September 6th, 2011 by maurice
The recent rioting and looting we have seen on our streets across the country reminded me of something extremely important I had first heard over 25 years ago.
” The only people who need to be motivated are the people who can’t see a future”
Whilst much of the unrest we saw on ours streets recently was pure mindless violence and criminality I can’t help feeling that some of the young people who were swept along in such mindlessness have just never been challenged to stop and think. I mean really think. Many of them can’t see a future and many probably have never even really even stopped and thought long and hard about the futures they really want with an appreciation of what is truly available to them despite theire current position, situation and results. Many have also abdicated responsibility for their futures and seem to believe that its the job of the government, their parents, teachers or society. The fact is that regardless of our age, we all have to get off of our wheel and take responsibility.
This week I have written to Prime Minister and also the Headteachers of a number of secondary schools suggesting that in addition to the current academic curriculum we challenge and inspire our young people to think differently. Really differently. I wonder whether they are up for the challenge.
Here is a copy of the letter:
Welcome back!
I do hope you enjoyed a well deserved summer break and are refreshed and re-energised ready to start a brand new school year.
I am a former corporate executive who has substantial experience of getting results through people and I recently left the heady heights of the commercial world to pursue a passion of inspiring people to think differently both in and out of the work place. I call it personal leadership.
To this end I now run my own motivational seminars designed to inspire people to embrace a whole new perspective on the way they envision their futures and lead themselves personally. As the author of a personal development book (Hamster to Harmony – a copy of which I am enclosing as a gift) my seminars revolve around challenging people to reinvent themselves to rediscover life’s opportunities and possibilities. I call it ‘getting off the wheel’ and living your best life.
I have presented at a conference for Head Teachers, Consultants and Inspectors of Merton and also for a couple of primary schools in the borough where I held seminars for the teaching staff. I believe that now would be about the right time to influence and inspire students from secondary schools to take personal leadership of their own lives, although I appreciate that yourself and your team are doing this every single day.
Given the sad events of the recent rioting we all witnessed, understandably emotions are running extremely high across the country. Whilst the reaction of the public to such mindless criminality and violence is to be expected, it seems to me that we need to be seeking solutions rather than just expressing platitudes of dismay and scorn. I know that these individuals represent only a very small minority of our young people although the impact was substantial. Having been a school Governor and also currently a parent of a teenager I know that our schools are working exceptionally hard every single day to instil the moral values and sense of responsibility that our young people need to not only survive but to thrive in today’s society. I also believe that with limited time and resources schools need as much help and support as can be made available to them to achieve their goals.
Whilst I am not suggesting for a moment that any students from your school will have been involved in these recent events, I can’t help feeling that given the media coverage and exposure these events were given many of our young people across the country would have been disturbed at some level emotionally by the images we have seen on our T.V. screens as my son was.
I have a view that my seminars would be of enormous benefit to many of the young people in your school and whilst writing to you I am also contacting many other schools in the borough offering my services.
There was a piece of research done some time ago in the US which suggested that as human beings we each have somewhere in the region of 50,000 to 80,000 thoughts every single day. The research goes on to suggest that for most of us most of those thoughts are the same or similar thoughts each day. As if that is not bad enough it also suggests that somewhere around 80% of our repetitive thoughts are negative.
Now, I have no way of being able to validate such claims, however for arguments sake lets say they are not unreasonable as far as some of our young people are concerned. With that in mind I suspect that some of the young people could benefit enormously by someone helping them to change the way they think and break through their conditioning and habitual automatic thought patterns. I can’t even begin to imagine what some of them are thinking.
Some 25 years ago whilst starting out as a young manager I recall the words of a mentor which I will never forget. Whilst advising me on the intricacies of how to motivate a team he said, “The only people who need to be motivated are the people who can’t see a future”. Well you can imagine that as a young ambitious manager at the time I thought he was full of hot air. It didn’t take me too long at all to realise that he was absolutely right.
It is my belief that many of our teenagers need to be able to see a future, a future that only they themselves can take responsibility for and create. To do that someone has to break their current thought pattern and inspire them to think on a whole new level.
If you do get a chance to read this letter and are interested in my offer then please feel free to call me on 07769 900404 or via maurice@mauricedecastro.com.
I am also enclosing a copy of the testimonial from the organiser of the Head Teacher’s conference.
Knowing how busy Head Teachers are I have a feeling that you may not get a chance to read the book and if I’m right I would ask you to kindly give it to someone who you feel needs to ‘get off their wheel’ and think differently. We all know someone!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Maurice De Castro
