The 3 R’s Are Great But How About These 3 B’s…

I’m looking at another quote image in this article, and I’m looking at some shocking spelling…

I took that photo down at Whitstable in Kent, watching a lovely sunset over the calm sea, and there’s a reason I think it goes nicely with the words.

The three Rs. The basis of a solid education. Reading, writing and arithmetic.

Now, once we move past the glaring fact that when talking about solid education it might be a good idea to get some basic spelling right (!), I’d say it *is* a solid basis of education, because if we learn to do those three, we can not only understand a lot, but we will have developed the analytical skills involved in *thinking*.

First appearing around a hundred years ago, the phrase rolls off the tongue, which is why we can allow the errors to stay, but are these the only skills involved in thinking?

No. Clearly not, and that’s the point I’m getting at in this article.

Reading, writing and arithmetic tend to be based on logic and facts, but ‘thinking’ is also made up with emotion. It’s also made up with who we are as individuals, our passions, our joys, our feelings.

How we educate children is always a subject for debate, and something that’s often levelled as a criticism of the 3 R basis, is that it favours those children who have their brains set up in a certain way, and it doesn’t do enough to take into account those other emotional factors, which might be stronger in other children.

The criticism then follows, that it’s a system that churns out cookie cutter drones, who might be able to run off their 12 times table, but have no idea how to express themselves, or investigate their passions, or develop an awareness of their place in society and connection to others.

So, we end up with ‘academic’ people and ‘non academic’ people – labels which can have far reaching impact on people’s lives.

I’ve long been an advocate of self education. Too many people think that ‘education’ is something that stops as soon as we leave school, but that way of thinking does a disservice. A massive disservice to both ourselves and others.

Let’s take a look then, at my suggestion for 3 Bs to go along with the 3 Rs. Note that I don’t say *instead* of the 3 Rs, but to go along with them…

1. Be nice to others. Sounds obvious, right? Many people, I’d say the majority of people *are* nice to others too. It’s a default setting, it makes the world an easier place, and if we’re nice to others, it tends to get reflected back with others being nice back to us!

It’s not always like that though, is it? Why are some people not nice to others?

Clearly upbringing is important, which of course brings us back to education, both at school, and *since* school. Many people simply aren’t aware that they aren’t being nice, or if they do know it, they aren’t aware of the concept of self improvement, personal development, change.

2. Be positive. Instead of viewing the world, and ourselves, in a negative light, why not view things in a positive light? It might not change the immediate facts, but it does change our response to the facts, and it does change the actions we are likely to take moving forwards, as we start to change the internal models we have in our brains.

This ties in with the third B…

3. Be yourself. As you view the world around you, and your place in it, are you doing so from a ‘central base’ position of the real you? Are you in touch with the authentic you, the one you know is the real thing, or are you pretending?

The pretending is something way too many people do. They do it maybe to please other people, friends, family, society, or maybe they do it because they are fearful of the alternative. Fearful of being laughed at, or ridiculed, being dropped by people who might not agree. Or simply fearful of failing.

This is not something that’s always easy to overcome. In fact sometimes it can be really hard, because before we can start to make changes, we need to become aware of the real us, and if that’s not something we learnt at school, and didn’t learn it outside school from our surroundings, then when will we learn it?

That’s where we come back to education, and self education as adults. The internet allows us an abundance of opportunity to find learning materials to develop ourselves, and also ways of connecting with likeminded people. The encouragement is there, the tools are all there.

Going back to the picture, I often go down to that stretch of coast to watch the setting sun. I know that soaking up the fresh sea air as the day cools is invigorating for me, so I’ve decided that it’s something I should do regularly.

That’s being nice to myself, it’s being aware of being myself, and making the effort to schedule it, is me being positive.

If we go on that journey, whatever that journey is for you, then we become more in touch with the real us, and allow ourselves to *be* ourselves. If it’s as simple as more short car trips to get to the seaside, then do it. If it’s more complicated, needing a deeper journey of personal development and discovery, then do it!

This brings with it the positive outlook to life, to what we want to do with life, and as we become nicer to ourselves, it’s an inevitability that this will ripple out into us being nicer to other as well.

So, the 3 Rs? Yes, they are great, important and all well and good, but I hope you agree that my 3 Bs make nice addition to the set! Be nice to others, be positive, and be yourself – it really can change lives.

Ok, do let me know what you think, and feel free to hit the share button if you think it’s a message with value for others!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you’d like to find out more about using these 3 B’s then pop over and grab my free 8 step goal achievement formula!
P.P.S. Also come over and take a peek at my FB page Transform Your Life Now!