Smart Habit Saturday

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I've quoted a few times from one of my favorite books, Nurtured by Love, by Shinichi Suzuki but I want to tell you a little more about it today because it's all about how habits lead to greatness. He starts off writing that all Japanese children must be geniuses because they all learn to speak Japanese. I agree!

Anyone who can learn to speak Japanese must be a genius. So is anyone who learns to speak English or any other language. If a teacher has a student who is poor in math then she might think that student isn't as smart as the other students. But does that student speak their language as well as the other students? If so then he must be as smart as them. His ability to learn is not the problem. The teaching method is the problem.

Suzuki tells a story about a little bird who learns to speak his name. His first name is repeated to him fifty times a day. After he hears it 3,000 times he finally begins to say it.

In the beginning you must have much perseverance, energy and patience. In order to make the parakeet speak, and develop its ability, it is necessary to repeat the same word over and over again. Just when you think it is useless, despair and want to give up, you are finally rewarded with some results.

Once the bird learned his first name his last name was added and he learned it after only hearing it 200 times. Ability breeds ability.

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. Maybe it doesn't work that way for all of us. Maybe some of us have to do something 3,000 times before it becomes a habit. I especially think of this as I'm trying to train my children. When I think I want to give up on them as hopeless little birds I wonder if I have patiently asked them to hang their towels up 3,000 times or if I have given up after 10 or 20 or 200 times. Worse yet would be if I gave up on them after repeating myself 2,999 times, one time too soon for it to finally sink in. I honestly never knew that parenting would require so much untiring patience. Did you?

I hope I never give up on my kids and I hope you and I never give up on ourselves before our good habits reveal us as the geniuses that we can become with patience and perseverance. Thank you for joining me on my Smart Habit journey!

I'm working on habits with the kids these days. Our goal is for them to learn to make their bed every morning without being reminded. Do you think it's possible?

Do you want to hear something really rude? I got an idea from someone last night to pull all the sheets and blankets off the bed every time it isn't made so they are forced to make the entire thing from scratch. Do I dare try it? I hate to think of anyone doing that to me but maybe just once...

(I'm so sorry Imissed last week due to computer problems!)

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