A. Developing the Skills, Strategies, and Habits Needed to Succeed · Skills, Strategies and Habits for SuccessWhat Success Takes: Skills, Strategies and Habits
A1 A1.1About 65 minutes
Learning goals- I can describe what success means to me in school, in life and at work.
- I can tell the difference between a skill, a strategy and a habit.
- I can explain how social-emotional learning skills contribute to success and well-being.
- I can explain how a habit forms and plan one small habit that would help me.
Words to know
success
Reaching goals that matter to you, while staying healthy and true to your values. It looks different for different people.
skill
An ability you can improve with practice, such as managing time or listening well.
strategy
A plan or method you choose to deal with a particular situation or task.
habit
Something you do regularly, often without having to think about it.
social-emotional learning (SEL) skills
Skills for understanding and managing your emotions, coping with stress, staying motivated, getting along with others, knowing yourself and thinking clearly.
well-being
A positive state of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
Individual Pathways Plan (IPP)
The plan every Ontario student from Grade 7 to 12 keeps to record their interests, goals and plans for after high school.
Two students, one report card
Jordan and Amira both finished Grade 9 with a 72% average.
- Jordan crammed the night before every test, stayed up past 2 a.m. often, and felt exhausted and stressed all year.
- Amira kept a planner, asked her science teacher for help after a tough test in November, slept most nights, and still had time for her part-time job and her soccer team.
Same mark. Very different years. Which student is better set up for Grade 10, Grade 11 and a first full-time job?
This course, Career Studies (GLC2O), starts with a big question: what skills, strategies and habits help people succeed, not just once, but again and again, in school, in life and at work, while keeping a healthy balance?
Remember from Grade 9
If you took Grade 9 technology, you met Ontario's seven transferable skills (critical thinking and problem solving; innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship; self-directed learning; collaboration; communication; global citizenship and sustainability; digital literacy). In Grade 9 health you practised coping strategies and learned to recognize warning signs of mental health concerns. In Grades 8 and 9 you wrote SMART goals for fitness. This unit pulls those ideas together and turns them into a plan for you. (You will explore the transferable skills further in the next unit, Exploring and Preparing for the World of Work.)
What does success mean?
There is no single definition of success. For one person it means getting into a college program in culinary arts. For another it means becoming the first in their family to finish high school, or caring for younger siblings while working, or making a varsity team, or learning their grandmother's language.
A useful definition has three parts:
- Goals that matter to you. Not just goals someone else picked.
- Progress toward them. Success is usually a direction, not a single finish line.
- Health and balance along the way. Reaching a goal while wrecking your sleep, friendships or mental health is not the kind of success that lasts.
The Ontario curriculum talks about success in your educational and career/life pursuits and a healthy school/life/work balance. Keep both halves in mind for the whole course.
Skills, strategies and habits
These three words get mixed up a lot. Here is how they differ.
- A skill is an ability you can get better at with practice. Examples: managing your time, listening, staying calm under pressure, asking for help.
- A strategy is a plan or method you choose for a situation. Examples: splitting a big project into three smaller tasks; making flash cards for a test; taking three slow breaths before you speak in class.
- A habit is something you do regularly, often without thinking. Examples: checking your planner after dinner; packing your bag the night before; going to bed at about the same time.
They are connected. You choose a strategy. When you practise it, you build a skill. When you repeat it often enough, it becomes a habit, and habits save energy because you no longer have to decide every time.
Social-emotional learning skills
In elementary school in Ontario, you learned six social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. The Career Studies curriculum asks you to think about how these skills contribute to success. They show up everywhere:
- Identifying and managing emotions: noticing you are frustrated with a group member and cooling down before you reply.
- Recognizing sources of stress and coping with challenges: knowing exams stress you and planning for it.
- Maintaining positive motivation and perseverance: keeping going on a long assignment.
- Building relationships and communicating effectively: working well with co-workers and customers.
- Developing self-awareness and a sense of identity: knowing your strengths, needs and values.
- Thinking critically and creatively: solving a problem in a new way.
Employers often call these "soft skills", but there is nothing soft about them. They are also linked to positive mental health and well-being.
