Finding Your Purpose: Reflecting On My Birthday

My Birthday Reflection

Today is my 39th Birthday. There are two great days in a person's life. The day they were born and the day they discovered why. Two plus years ago when I began my school leadership journey, I truly discovered my why. 

Discovering why I was born changed my life. I want that for you, the reader. I want that for every person I am privileged to serve throughout my career in Education. Principal Kafele speaks of this as your leadership purpose. A person without a purpose is like a word without a definition - meaningless. Why do you get up in the morning and come to a school or district level position? What drives you to do the important work we do in our schools and districts each and every day? 

Your purpose is who you are as the leader of a school, department, or school district. It is the very foundation of which your passion is built. Your passion to quote my friend Brad Jordan aka Scarface is Deeply Rooted within YOU. Discovering your purpose in life is one of the greatest findings of your lifetime. 

If you haven't found your WHY, reflect on it. Find it deep within your soul. If you haven't defined your purpose, do so. Your purpose is going to drive you, push you, pull you, and propel you to become better for those in your care. Your purpose is going to help transform your leadership past that of whatever title you hold into a MISSION. A mission towards the goal that EVERY CHILD achieves academic, social, and emotional excellence.

Principal Kafele challenges everyone to make their goals public. Well, next year I turn 40. My purpose is to add value to as many lives as I can in my lifetime to make the world a better place for those I am privileged to serve. I live a mission of serving, inspiring, empowering, and motivating others through the journey of Education.  To that end, birthday's are about action planning. I know what I want to do and where I want to be on this day in 2018. Personally, I want to be a school principal and I want to serve in the county and community where my family resides. Core value for me having grown up in a small town Michigan's Western Upper Peninsula. You lived, worked, and made a difference in the community. Serving a community school is at the very heart of who I am as an educator and a person. I've already begun working toward that goal and I will stop at nothing to get better each and every day as an educator, a leader, a husband, a father, a friend, a man, and as a servant of community to see that goal become a reality. 

Birthday's are also about reflection. Since turning 38, I've grown a lot personally and professionally. I am focused in the year ahead to continue to grow. The better I can become in all facets of my life, the greater my ability will be to give back to others. As you think about your life and your leadership --- What can you do in the coming days, months, and year ahead to become what you are capable of becoming? What's your purpose? What's your goal? What's your action plan? Always remember, nothing is going to work unless YOU DO.

You also have students in your classrooms, in your school, and in your school district searching to discover their purpose. Immensely talented young people who may have not yet discovered their why or they are just beginning to develop their capacity around their new found discovery. What are your intentional actions to support ALL STUDENTS to discover their purpose? What can you do through the role you have in their life to add value to their lives so their purpose can illuminate the Earth? The single most important variable impacting whether a student can accomplish something is that student's belief that he/she can accomplish it. How are you supporting building up student's belief in themselves? This is an important mission that each of us in Education must support for all learners, in all schools across this country.

Find YOUR WHY FOR YOUR LIFE. Your why is your purpose in life. Trust me, when you do discover your WHY, you'll know it. And the world won't know what hit it. 

As I was writing this, I discovered Simon Sinek, author of "Leaders Eat Last" and "Start With Why" has a new book coming out September 5th entitled "Find Your Why: A Practical Guide to Discovering Purpose For You And Your Team". Simon's work struck a cord with me as a leader & the learning found within "Start With Why" made it's way across the education spectrum. As an avid reader, I am looking forward to picking up this book. If you are one searching for your purpose or that of your team, might be worth the read. 


My life is driven by impacting the world and changing lives. My passion in life is growing and equipping others to do remarkable things and lead significant and fulfilled lives. There is no higher goal than to help others realize their significance and potential. That's why I have dedicated my life to Education. 

To all of you that have wished me a Happy Birthday today, THANK YOU. I wish you well today and in those ahead. May you find your purpose and make the world a better place through the service you provide to others. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changing Student Task (Why and How)

Image
Transforming Task (Why and How) One of the topics of recent discussion on the "Jeffco Generations" Facebook page is shifting student "task". Task is where the student gets the chance to engage, practice something, create, or solve a problem. Task is the experience that is part of the learning process. Without task, what you get essentially is a Sunday sermon with a teacher standing a delivering information to students.  The first question that needs to be answered is WHY? Why do we NEED to change the student "task"?  We've all heard the doom and gloom condemnation from education "reformers" across the country, so I'll spare regurgitating their rhetoric. Instead, let's look at some not often mentioned data points.  The image below is a Gallup Student Poll (2015) of almost one million U.S. students from 3,300 schools across 46 states. There is a consistent decrease in levels of engagement as students get older, ultimate...
Read more

Innovation at the School Level

Image
I had the opportunity this past week to get a preview of the forthcoming release of the new vision for Jeffco Public Schools where my children attend school. New Superintendent Dr. Jason Glass shared a glimpse into the vision --- one that's transformational and innovative. His recent blog post was about the need to innovate at the Micro Level --- the classroom -- where individual students experience learning. https://advancejeffco.blog/2017/09/29/micro-innovation/ How do we create a culture of innovation within our schools sites to foster innovation at the classroom level? School leaders must establish an environment that values and rewards innovation. We must challenge the status quo, create a culture of creativity (for adult and student learners), and develop a workplace that's nimble and adaptable to change. How do get there? First, the school leader must model innovation. Steve Jobs once said "innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Principals mus...
Read more

Parent Engagement vs. Parent Involvement

Image
Parent Engagement vs. Parent Involvement Today on Facebook, Shawna Fritzler posted a question about Parent Engagement vs. Parent Involvement. Rather than respond via a lengthy Facebook reply, I decided to blog about it. Many school and district leaders are doing amazing things with both Engagement and Involvement. Others, struggle as they ultimately there is confusion as to what the difference is between engagement and involvement.  Simply, parent involvement is often more "doing to", whereas engagement is "doing with". With involvement, schools tend to lead with their mouth. This leads to communication but not true connection. Every school or district communicates, some better than others. Very few connect. Engagement, on the opposite side, has schools leading with their ears. These schools listen, learn, then lead together. Engagement focused schools and districts listen to parents and community members. A genuine partnership is formed when we elicit in...
Read more