Taking Responsibility, Clarifying Intention

“This is your life, take it back. Either you get to own it, or you blame someone or something else for why it’s not working.” — Dawn Callan

One aspect of taking responsibility is CLEAR INTENT. The fuzzier the intent, the fuzzier the standards for success or failure, the more your efforts will simple spin out until you are exhausted. CLARITY is critical.

With Jason, I’ve established a clear intent; to help him see that he gets in his own way more than anything external to him ever could. That once you stop fighting yourself…you are simply dealing with the thing “as it is” which is always less than The Thing plus all your considerations about The Thing.

Yesterday offered an opportunity. Jason didn’t finish his homework Tuesday night, so he woke up in the morning without his internet, and knew that he had to complete it before I’d turn it back on. Simple equation.

He ran into some problems with his algebra, and asked for my help. This is unusual for him: he usually just shuts down.

Now, I never did algebraic graphs in H.S. Jason has them now. I couldn’t understand what the graph represented. Asked him to show me a finished one, and he couldn’t. But he COULD show me an example. I looked at it. Compared it to the problem. “So…this part is the `Y intercept’?”

Apparently yes. O.K.

“And this is part is what?”