cycle they may be experiencing due to their disability. Learning Disability expert, Richard Lavoie states, “Motivation is built on strength, not on weakness”. By experiencing success in other areas, students are often more motivated and less fearful to try something in an area that is more difficult for them. As parents, we need to catch our children having success, no matter how small, and acknowledge it. Lavoie encourages parents to, “recognize, reinforce, and celebrate success, effort, and progress”.
It is a valuable lesson for children to learn to evaluate their actions in order to decide themselves if they are succeeding. Without experiencing a series of successes, they have nothing upon which to base their decision. Unfortunately, children with a disability often spend a great deal of time focusing on their limitations. They are frequently reminded in the school environment (and outside of it) that they can’t do things they should be able to do. When they get home, we ask them to perform the same tasks they couldn’t do at school in the form of homework. Imagine if you came home every night and had to do two hours of something that you dreaded! Creating Success Cycles may encourage children to spend time on the dreaded homework when necessary, knowing they get to do something they are successful at when it is completed. Although some schoolwork may need to be done at home, it must be a reasonable amount that leaves time for activities the child will enjoy, succeed at, and allow them to use their strengths. The lesson of self-evaluation can occur within a Success Cycle.
Sometimes we acknowledge the large successes, but they can often be few and far between if we focus mainly on the things that need to improve. Parents need to acknowledge the effort put into a project and the progress in changing a behavior as well as the final outcome. Piers Steel, an expert on motivation and procrastination, suggests that “Each hard-won victory gives a new sense of self and a desire to strive for more….Every step forward is enabled by the step just taken”. Each step gives children an opportunity to learn and make different choices the next time something occurs. Success Cycles establish small steps of success that encourage the next step.
How do you create a Success Cycle?
Creating a Success Cycle requires time, effort and planning, but it can be very rewarding to watch our children experience the exhilaration of doing something well. We need to decide with our children what activities they like to do and what their strengths are. This can increase a child’s self-appreciation when they look at the things they do well. Keep the discussion focused on strengths and past successes that can be built upon. This is not a time to discuss areas that need improvement; that be discussed later. The emphasis at the start is to structure activities that will ensure success. Select an activity and develop an action plan that includes small tasks leading to the final goal. Start by choosing a goal in an area where the child has already achieved some success.
An example of a potential goal might be to complete eight chin-ups before the end of the summer. The action plan should start at the current skill level and include each of the small tasks that need to be learned and/or practiced in order to reach the goal.
Action Plan
Summer is a good time to start forming goals and creating a Success Cycle. It is a time without the pressure of school and homework. Often summer is more relaxed time when new activities can be undertaken. Once you have established the process of writing goals and action plans for fun summer activities, you are ready to take on the more serious goals of school and other areas as fall arrives. Have a wonderful summer enjoying your child’s successes and appreciating your own effort and success in creating Success Cycles.
Roberta Amos has been a special education teacher and administrator for many years and has been the president of the LDAS and a board member of LDAC. She is also the mother of a successful adult son who has a learning disability. She is currently a performance and strategy consultant with a client base of children and adults with Learning Disabilities, AD/HD, and/or Mental Health challenges. Success Cycles is a program developed by Roberta to assist her clients to attain their goals. Contact Roberta at 403-519-7349 or at [email protected] for more information.
Resources:
Honos-Webb, L. (2008). The gift of adult ADD. Oakland, CA. New Harbinger Publication Inc.
Lavoie, R. (2007). The motivation breakthrough. New York, NY. Touchstone.
Reader, M. (2012). Keeping a focus on strengths: managing self-esteem, relationships & behavior. Perspectives. Winter 2012, 12-14.
Steel, P. (2010). The procrastination equation. Random House Canada.
Performance and Strategy Consultant
Parents want their children to lead successful and happy lives. Creating Success Cycles may be a way to ensure this end result. Success Cycles can lead our children from repeatedly experiencing failure to experiencing success more often. Success Cycles are created by repeatedly choosing activities our children enjoy in areas where they may currently experience some success.
What is a Success Cycle?
A Success Cycle is a series of events that focus on the strengths and/or successes of an individual. The cycle is deliberately created in order for children to experience at least as much success as failure in their lives. These successes allow children to experience the joy of succeeding no matter how small or how large. Success Cycles require a definite action plan established with our children that focuses on and facilitates success.
