Rules of Thinking, The

RULE 31

Keep the bar steady

A teacher once told me that one of the trickiest things to manage with ambitious students is that they work hard towards a goal and, as soon as it’s in sight, they formulate a new, tougher goal and aim for that instead. Now that might sound like a good thing because the students get ever higher grades. Indeed if grades were all teachers were interested in, it would be a good thing. However, a good teacher cares about the student’s welfare too, and the problem with this approach is that the student never feels good enough because they never attain their goals. By definition, they’re always falling short. You can see how this can paradoxically diminish their self-esteem as their achievements increase.

A lot of us ...