Listening to all the stories of our athletes’ experiences at the Olympics this week I realised just how many parallels there are with the students I coach.
Everything we do is modelled on how people succeed.
1. You take apart a successful strategy and teach it to others who have not naturally developed that skill – just what the cycling teams do.
2. You practice the new skills, until they become a habit, something people can do without a second thought – this sounds like many sports. For literacy the skills are simply word recognition and keeping letters still in your mind’s eye.
3. We work with whole families so they can support each other and all learn together – how many cyclists have I heard talk about the support of their families and their team mates.
4. You learn about your own experience and take control of the changes you need – no-one else can do this for you but your family and friends can definitely support you.
5. Your coach holds the space that anything is possible. We ask clients to imagine what success would be like, running that story over and over again.
6. When things don’t turn out as you want you become curious and resilient, bouncing back from adversity and setbacks.
7. You enjoy the journey and the game – finding a new route to success that everyone can do with just a little training is fun and very motivating.
8. You are brave, you are prepared to step into the unknown for a bigger gain, with a strategy to win. Those with Dyslexia are extremely talented, we all need your talents to shine through as you learn new skills for literacy that match your learning styles.
So, if you would like the gold medal in literacy, numeracy, concentration etc, just mail me for a chat, olive@empoweringlearning.co.uk.
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Olivehickmott 
The modelling approach Olive describes is a fabulously powerful tool that anyone can use to achieve what they want for themselves. What’s fantastic about it is the focus is on the final outcome, on the positive resources that we all have (that we usually just don’t know we have), and best of all the process can be great fun.
New habits are built in small steps, each buidling upon the last step. Creating a new ‘habit’ in the way Olive describes is a motivating and enjoyable process in itself – the rewards come almost immediately as each completed step builds upon the last until the final outcome is achieved. This process is uplifting and, as I’ve said, extremely powerful. All you need to do to realise your vision!!!