What is the greatest gift you can give your students?
Or anyone you lead or love.
Candy, obviously.
No, that’s a joke.
It’s belief. And before you switch off at the over used buzz word- I’m not going to tell you you need to believe in them- just hear me out.
It’s gifting them a belief about themselves or about the world.
I’m not talking about the generic ‘believe in yourself’ type, I’m talking functional beliefs.
Let me give you an example.
I had a friend who gifted me a belief.
She didn’t do it by sitting me down one day and saying “Hey, you should believe this”, but she modeled it- lived it and I saw how her world was different to mine.
And the belief was this: Strangers are nice.
That’s it. I didn’t know it, but I actually believed the opposite. I thought strangers were just that- strange. People I don’t know and so I shouldn’t care about and that I can’t expect anything from.
She gifted me a new belief about the world and so a whole new way of operating. The trickle down of a simple shift like this can’t be overstated- I’m a different guy for this new mind set.
So, the question is- what is a beautiful belief about life, the world or themselves you would want to gift to your students or loved ones?
Model that and give that gift to them each day until it’s part of them.
And give them some candy too.
