When you're feeling down or just "not in the mood"...
just take action!
This morning, I woke up feeling anything but "up."
I wasn't in the mood for my morning workout and was feeling a bit down in general due to some recent developments (nothing major, thank G-d.)
So, what did I do?
I remembered William (Bill) McRaven's "Make your bed!" motto and I decided to take action.
My alarm was set for 4:30 am yesterday.
Trust me, it was tough to get up early.
My entire family is on vacation and is sleeping in.
Most people in general get up later on Sundays.
But, after listening to James Clear and Atomic Habits, I was again reminded of the importance of daily rituals, daily disciplines, and consistency.
Read MoreThanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays of the year.
For many, it’s a time to be with family and enjoy delicious food (and some football).
It’s also the kickoff to the holiday shopping season.
At its essence, though, Thanksgiving is all about gratitude,
Whether you choose to remember how early American settlers survived a difficult winter or something more recent and personal, Thanksgiving gives us all opportunity to pause and reflect about all the goodness in our lives and say, “Thank you.”
🙏 “Thank you” for your gifts
🙏 “Thank you” for your opportunities
🙏 “Thank you” to the special people in your life
🙏 “Thank you” to the Being that produced you
Read MoreI grew up in a home that was poor
Not materially poor (we were “middle class,” but on the lower end,) as much as mentally poor
While we never went hungry, we also never had the luxuries many others enjoyed
But that wasn’t what made us “poor”
For three years, I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into being the best head of school I could be.
And then, one day, it all ended.
Eight years and one month ago, I was out of work and needed to start again.
Thousands of miles away from where I grew up and where all of my family and friends lived.
Entering a field that I knew little about and had no reputation to speak of.
Relocating my family to a small, grungy house that had "potential," because that was all that we could afford in our new, more expensive community.
It was a dark time in my life.
But, I had promised myself then that I would never again be beholden to others for my income.
So, I hung a shingle and got to work.
At the heart of great leadership is influence, as in the ability to influence others to do what needs to get done. While influence is important for every leader, it is especially critical when we’re understaffed and need to maximize every ounce of talent and time at our disposal.
Read MoreA critical, “non-academic” area that teachers must master is their ability to teach and support students’ social-emotional needs and development, while growing their mindset and confidence to succeed. Let’s focus on the latter, our mindsets and the role they play in our success.
In her bestselling book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck talks about people’s mindsets with regards to their ability to perform new tasks. She describes people who stay squarely in their comfort zones and others that venture well beyond them. Dweck labeled these mindsets as “fixed” and “growth,” respectively.
Read MoreDebbie has been lucky. Or so she thinks. How else can she explain her many successes and promotions at work? It certainly doesn’t have anything to her hard work and skill development, or the relationships that she’s carefully built over the years, does it?
Of course, it does. But you’d be shocked to learn how many Debbies are out there, ascribing their successes to good fortune and their failures to their self-perception of inadequacy. Each raise, promotion or accolade is accompanied by the dread that, one day, their cover will be blown, and everyone will find out that they’ve just been getting lucky time and again.
What Debbie and many others suffer from is an unhealthy dose of impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome occurs when you believe your inner critic when it tells you that you’ve only succeeded due to luck, and not because of your talent or qualifications.
Read MoreMy "Let It Go" video post got such a powerful response.
I think it's because there was a rawness to the message.
The idea that we could be hurt and hurt in serious ways and it's really up to us to decide how we want to move forward.
Many of us hold onto things and we just have a hard time relinquishing the pain because we feel that if we let it go somehow that's going to vindicate the other side. And we need to remember that letting it go is primarily for us.
Because if we let it go, then we can start to heal, and we can start to move forward. We can start to think differently about what occurred and what our future holds for us.
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