Worked exampleLet's sort Amira's success into skills, strategies and habits
Go back to Amira in the opening story. Sort what she did into skills, strategies and habits, and link one of them to an SEL skill.
- Find the habits (things she did regularly): keeping a planner; sleeping most nights.
- Find the strategies (plans she chose for a situation): asking her science teacher for help after a tough test in November.
- Find the skills (abilities that grew): time management (she fit in school, a job and soccer); self-advocacy (asking for help).
- Link to SEL skills: asking for help after a bad test shows recognizing sources of stress and coping with challenges and maintaining positive motivation and perseverance.
- Check the balance: she kept sleep, sport and work in her week, so her success is more likely to last.
Habits: planner, regular sleep. Strategy: getting help after a poor result. Skills: time management, self-advocacy. These connect to the SEL skills of coping with challenges and perseverance.
How habits form
One popular way to describe a habit is the habit loop:
- Cue: something that triggers the behaviour (a time, a place, a feeling, or the end of another activity).
- Routine: the behaviour itself.
- Reward: the good feeling or result you get afterwards.
When the same cue leads to the same routine and reward over and over, the routine starts to feel automatic. This works for helpful habits and unhelpful ones. "Phone buzzes, check it, get a little burst of news" is a habit loop too.
Tips for building a helpful habit
- Start tiny. "Open my planner for 2 minutes" is easier to start than "study for an hour".
- Attach it to something you already do. "After I brush my teeth at night, I pack my bag."
- Make it easy and visible. Leave your planner on the kitchen table.
- Track it. A check mark on a calendar is a small reward.
- Expect slips. Missing one day does not erase the habit. Just restart the next day.
Just for funGood news for anyone whose New Year's resolution fell apart by January 8: the idea that a habit takes exactly 21 days is a myth. In one well-known study from University College London, the typical time for a new daily habit to feel automatic was about 66 days (though it varied a lot from person to person), and missing a single day did not ruin it.
Hands-on activityMy success inventory
You need: paper, a pencil, and a family member or other trusted adult to interview (in person or by phone).
- Interview a family member or trusted adult for about 10 minutes. Ask: What does success mean to you? What is one habit or strategy that helped you in school or at work? What is one thing you wish you had started earlier?
- On your paper, draw three columns: Skills, Strategies, Habits.
- Sort what they told you into the columns.
- Now add your own: at least two of each that you already have (for example, a sport skill, a test strategy, a morning habit).
- Circle one habit you want to build this term. Write it as a habit loop: Cue: ___ Routine: ___ Reward: ___.
- Keep this page. You will use it again later in the unit when you set goals.
What to look for: at least six of your own items sorted correctly (a habit is regular; a strategy is a chosen plan; a skill is an ability), and a habit loop with a clear cue, a small routine and a real reward.
Your turn
1Give your own definition of success in one or two sentences. Include school, life or work, and balance.
Answers will vary. A strong answer names goals that matter to you, sees success as progress, and includes health or balance. Example: Success means making steady progress toward a career in health care while keeping time for my family, my sleep and my friends.
2Is each one a skill, a strategy or a habit? (a) packing your bag every night before bed (b) listening carefully (c) using a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets.
(a) habit (done regularly); (b) skill (an ability that improves with practice); (c) strategy (a method chosen for a task).
3Explain how a strategy can become a habit.
When you practise a strategy, you get better at it (it builds a skill). If you repeat it regularly, at the same cue, it starts to happen automatically and becomes a habit.
4Name the six social-emotional learning skills.
Identifying and managing emotions; recognizing sources of stress and coping with challenges; maintaining positive motivation and perseverance; building relationships and communicating effectively; developing self-awareness and a sense of identity; thinking critically and creatively.
5What are the three parts of the habit loop?
Cue (the trigger), routine (the behaviour) and reward (the good feeling or result).
6Why might a 95% average still not be full "success" for someone?
If they got it by giving up sleep, health, friendships or balance, or if the goal was not one that mattered to them, it may not last or feel like success. Success includes well-being.
7Write a habit loop for a habit you would like to build.
