Festivus: Believe to Achieve

Happy Festivus everyone! May your feats of strength be mighty. Instead of airing my grievances today and grabbing the aluminum pole from the crawl space, I thought I would share some thoughts on the power of belief. 

This time of year is anchored in belief. The young children believing in Santa Claus, the adults believing they can bring forth change through a resolution. But what happens when the odds are the greatest, when the odds seem insurmountable? When you face great odds or you have a little higher mountain to climb, you must create a different plan. When your mountain is a little steeper, you have to take a better strategy to get you there.

Does your life or your school have obstacles that seem insurmountable? What obstacles are blocking your path to achieving what you want? What mountains do you have standing in front of you that stand in the way of achieving all that you desire? What mountain must you climb to get to the beach that lies on the other side? 

There are NO mountains that you and your school cannot climb. There is no tower that's too high, no plane that you can't learn how to fly. When you look at a mountain you can look at it as a challenge or an obstacle. It all depends on your view. If your mountain appears to big. change your view. Within every obstacle is an opportunity. This is how you must view your mountain, whatever it is. 

How? You do we achieve greatness? How do we climb the mountain? We need a foundation built upon vision, creativity, and resiliency. Vision allows you to believe your IT is possible because you can see yourself doing IT. A vision is a dream that's focused. Vision creates passion, passion creates drive, and drive creates results. And to fulfill that vision it's going to take effort. Your effort cannot ever be less than your vision. In the new year, make your life about your vision. See it and be it. 

Innovation is a big buzzword right now in Education. Let's pair that down to creativity. Success and creativity are very much akin to one another. We have all heard at one point or another someone tell you that IT cannot be done. Why do people say that to begin with? Simply, they cannot see the angles that can be used to attack the problem. They only see the mountain in front of you. They do not see the many ways around the mountain. To achieve your vision, your desire, your goals, you are going to be called on to be creative to solve problems and overcome obstacles. To often, especially in schools, we hinder our creativity because we play by some rulebook. Creativity has no rules. Think outside of the box. It's easy to take the standard road everyone else takes and limit ourselves to the same results everyone achieves taking the road everyone travels. The world is full of average. You and your students are better than average. Ideas are a dime dozen, people who put them into action are priceless. Do not wait, lead. Being creative is going to require you to do something you have never done before. At this stage you need to ask yourself if the discomfort you will feel moving forward is worth your vision and dreams. As Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome wrote "Kids Deserve It". Take the step, make the change and achieve great things. 

Lastly, you have to be resilient. Things do not always go your way. You cannot look behind you and move forward. You're going to experience disappointment. You're going to experience a setback. The key here is to keep your eyes on the vision or goal. We, especially in education, like to admire the problem. When we stare at the problem, wallow in the negative, we never see the positive. 2pac once said we need to keep our head up. Doing so forces us to look ahead. You do not get through fire without actually going through fire. You are going to feel the heat. What pushes you through the heat is courage. There is a great seen in the movie Rocky Balboa where Rocky speaks to his son about life and encourages himself to keep going when taking the hit. 

As a person, a leader, a teacher, a school, we must move on when that negative hits us. Forget it and move forward. The past is the past. If you continue to live in the past your life is history. Success is being able to move from failure to failure with enthusiasm. A setback separates our desires from our wants. If we want something and encounter a setback or obstacle, many times we change our wants. Desires do not work that way. If you desire something, you expand your effort. Desire is at a deeper level than a want. A desire comes straight from your heart. Think about the one thing you desire in your life or the one thing that you desire for your school. Visualize it, creatively plan to get there, and be resilient when the setbacks come. 

You are powerful. You can change the your life. You can change the lives of students, the trajectory of your school and community. And remember, it will take others to get you where you want to go. As you journey through life, personally and professionally, you need to know that you are not alone. Tap into the power of people to achieve your vision or goal. If your reading this and your not on Twitter, get on it. My PLN on Twitter as made me a better leader and person. I am pushed daily by the great people I connect with on Twitter. Life is a series of small choices that make up our larger life. Make a choice and take action. Choices without actions are just good intentions. Light your fuse and blast off.

Ultimately, you have the power to achieve your hopes, dreams, and vision. In this season of BELIEF, dig deep and make that investment in yourself and others to be great. Do not cheat yourself. Do not cheat your students, your staff, your school, and your community. Today is your day. Own it! Believe and achieve! 

Happy Festivus to everyone! Enjoy this time with your friends and family. Come back to whatever it is you do after this holiday break and light the world on fire with your vision, passion, and drive! 

CJ