Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,
Last week on Thursday night I watched a film on Maori T.V. about the clashes that the great American basketball player Reggie Miller had with the New York Knicks team.
The focus on the film was the various levels of adversity that Reggie has to overcome to become a
superstar. His biggest hurdle was his sister Cheryl who for most of his life could “outshoot, out dribble and out fight him” (she is still looked upon as the greatest woman player ever). When he played, whole arenas of 35000 people would chant Cheryl at him to put him off.
But through overcoming these adversities he developed a level of resilience that enabled him to be a
champion in anyway that you define a champion. He always wanted to take the ’clutch shot’ and he only played for one professional team (the Indiana Pacers) leading them to be one of the very best.
He was a glass half full person, he looked at a situation and could see the positive possibilities. He would approach the foul line (and he shot 90% in his career) thinking I can get 2 points for my team here while other players approached thinking “please don’t let me miss”.
Our responsibility as parents and teachers is to encourage our kids to be half full people—approach the game wanting to score, when you go out to bat want to face the bowler. If a challenge is presented to you then seize the moment “Carpe Diem”!
We want our learners to be risk takers, people who challenge themselves. How we do that is by
highlighting the good– accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. My son is a cricketer, a good, not great batsman. He averages about 20 in men’s premier reserve cricket. He scores steadily but slowly, he accumulates. He faces the opening bowlers and like a matador takes them on. Mostly he wins but sometimes he is out. He got to where he is by being supported in his self belief, by ignoring the critics who want to slog a quick 12 and get out, but mostly by concentrating on what he does well and eliminating negative thoughts.
As Walt Whitman said “keep your face always towards the sunshine—shadows will fall behind you”.
Have a great week
Mike Brosnahan
Room 7
Yachting
Lessons