LIFE SKILLS

More than schoolwork and sports is required to be successful in life. Beyond health, a number of skills are needed to bring all areas of life together to create a fulfilling life with enduring relationships and career success. M³ works with black boys to ensure that skills like self-discipline and networking are fostered and enhanced to enable the creation of networks and execution towards a personal vision.

Any person who has a vision and would like to see this become reality has to discipline himself to first create a plan and then to execute this plan over time. During planning and execution, obstacles will have to be overcome and alliances created to ensure final success. In M³ we work with boys to help them realize that the only path to success is through long-term vision, planning and execution. As KG Charles-Harris often emphasizes, "the only difference between rich and poor is the length of their planning horizon".

Self-discipline, or the ability to delay gratification to achieve a future goal, is a central facet of success. Black boys, having been fostered in a culture of immediate gratification and "bling-bling", are wont to be short-term in their thinking. As a result the concept of sacrifice or delayed gratification is foreign to them. We work with the boys to help them understand that to achieve their longer-term goals, they need to prioritize their present endeavors to ensure that they focus on what will give them long-term reward. We also illustrate what the consequences of neglecting to prioritize the long-term are.

One way that we motivate the students is by bringing accomplished black men (business, sports, art, entertainment, politics, etc.) from the community to interact with them. This enables them to hear from persons they can identify with what was required for these men to accomplish their dreams. It also gives them the opportunity to network. We seek to involve men in the community, whether this be through fraternities at universities, men's groups or individuals, to help foster the next generation of leaders.

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