Tutor: The Way You See Yourself
You'll always act in accordance with your self-image
For some inexplicable reason, someone posted a Myers Briggs Personality Type poll in Test Prep Tribe earlier this week. Just as inexplicably, I took the ten-minute online assessment just to be able to respond. Unsurprisingly, I fully agreed with the type the report tagged me with. Why wouldn’t I, since it was based on my own evaluation of myself.
I’m not here to praise or bury Myers Briggs, except as collateral damage in an overall indictment of drawing objective conclusions from subjective, self-reported surveys. Yet, an absence of impartiality doesn’t obviate the value of a personality test as long as you recognize what the report reveals: how you see yourself.
As the irrepressible Zig Ziglar observed, “You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.” This insight offers a powerful lever with which we might shift intractable students from the negative views of themselves that undermine their progress. If you understand how your students see themselves, you can align your assignments with those parts of themselves that they honor.
The example of this that immediately comes to mind is the student-athlete, many of whom I’ve worked this summer. Athletes don’t always come willingly to academic exertion, but no great one shirks the twin panaceas of practice and coaching. How do we get these students to share some of their boundless energy for improvement? Simply speak to that aspect of themselves with which they most identify:
“Obviously, I don’t need to tell you about the need to put in the work; you probably practice every single day.”
“You’ve been on a winning team. Tell me about all the steps you took week by week to get ready for the championship, and then tell me how that process might apply to your upcoming test.”
“This is why I love working with athletes like you. You’re committed, coachable, and unafraid of making mistakes in practice if you can learn from them.”
You undoubtedly have as many of these lines in your repertoire as I do, because they work. Seeing a student the way he sees himself is the first step towards helping him buy into your vision of his future success.
Taking a long look at yourself wouldn’t hurt either. Are your daily actions consistent with your vision of yourself? If not, the dichotomy may lie deep-down where your true self-concept exists. If you can learn to align what you say and do with the idea of who you really want to be, you might unlock a whole new level of personal and professional success. After all, you cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.
(In case you were curious, I tested as an Assertive Protagonist (ENFJ-A). True or not, I’d love to be one.)
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