Staying Positive Step 6

Staying Positive: The ability to use tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals.

Step 6: I keep trying when something goes wrong and encourage others to keep trying too

Outcomes

To achieve Step 6, individuals will show that when faced with a setback, they can cheer others up and then encourage them to keep trying.

This step builds on the previous one as learners focus not only on how to cheer others up, but on how to keep them focused on persisting with a task.

Learners need to be able to:

Understand how motivation can change when something goes wrong
Encourage others to remain motivated and keep trying

Introduction

Motivation is your desire to do something, like playing football even when your team is losing. It is affected by a number of different things, including how much we feel we need something and how high the likelihood of success is.
If we lose motivation we are much less likely to stick at something.
Managing an emotional response is the first step to motivation.

Skill Starter

Encouraging Pairs

Ask pairs to come up with a list of phrases that they could say to each other to encourage them when completing an activity. Encourage them to think about what would motivate each other in that situation.

Some examples could be:

You are almost there!
You're getting better each time!
Giving it a go is the best way to get better at something.

Give pairs the opportunity to feedback to the wider group. Collate a group list of memorable phrases they could use throughout the session.

10 mins

Paired activity

Written

Teach & Apply

To help motivate others you can get them to think about:
- How much work they have already put in
- How much progress they have made
- How much other members of the team are relying on them to get the task done
- How it is possible to adapt to overcome the setback

It is important to maintain positivity – focusing on what is going well, encouraging people to see progress and recognising their efforts. This is likely to be much more effective than being negative about them.

Optional Activity

Motivation Mentor

In a group huddle, use an example where someone is finding it difficult to keep trying.

“You are in a badminton session and are learning a new tactical move which will improve your attacking game; however, one person doesn’t quite understand and feels frustrated that they keep getting it wrong.”

Discuss what steps you could take to help that person succeed, encouraging them to think about what they can say or do. Emphasise that learners should not take over the task! Instead, they need to support this person to be motivated to keep trying on their own.

10 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

When something goes wrong, encourage teammates to motivate and encourage each other (using the strategies they’ve learned) before using adult intervention. Ask them to reflect on what they did.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Present learners with scenarios where something goes wrong; “Someone hasn’t been selected in their chosen position for an important match.” Ask them how they might motivate people in that scenario.
Ask these reflective questions:
- What is motivation?
- How does motivation change when something goes wrong?
- How can you encourage others to keep trying?