My son is the fastest typer in his 5th grade class. He might even be the fastest typer of all the kids at school. He’s been learning how to type, and has gotten pretty good at it – scoring over 70 words per minute on his typing tests. He was pretty proud of his scores and was starting to tell others of his accomplishments.
On Friday however, he had a new assignment introducing Capital letters at the beginning of every word. It slowed his typing down, and he was getting much lower scores. He felt devastated. He thought typing could be his “thing” and felt bitterly disappointed that he wasn’t able to score as high as he had before.
I tried to tell him that it would get easier for him, and that it was normal for his score to go down while learning a new concept, but he couldn’t be comforted. All he could see was that he couldn’t BE the amazing typer that he had envisioned himself being.
Finally I told him, “I’m thinking something right now, but you probably don’t want to hear it.”
“What is it?” He asked.
“Right now you’re thinking in a very “BE” way. You’re not able to BE the way you want to BE right now. It’s all or nothing. However, using my “DO” way of thinking, I know that being the way I want to BE takes time and effort, you have to DO a lot of things to get there…”
All of the sudden, his mood changed. “Hey mom, do you want to go to the park and play basketball with me? I think it will help me to be happier.”
I could tell he had already changed his mood. It was surprising how fast it happened.
“Sure,” I told him, “but what are you thinking about right now?”
“I just told myself, ‘if you did it once, you can do it again!'”
“That’s DO thinking!” I squealed, “You were able to switch over!” I was so excited. Thinking in a DO way is something I had been trying to teach him, but couldn’t help him see before.
“That’s DO thinking?!” He asked.
“Yes!” I told him. “That’s the cool thing about The BE/DO Concept! Once you learn the different ways of thinking, you can switch back and forth between them. You can use whichever way of thinking works best for your situation! DO thinking was perfect for this!”
We enjoyed playing basketball at the park. For me, it’s something I enjoy “doing” together with him. For him, I’m guessing, he enjoys that we’re “being” together. Either way, we both love it and it helps our relationship. Reflecting on the experience later, I realized he had used the strength of his BE way of thinking too. It was how he had changed his mood so quickly, wanting to BE happy! I’m always amazed how powerful people become as they use both the “being” and “doing” strengths together.
For me, a natural “DO” thinker, adding the “BE” way of thinking has been life changing. It’s helped me gain confidence, figure out my purpose and mission, and help me accelerate who I want to BE right now! I hope it will have a similar effect on my son. It’s neat that he’s learning it so early in life. I truly believe that keeping the spirit with him, he has all the tools to help him to be happy – no matter what happens! I hope it sticks!