Why create a Success Cycle?
We’ve all heard the adage success breeds success. If children experience success in their areas of strength, it can motivate them to work towards their goals and help to offset the failure cycle they may be experiencing due to their disability. Learning Disability expert, Richard Lavoie states, “Motivation is built on strength, not on weakness”. By experiencing success in other areas, students are often more motivated and less fearful to try something in an area that is more difficult for them. As parents, we need to catch our children having success, no matter how small, and acknowledge it. Lavoie encourages parents to, “recognize, reinforce, and celebrate success, effort, and progress”.
It is a valuable lesson for children to learn to evaluate their actions in order to decide themselves if they are succeeding. Without experiencing a series of successes, they have nothing upon which to base their decision. Unfortunately, children with a disability often spend a great deal of time focusing on their limitations. They are frequently reminded in the school environment (and outside of it) that they can’t do things they should be able to do. When they get home, we ask them to perform the same tasks they couldn’t do at school in the form of homework. Imagine if you came home every night and had to do two hours of something that you dreaded! Creating Success Cycles may encourage children to spend time on the dreaded homework when necessary, knowing they get to do something they are successful at when it is completed. Although some schoolwork may need to be done at home, it must be a reasonable amount that leaves time for activities the child will enjoy, succeed at, and allow them to use their strengths. The lesson of self-evaluation can occur within a Success Cycle.
Sometimes we acknowledge the large successes, but they can often be few and far between if we focus mainly on the things that need to improve. Parents need to acknowledge the effort put into a project and the progress in changing a behavior as well as the final outcome. Piers Steel, an expert on motivation and procrastination, suggests that “Each hard-won victory gives a new sense of self and a desire to strive for more….Every step forward is enabled by the step just taken”. Each step gives children an opportunity to learn and make different choices the next time something occurs. Success Cycles establish small steps of success that encourage the next step.
How do you create a Success Cycle?
Creating a Success Cycle requires time, effort and planning, but it can be very rewarding to watch our children experience the exhilaration of doing something well. We need to decide with our children what activities they like to do and what their strengths are. This can increase a child’s self-appreciation when they look at the things they do well. Keep the discussion focused on strengths and past successes that can be built upon. This is not a time to discuss areas that need improvement; that be discussed later. The emphasis at the start is to structure activities that will ensure success. Select an activity and develop an action plan that includes small tasks leading to the final goal. Start by choosing a goal in an area where the child has already achieved some success.
An example of a potential goal might be to complete eight chin-ups before the end of the summer. The action plan should start at the current skill level and include each of the small tasks that need to be learned and/or practiced in order to reach the goal.
Action Plan
- determine the current number of chin-ups possible
- establish a goal of eight chin-ups by the end of the summer
- include some daily exercises to strengthen the muscles
- include a certain number of practice chin-ups each week
- decide how you will acknowledge and celebrate the half-way mark when four chin-ups can be completed
- have the child evaluate her progress weekly and adjust the plan accordingly
- decide how you will acknowledge and celebrate achieving the goal of eight chin-ups
Summer is a good time to start forming goals and creating a Success Cycle. It is a time without the pressure of school and homework. Often summer is more relaxed time when new activities can be undertaken. Once you have established the process of writing goals and action plans for fun summer activities, you are ready to take on the more serious goals of school and other areas as fall arrives. Have a wonderful summer enjoying your child’s successes and appreciating your own effort and success in creating Success Cycles.
Roberta Amos has been a special education teacher and administrator for many years and has been the president of the LDAS and a board member of LDAC. She is also the mother of a successful adult son who has a learning disability. She is currently a performance and strategy consultant with a client base of children and adults with Learning Disabilities, AD/HD, and/or Mental Health challenges. Success Cycles is a program developed by Roberta to assist her clients to attain their goals. Contact Roberta at 403-519-7349 or at [email protected] for more information.
Resources:
Honos-Webb, L. (2008). The gift of adult ADD. Oakland, CA. New Harbinger Publication Inc.
Lavoie, R. (2007). The motivation breakthrough. New York, NY. Touchstone.
Reader, M. (2012). Keeping a focus on strengths: managing self-esteem, relationships & behavior. Perspectives. Winter 2012, 12-14.
Steel, P. (2010). The procrastination equation. Random House Canada.
