Jim Roberson - motivational speaker

Jim Roberson a motivational speaker from New York, one day ago he came to my school to speak and try to get us motivated for exams and revision, in addition giving us revision tips along the way.

More over, he only got a certain time to speak to us therefore not running too long, most of us wanted to hear more and in all honesty it sparked a curiosity and interest in me on what else he had to offer. 

Furthermore, his points were very valid and shared with most of the teachers and many adults, as well as most of my peers in my year group. However as a motivational speaker he is predictable and his approach and opinions are not something we have not all heard before. Everyone was talking about how he was so good and I am not saying he was bad, however I believe his opinion was not getting across, i felt as if his speech was more on facts and more on what the teachers or what everyone expected him to say. 

Now many people will judge me for criticising this amazing motivational speaker that has a book and a website. Although they fail to forget that there is a difference between what you have to hear and what you need to hear.

He spoke about how much you want it, is not always enough and that it is about what you are prepared to do, this phrase is a good one which I 100% support and believe in, however... 

Also not to mention the fact that some people are more able e.g. People with money can hire tutors to support their child or buy better resources. We all know that the key to success is practise and to work at it, however what we all need to know is that failure is a much bigger part than anything, failure comes around every single corner and we need to know how to deal with that and how to pick ourselves up from it. People can go on and on saying how you have to work harder or you will not achieve this or that, but if we were taught or given advice on how failure could be dealt with I believe that is the best constructive criticism and I believe that is the best encouragement. 

Failure is hardly ever spoken about because people hope you do not fall down that path, however everytime you get a grade on a mock or test that you are not happy with, that is what failure feels like and it can make you feel useless especially if you feel you tried hard and revised and you felt you gave everything you had towards that. It is so easy to tell us how to improve, but we do not need easy words, we need harsh ones to push us and help us, easy did not get some people to where they are today. 

Ultimately, he spoke about many things that were true and good. For example, we have tons of free resources and technology around us to help and we should use that to our advantage. On the other hand he also said education was key, although that is correct I want to know whether he feels as if exams are a right way to test our education, is one day enough to prove to people who do not know us how much we remember from all those years.

I have written this in one of my recent blogs and I believe it ties in with this:

"Even though I haven't really come to terms with this yet, but sometimes education doesn't define your worth, where you go, what you get, it doesn't always have to matter. We have opportunities now a days to use the Internet for our voice. Sometimes you need luck and sometimes your education will not always open the best doors for you. Exams test your memory not your knowledge. Even though we are stuck with the education system at hand, we can't change it yet, therefore we have to find a way to deal with it. I am not saying that education isn't worth it, I am saying that there's more than one path to success. But for now you have to remember that you need to work hard and try your best, improve and never give up. - you are only as good as your last performance."

I would like to thank Jim Roberson for speaking to my year group as he was the inspiration for this post. 

Always supporting and voting for you.                                                          
Josephine Beth-xx