Here are 4 stories you can use in class this month to help teach the April lifeskill! 

1.  Three Feet From Gold – A Story About Perseverance

In his all-time classic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells the story of  R. U. Harby.

Harby’s uncle had gold fever, so he staked his claim and started digging.  After a lot of hard work, the uncle found a vein of ore, so he covered up his find and returned home to raise the money for the machinery that he would need to bring the ore to the surface.

They raised the money and Darby travelled with his uncle back to the site to make their fortune.

Things started well and before long, they had enough to clear their debts.  They were excited, everything from here on would be profit and things were looking good.

Then the supply of gold stopped.  The vein of ore had disappeared.

They kept on digging, but found nothing.

After a while, they quit in frustration and sold their machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars.

After they went home in disappointment, the astute junk man called in a mining engineer who checked the mine and calculated that there was a vein of gold just three feet from where Darby and his uncle had stopped digging.

The junk man went on to make millions from the mine.

Darby returned home, paid back everyone who had lent him money and was determined to learn from his mistake in giving up too soon.

He went on to become a phenomenally successful insurance salesman, more than recouping what he would have made from the gold mine.

He learned the lesson that you need to persevere through difficulties and stay focused if you are to become successful.

Whenever you feel like giving up on your dream, remember that you may be just three feet from gold!

2.  “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ~ Michael Jordan.

How can I talk about motivation and not mention Michael Jordan? Jordan suffered his first set-back in his sophomore year when he was left out of the varsity basketball team. Reason? He was only 5’9” at that time. His taller classmate Leroy Smith had won the last spot on the team.

He made up his mind that he would never have to face a similar situation ever again and started practicing every day after that, making it a point to take out time for his practice daily without fail. He soon shot up to 6’3”, made the team the next year and never had to look back after that.

From being a part of two gold-medal winning teams at the Olympics to winning NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award five times in his career, Jordan dominated the sports field for more than a decade in the ‘90s.

3.  Have you ever wondered why certain people just seem to bounce back after every failure? This can simply be described as the law of perseverance. Perseverance is one of the most powerful doors that need unlocking on the road to success.

In life, there will be times, when you will face some obstacle, achieving your goal is no simple task. Stumbling is not important, getting up after every fall is!  Are you ready to get up and continue to strive? When you stand up for yourself and your dream, you find the key to unlocking the door to success.

Whether it is our master instructor or me, we have all undergone our share of problems and setbacks. Had we quit in the face of trouble, we would not have been where we are today. 

We too would have been only faces in the crowd, if we had not unleashed our inner strength and perseverance and shown the courage to follow their dreams.  You can do the same if you just never give up.

4.  One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Moral: Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is too not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!