Prepared, Focused, and Fearless
One Year Ago...
...I posted my first web log. It was just one of a series of small steps in my quest for a more intentional, optimal, and compelling life. For years, I had been slowly developing my life plan, and I had taken several steps to live my life in a balanced way. After a lot of personal reflection, a lot of reading, and a lot of experiments and false starts, I began to sense some clarity in the direction of my life. I began taking small steps in developing my four fundamentals: my faith, my family, my fitness, and my finances. The blog was a way to help me sort out my thoughts and communicate them more clearly.
The White Walls
Three years ago, the opportunity to join the high school staff became available to me. While I loved the staff and kids at the junior high school, I felt the draw to try something new and stretch myself. This change ended up being a great move, and has provided several opportunities for personal and professional growth. It was definitely an exciting transition and opportunity to redefine myself and my mission. When I entered my new classroom, I was greeted with these four blank white walls. So I decided to use these walls to send a clear message to my students and to myself. The message was that in this room, we were seeking quality growth and deep learning over rules and mindless attendance and shallow task work. My idea was to focus on shaping our identity as learners. So I decided use a simple message on four posters spread across the main wall. Every day we entered the classroom, my students and I would all see the message, “I’m the kind of person who is…” “PREPARED,” “FOCUSED,” and “FEARLESS.” All of the expectations and rules can be summed up on these posters. What does a prepared person look like? What does a focused person look like? What does a fearless person look like? These are qualities build the identity of deep learners who have growth mindsets. These qualities can be nurtured every day. These qualities will be valuable long after they leave my classroom. It’s a clear and simple yet powerful message.
Transformation
One year ago, I took a simple step. I made a decision to share the journey of my personal transformation and hopefully inspire others to do the same. I want to be the kind of person who is prepared, focused, and fearless. Being PREPARED means I need a vision and a plan. Then I can develop design my environment and develop meaningful habits and systems so I don’t waste time and energy “getting ready” every day. With systems already in place I can more easily begin making progress on the things that matter. Being FOCUSED means I need to identify and remove obstacles to my daily progress. Even the tiniest distractions greatly hinder progress, and our time and thought energy is much too valuable to waste on redirecting our attention and dealing with the thought residue from task and thought switching. Finally, being FEARLESS means I’m willing to start before I’m ready. I’m willing to experiment and try things out without fear of looking silly or making mistakes. Fearlessness allows freedom to dream and try and play and create. It helps us re-frame being nervous to being excited. I think this is a valuable lesson for kids and for ourselves.
Dream It, Do It
Today, take time to do a little dreaming. What brings you love, joy, peace, and gratefulness? What qualities will help you live a more compelling life? Dream about your life and your identity. A little preparation, a little focus, and a little fearlessness will help you make those small steps necessary for meaningful growth. And those small steps can definitely make a great impact today and every day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy the day!
