REMARKS BY PETE LAND, STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT
When I was a senior at New Hanover High School, I heard a wonderful song, “I Am Ready, Willing, and Able to Succeed”. The more I thought about that title, it made a profound positive impact on success in my life.
The word “Ready” means you have the resources, parts, and tools needed to accomplish a job. If you do not have all the resources you need that is called “task interference”. Hurricane Dorian resulted in major problems for thousands of people.
The idea of “Willing” has to do with motivation. There are two
broad categories that create motivation. First are the positive events such as praise, applause, money, awards and many other things
that raise our self-esteem and lower stress. What we would rather avoid are those experiences like criticism and blame that lower
our self-esteem and raise our stress. Willingness is the result of
positive self-esteem events.
“Able” means you have both the knowledge and skills to succeed. Knowledge is gained by reading books and taking classes where you learn concepts and principles. Skills come from effective training where you actually learn “how” to do the tasks. Training takes practice.
Only when all three components, Ready, Willing, and
Able are in place, can you succeed.