Resources Developed
■ Listening to helpful advice
■ Discovering what you are good at
■ Building on your strengths and resources
■ Using your resources successfullyOutcomes Offered
■ Enhanced skills
■ Personal empowerment
■ Success in what you’re good at
Jack’s parents sent him off to see the school counselor. He wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it had to do
with the fact that he was being bullied by some of the other kids at school, or that he wasn’t doing
very well in his schoolwork, or that his parents were constantly calling him lazy. I’m not really sure,
either.
The school counselor gave him some tests, asked him lots of questions and then she said, “Jack,
what you need to do is find what you are good at and then build on that.”
But what was he good at? Phil was the best runner in their class, Jemima always made the best
grades, and Matt was the football star—but Jack? He couldn’t think of anything he was good at.
When he got home from school, he kicked off his shoes. “My goodness,” exclaimed his father,
holding his nose, “you’re sure good at creating smelly feet.”
His mother added, “If you were as good at anything else, you could conquer the world.”
Jack wanted to protest that his feet didn’t smell, but he just gave up and sulked off to his bed-
room, where he flopped on the floor in the corner. Mrs. Meow, his cat, walked up to him, sniffed
his feet... and passed out.
Jack got up and moved away, and Mrs. Meow woke up. “How curious,” he thought, walking
back to put his feet under her nose. She passed out again. That night he went to sleep thinking about
his counselor’s words.
In the morning he woke up with an idea for an experiment. The next few days he went with-
out changing his socks. When his mother questioned why he hadn’t put any dirty socks in the laun-
dry basket, he pulled some clean ones out of the drawer and dropped them in the basket to keep her
from getting suspicious. He ran a lot, especially on hot days when his feet would get sweaty. He
avoided showering, just running the water for a while and wetting his hair to make his mother think
he’d washed. He didn’t want to spoil the effect. He wore his sneakers to bed at night... until he
thought it was time for the experiment.
In his room, he lay on his bed, took his socks off, looked at his clock, then held the socks to his
nose. He looked at the clock again. Exactly 53 minutes and 27 seconds had passed. It worked! They
could knock a boy out, just like they had Mrs. Meow. For the ultimate test, however, he knew they
would have to be stronger. Then he had the best idea yet.
He snuck some Gorgonzola cheese from the fridge and spread it in his socks. He continued to
run, and wear his sneakers to bed, waiting for the right day. Soon it happened. Two school bullies
cornered him in the toilets, teasing him, poking at him, and throwing some light punches. Cool Jack
CHANGING BEHAVIORChanging Patterns of Behavior 91