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The Happy Break 3-2-1: Breaking Barriers – Building Strength and Understanding Through Challenges

3 Moves (Inspired by Trevor Noah)

 

1. Men’s Mental Health:

  • On a recent podcast on ‘The Diary of a CEO’, Trevor Noah discusses the loneliness epidemic and mental health struggles among men, emphasising the importance of dialogue and social systems.
  • My experience:
  • 9 years ago I lost my best friend to Leukaemia, and a knee injury stopped me playing football.  So in the space of 12 months a huge part of my social life was gone.  What did I do?  I went all in on the business and my family.  I shut it out. And now it’s all re-surfacing…
  • Fast forward to the last 12 months and my wife left me and another part of my social circle had gone.
  • Only in the last 3 months or so have I found myself again.  I’ve got back out there, into new social circles, I’m making a more active effort to meet with friends and family, and dating 🫣.
  • I have noticed a huge difference in my happiness, I feel like I’m hitting my straps and in a great place, back enjoying life again.
  • Actionable tip:
  • Be around other humans and be sociable.  It is what we are meant to be doing.
  • Talk and ask questions.  Ask someone how they are.  And if someone asks you, be honest.  It helps.
  • If you need to, talk to a professional. I did, and it helped initially for the first few months to help me cope with the emotional outpouring.

2. Overcoming Barriers Through Sport and Education:

    • Overview: Trevor talks often about the challenges he faced due to the discriminatory policies of apartheid, which restricted where he could go to school and what opportunities were available to him.
    • Application: Use Trevor’s story as a case study in classrooms or just ask your children at home.  Get them to discuss overcoming obstacles and the importance of education in changing one’s life trajectory. This can lead to discussions on current educational and life inequalities and what can be done to address them.
    • Actions:
    • Create as many opportunities at your school and at home as possible, girls only football club, alternative sports.  just be there for your children to explore and try out new things.
    • Sport and PE can be a wonderful way of bringing people together, to inspire and give children that might struggle in the classroom an outlet during the school day.
    • Can we help our children to find something that they love, something that will lead to making more healthy choices during their lives.

3. Resilience and Adaptability:

  • Overview: The hardships and challenges Trevor faced, from his childhood under apartheid to his career challenges abroad, show resilience and adaptability—key skills that physical education aims to develop.
  • Application: Discuss how physical education not only improves physical health but also teaches students resilience and adaptability. Encourage challenging but fun physical activities that require children to adapt and overcome, mirroring life’s challenges.
  • Actions:
  • Basketball skill progression lesson.
  • Create a lesson based on the above.
    • Ball manipulation
    • Eg. level 1 bounce = ball bounce twice and catch
    • Level 5 = 10 bounces with weaker hand
    • Level 10 = catch ball between legs and repeat by swapping hand over.
  • The goal is to reach level that each child can’t do, but then the teaching point is to keep them trying the skill. Maybe even set them homework to see if they can get to the next level before the next lesson.
  • Personal bests rather than competing against others can be really powerful.

2 Inspirations

  1. Trevor Noah:
    • Quote: “I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to.”
    • Context: This quote from Trevor Noah emphasises the importance of taking action and the lessons learned from experiences, even those that involve risk or potential failure. It’s particularly relevant for discussions on resilience and overcoming fear of failure.
  2. Nelson Mandela:
    • Quote: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
    • Context: This quote by Nelson Mandela complements the discussion of resilience, particularly in a South African context. It beautifully encapsulates the spirit of perseverance and is inspirational for anyone facing challenges.

1 Question for your children

 

“What is one challenge you faced recently, and how did you overcome it? What did you learn from that experience?”

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