Answers will vary. Example: Cue: I get home from school. Routine: I write tomorrow's three tasks on a sticky note. Reward: I feel in control and get a snack. Check that the cue is specific and the routine is small.
More practice: warm-up
1True or false: there is one definition of success that is right for everyone.
False. Success depends on your own goals and values.
2Which is a habit: (a) asking for help once, (b) reading for 15 minutes every night, (c) being a good writer?
(b), because it is done regularly.
Social-emotional learning.
4In the habit loop, what is the "cue" in this habit: When the bus pulls away, I put in my earbuds and review my vocab cards?
Individual Pathways Plan.
More practice: on your own
1Marcus says, "I'm just not a planning person." Using the words skill and strategy, explain why he could become one.
Planning is a skill, so it can improve with practice. Marcus could start with one small strategy (for example, writing three tasks each night), and with repetition it can become a habit. Skills are not fixed traits.
2Give an example of an unhelpful habit loop and suggest a change to the routine.
Example: Cue: I feel bored doing homework. Routine: I scroll videos. Reward: quick fun. Change: keep the cue and reward, but swap the routine, for example a 5-minute walk or stretching break, then return to homework. Keeping the phone in another room removes the cue.
3Which SEL skill is a cashier using when she stays polite and calm with an upset customer? Explain.
Identifying and managing emotions (she notices her own frustration and stays calm), and building relationships and communicating effectively (she speaks politely to solve the problem).
4Why does attaching a new habit to an existing one help?
The existing routine becomes a reliable cue, so you do not have to remember or decide each time. Example: After I brush my teeth, I set out my clothes.
5Jordan (from the opening story) wants to change. Suggest one strategy and one habit for him, and explain why each would help.
Strategy: when a test is announced, split the studying into 20-minute sessions over the week (spreading it out works better than cramming). Habit: a regular bedtime on school nights, so he is rested. Together they reduce stress and help him remember more.
Challenge
1"Skills like perseverance are personality traits. You either have them or you don't." Do you agree? Give two reasons.
A strong answer disagrees. (1) Perseverance improves with practice and with strategies (breaking tasks into steps, tracking progress, getting support). (2) People show different amounts of perseverance in different situations, depending on support, interest and health, which shows it is not fixed. It can be built like any skill.
2A part-time employer says, "I can teach the job. I can't teach attitude." Using SEL skills, explain what the employer probably values and whether "attitude" can actually be learned.
The employer values SEL skills: managing emotions, motivation and perseverance, and communicating well with customers and co-workers. These can be learned: a worker can practise staying calm, asking questions, taking initiative and accepting feedback. Employers say this because these skills take time to build, so they want people who already work on them.
3Design a 2-week plan to build one helpful habit. Include the cue, the routine, the reward, how you will track it and what you will do if you miss a day.
Sample: Habit: review my notes for 10 minutes. Cue: right after I finish dinner. Routine: 10 minutes with the day's notes at the kitchen table. Reward: a check mark on my calendar and a tea. Tracking: calendar check marks. If I miss a day: restart the next day, no guilt; if I miss two in a row, move the cue to a better time. Look for a specific cue, a small routine and a plan for slips.
Quiz
1. Which is the best example of a strategy?
2. Which is the best description of a habit?
3. In the habit loop, what comes right after the cue?
4. Which is one of Ontario's six social-emotional learning skills?
5. According to this lesson, what does lasting success include?
6. Which tip helps a new habit stick?
Big idea: Expectation A1 asks students to understand the skills, strategies and habits that contribute to success in education, career/life and a healthy school/life/work balance. This first lesson builds the vocabulary for the whole unit.
How to help: Be the person your teen interviews in the activity. Share an honest story, including a habit you wish you had started earlier. Ask them which habit loop they chose and help them pick a realistic cue in your family's routine.
Common difficulties:
- Mixing up skill and habit. A quick test: if you can do it once and be good at it, it is a skill; if it is about doing it regularly, it is a habit.
- Defining success only as marks or money. Gently ask, "What else would need to be true for you to feel successful?"
- Planning a habit that is too big. Encourage tiny starts (2 to 10 minutes).