Being interested in achieving a goal is not the same as being determined to achieve it.
Teachers and mentors need to recognize the difference.
Many people might be interested in achieving a goal – a solo in the concert, an A on the test, becoming a doctor – but not be particularly motivated to achieve it. They might even express regret in not achieving it in a particular time frame, or level accusations at teachers who didn’t give them the tools to achieve it. But the truth is often that they have not developed the determination to pursue it.
Those determined to achieve a goal will orient their time and interactions around achieving it. When a student is truly determined, there is no stopping them. They seek out a teacher’s help, work on their own, and make steady visible progress. They push toward the goal. If they don’t achieve it, it isn’t for lack of trying, and they often recognize the support of those around them, the steps they took, and the way forward after the miss.
I often find that in the wake of failure, teachers are criticized more by interested parties than by determined parties.
Interested people can become determined people, and determined people achieve goals. As a teacher or mentor, then, my job is different for the two types.
- Recognize whether a person is determined or merely interested.
- Inspire determination in the interested people.
- Provide tools and encouragement towards goals for determined people.
Will everyone become determined in everything that interests them? No, of course not. I have had plenty of interests that I have never become determined to achieve. And it’s particularly challenging for teachers whose students are interested (or even uninterested) and whose parents are determined. That’s a hard situation to navigate.
The pathway from interested to success necessarily passes through determined.