Losing weight and teaching, what do they have in common?

The answer is really simple: Motivation.

I have found this interesting video made by Asif Fasih in his blog Be fit, Be happy! , related with fitness, and how to lose weight. But this video, which is called Tips on how to stay motivated, called my attention for other reason, and it was the fact that staying motivated to continue practising and exercising to lose weight is something  really hard to do, because most of the times, people tend to lose motivation, and as it is tiring, they just don't continue anymore.

His video mentions some tips to stay motivated, but I thought in which way it can be useful for me as a teacher. And to my surprise, it is very helpful.

Asif, who is a fitness consultant, mentions in his video what he calls SMART goals, which means:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Accountable
• Realistic
• Timely

Now, think how many times you wish your students to learn a lot, to know every content, to study and remember everything you have taught them.  This is really impossible. We need to have a realistic goal. What do we want from our students in terms of something that can be measurable and realistic? Sometimes we expect to have so many goals, so high. But what we have to do is considering Asif's words, and start planning for realistic goals.

Asif mentions as well, that in order to have a clear view of the progress we are getting, it is necessary to take photos. why? because it is a way that we see a monthly progress. As teachers we tend to evaluate, but we evaluate the progress of the students, but what about us? do we evaluate our monthly progress or goals?

One way to do this, is by having an agenda, and writing down every goal to measure our monthly progress.

Asif also says, that one way to avoid losing motivation is by asking ourselves why we are doing that. Why do we want to achieve that goal? Sometimes I lose the goal. I have to many things to do, in many aspects, that sometimes I forget the reason why I want to achieve those goals. And the answer is simple too, the reason is my students. So we must remember every time that we are getting tired, losing the battle, feeling down or just losing motivation, why is the real reason for us to teach and being a teacher? The answer will come easily.

At the end, Asif says that we need someone to help us in this progress of staying motivated. As teachers we need to have a network of supporting teachers to improve our performance, and to continue working hard to get our goals.

I leave the complete video of Asif Fasih.

Sources: Video youtube.com

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdmGOvvJPRE )

Asif's Blog: http://strawhatasif.blogspot.com/