I remember when I was a kid, my mother used to help me with my studies.
Every day I would come back from school, have lunch and sleep for an hour. After that I would sit on my homework. Generally my homework lasted from an hour to hour and a half. It was routine stuff like math problems,tables, history answers, science diagrams etc.
Everyday, after I had finished my homework, my mom would ask me to do extra home work. So many times I used to ask her why do I have to do the Extra Homework.
Everytime, she would nicely make me sit in her lap and tell - "What you did till now is what the teacher told you to do. Everyone will do that and come. Everyone will do the same studies. But, you want to be first rank, right? How will you get first rank if you also do what everyone is doing? You have to do something extra right?? That's why you should do Extra Homework. We'll do what others are not doing, then you will know what others don't know and you can get extra marks and first rank."
Now, which 8 year old wouldn't want to get the first rank?
So I happily used to sit and do the Extra Homework. The extra homework would generally include extra practice as Dictation, some oral maths, text book math problems twisted in some way, mom pulling out questions from middle of the chapters instead of those given at the end, sometimes a quiz and other tricks like that.
I went with my family for a dinner today, to our favourite restaurant, we ordered the food of our choice. As we were having the starters, the steward came and served a dish which we had not ordered. The manager was right there, and seeing the confused look on my face, he smiled and said - "Sir, we want you to experience this dish as well. It's on the house" (that means, its free)
It was a pretty nice dish and we liked it a lot, but what I liked more is the gesture from that person. It obviously tasted good, but more importantly, we all felt good - we felt special.
The manager could have served us exactly what we ordered and we would have come back completely satisfied, but he did that little bit extra and we came back more than satisfied. (why he did? I still don't know, but for some reason he chose to do it)
Today I realise what my Mom was actually giving to me. She was not just giving me the Extra Homework, she was giving me an attitude. She was giving me a message - "If you do exactly what is expected from you, then it is not good enough. Everyone does that. You have to do something extra"
In homework, spend those 10 minutes extra.
If the office is 9-6, then sitting till 6.15 won't hurt that much.
If you have waited at the signal for so long, waiting a few more seconds and allowing that old lady to cross won't hurt.
If you have made a mistake, apologising the 101st time won't kill.
If you already hugged your loved one in the morning, another quick hug while leaving for office won't hurt.
I know what you are thinking... If I have already downed 4 for today, 1 more won't hurt... Take the knowledge in its right meaning...
I repeat... If I do exactly what is expected from me, it's not good enough... I have to do something extra...
Are you still wondering why you didn't get that promotion???
Every day I would come back from school, have lunch and sleep for an hour. After that I would sit on my homework. Generally my homework lasted from an hour to hour and a half. It was routine stuff like math problems,tables, history answers, science diagrams etc.
Everyday, after I had finished my homework, my mom would ask me to do extra home work. So many times I used to ask her why do I have to do the Extra Homework.
Everytime, she would nicely make me sit in her lap and tell - "What you did till now is what the teacher told you to do. Everyone will do that and come. Everyone will do the same studies. But, you want to be first rank, right? How will you get first rank if you also do what everyone is doing? You have to do something extra right?? That's why you should do Extra Homework. We'll do what others are not doing, then you will know what others don't know and you can get extra marks and first rank."
Now, which 8 year old wouldn't want to get the first rank?
So I happily used to sit and do the Extra Homework. The extra homework would generally include extra practice as Dictation, some oral maths, text book math problems twisted in some way, mom pulling out questions from middle of the chapters instead of those given at the end, sometimes a quiz and other tricks like that.
I went with my family for a dinner today, to our favourite restaurant, we ordered the food of our choice. As we were having the starters, the steward came and served a dish which we had not ordered. The manager was right there, and seeing the confused look on my face, he smiled and said - "Sir, we want you to experience this dish as well. It's on the house" (that means, its free)
It was a pretty nice dish and we liked it a lot, but what I liked more is the gesture from that person. It obviously tasted good, but more importantly, we all felt good - we felt special.
The manager could have served us exactly what we ordered and we would have come back completely satisfied, but he did that little bit extra and we came back more than satisfied. (why he did? I still don't know, but for some reason he chose to do it)
Today I realise what my Mom was actually giving to me. She was not just giving me the Extra Homework, she was giving me an attitude. She was giving me a message - "If you do exactly what is expected from you, then it is not good enough. Everyone does that. You have to do something extra"
In homework, spend those 10 minutes extra.
If the office is 9-6, then sitting till 6.15 won't hurt that much.
If you have waited at the signal for so long, waiting a few more seconds and allowing that old lady to cross won't hurt.
If you have made a mistake, apologising the 101st time won't kill.
If you already hugged your loved one in the morning, another quick hug while leaving for office won't hurt.
I know what you are thinking... If I have already downed 4 for today, 1 more won't hurt... Take the knowledge in its right meaning...
I repeat... If I do exactly what is expected from me, it's not good enough... I have to do something extra...
Are you still wondering why you didn't get that promotion???
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