Naomi is bright and capable. But when Grade 9 hit, she felt like the workload was “killing” her. She worked hard, but it didn’t move the needle.
In her words:
”I’d sit down to work and not know what to do. I’d question if I actually understood it. And I cried a lot. It was really stressful.”
Her first report card: a mix of grades including C’s and D’s.
She wanted at least all A’s and B’s. And beyond better grades, she wanted a life outside of school.
Then she got an A+ on a business test.
And her last report card? A’s and B’s. Naomi was thrilled.
Here’s what changed -
She stopped trying to out-effort the problem and started seeing what needed to happen when she sat down to work, including:
A calendar that made her week visible — so she knew exactly what to do and when (more clarity = less procrastination).
Study sessions that were focused, not lengthy — “I used to sit down for hours trying to understand but really staring into space a lot and feeling tired. The results weren’t there until I shifted to actually learning - but only for a set time. I stopped trying to do it all in one sitting.”
A daily practice of learning what she was taught in class — which she hated at first, but realized was key to doing better.
Things started to shift. Not overnight and not perfectly, but progressively and in a way that made sense for Naomi’s day-to-day life.
The shift wasn’t just her grades, but her approach to school and her understanding of herself as a learner.
In our interview below, Naomi shares a lot of insights, including:
How improving is a process - that any teen can do - not a personality trait
What her parents did that made a huge difference
Why working harder was actually making things worse
Naomi tells her story with candor and a lot of wisdom. If you have a teen who's struggling right now, I think it'll hit home. Watch it here:
To your child’s success,
Kelsey
