.png)
Removing
the ceiling
Helping young people grow in self-belief.
As educators we naturally all love to help remove the ceiling of the young people around us to help them DREAM bigger. You reading this are no different we’re sure. And you will all have a story that comes to mind of someone you helped who has gone onto bigger and better things. For some young people they ‘get’ it instantly, others it takes more time. Sometimes it’s subtle, other times it’s not.
ā
From nothing to something
ā
We remember working with one young man who had little interest in his future. He was young and so it was quite normal to some extent but we felt a burden to help him. You know the feeling. That itching feeling of wanting to help move them on and be come all that they can be that is just so hard to shrug off.
ā
So one day after several conversations and a lot of prodding, he decided out of the blue that he had a revelation and that he wanted to become a baker. We had no idea whether he had a natural ability to bake or not but we were stoked that he now had a potential DREAM in mind. Now a baker is of course an excellent career. But we wanted to remove the ceiling for him, to help him see more. So we challenged him to consider whether – in time – he could see himself owning his own bakery, maybe one where he employed two or three other people to help him run it. He initially felt it was too much. After a fortnight or so he thought it possible. His ceiling had just been raised.
From something to everything
ā
We didn’t stop there. Our next question to him was this: do you think you could then open a second bakery at the other side of town perhaps if the first one was so popular? Just one more maybe? He thought long and hard and wrestled with the concept but came back about a week later this time and said he thought it perhaps possible. His ceiling had just been raised further. We then challenged him to think about if he had two bakeries maybe he could go on eventually to have seven bakeries or perhaps even ten. He quickly started to believe. His ceiling of old now remained in tatters.
ā
Now this young person was only fourteen at the time. He may have since changed his mind and no longer be interested in baking. That’s ok, he’ll find his path. But his future will not be the same. His old ceilings have been removed and his new ones are bigger. Possibility thinking has entered his realm. The kind of possibility thinking that we want for the young people in our care too.
ā
The wide-open conclusion
ā
See, as you already know, the aim is not to try and finalise an immoveable path for a DREAM future lifestyle for all of the young people in our care. But we do want to open up the heavens of possibility and take them on a tour of what their future could look like. To enable them to wonder, what if…? And to encourage the questions such as ‘could I actually?’ The answer is of course, ‘yes probably’. And watching young people come to that realisation is beyond words. It’s marvellous.
ā
So how do you do it? Assemblies, conversations, Future decided endorsed courses, time together...it's drip feeding ideas over time. It's about encouraging the young people to start small and then grow their DREAM from there. It's about helping them believe for something before we ask them to conquer everything. If you do want some further assistance though then why not check out our DREAM to DESTINATION course and the first chapter especially. After all the basic course is free of charge and it does the figuring out for you. All you will have to do is pick up the pieces from the ceiling as it will likely end up in tatters on the back of it.