A man lived on the 25th floor of his apartment block and every day he took the lift all the way down but when he came home at night he took the lift to the 11th floor then walked up the stairs to the 25th floor. Does that seem strange? Do we know why? Read on to find out.
Imagine we are asked to put our hands in the air, and now reach higher. How can we reach higher? Stretch! Why not stand? In fact, why not stand on your chair? Maybe if there was a prize for the one who reaches the highest, we would try harder? (We might think that is not fair because the tallest one will always win!) Actually, it is not important who reaches the highest, as some folk have a big advantage there, but what is important is we all do everything we can to reach our highest.
Because it will require a lot of effort to reach higher, we might ask why we should do so. Just think of a hot air balloon. Going higher means we get a better view, as no-one is in way; a bigger picture, as we will see further; and better air, as it is away from pollution and is therefore much cleaner and clearer. It makes sense to go higher. In athletics, when we do the High Jump, the point is to go higher. We raise the bar higher each time we achieve a certain height. It is no fun just running up and flopping over the same height every time with no effort. We aim higher, bit by bit, a few centimetres at a time, trying to improve our Personal Best. Sometimes we will knock the pole off but we can come back and try again. Higher, higher, higher, higher, higher! What it comes down to is Progress not Success. Not everyone must reach a certain height but all can try to go higher.
What is true for athletics is true for our studies, in fact with everything. We need to aim higher always in our work. We must not become content with what we have done but look to improve it. We must not become complacent about what we have done, like the hare in the story of his race with the tortoise; we must not sit back and relax. We must not compare what we do with what others do but look to do better next time. Anyone who plays Computer games wants to go to the next level. It becomes almost compulsive to do so. Reach higher! A family has its motto (in Latin) “Semper Sublime” which is translated as “Ever Upwards.” Aim higher!
So, pupils must aim for higher performances, higher standards. Aim means we must focus on the target and put all other thoughts out of our mind, like a marksman does in looking at the target. Our target is to improve, little by little; as the saying goes, “The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”. Parents and coaches, too, must aim higher. We can set high standards just by being punctual and respectful, attending fixtures and functions. It is up to all to raise the school higher – as the African proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”.
Our school may be a small school. We may not be able to do what others can do; it may be tougher and harder to do what others do easily. But we can still get to the twenty-fifth floor, going our way. Aim as high as we can with what we have. The secret is to AIM, whereby A is for Assessing what is the best way to achieve our goal, as a high jumper assesses his run-up, the bar, the conditions around him, the right moment to go. The I stands for Imagine; we have to visualise ourself doing it, achieving our goal, as a high jumper pictures himself running in, lifting off and arching his way over the bar. It is about seeing new ways to do things as Dick Fosbury first imagined doing the high jump his way, instead of the traditional ‘scissors’ jump. Then the M in AIM stands for Making it happen; it must not just be a dream but it must become a reality.
So what about the man who took the lift all the way down from the twenty-fifth floor but only took it up to the eleventh and walked the rest? Have we worked out why he did that? It was not because he wanted the exercise but rather because he was a dwarf and he could only reach the eleventh-floor button! Some of us will be like him, not in terms of our size but our ability; not many of us will manage to get the lift all the way to the top in life. However, we can all aim for the highest we can attain. It will require effort (like walking up those stairs) and it may require imagination (maybe we can use a ladder to reach higher than that tallest man) but our destiny, just as much as any school’s destiny, is to go higher – ever upwards. Aim higher – even if we have to take the lift.
