Why winners win

You just won the SEC football championship and your defense is being discussed as one of the greatest in the modern era, so maybe you would think that you deserve to sleep in a bit the following day. Well, you don’t think this way if you are Jeremy Pruitt, Defensive Coordinator for the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Less than 12 hours after winning the championship game against the University of Florida in Atlanta, GA, Mr. Pruitt was walking into the football complex at the University of Alabama. An ESPN reporter commented that she and her crew arrived at 5:00 AM to set up for live coverage beginning at noon and were stunned when Mr. Pruitt showed up to work at 6:15 AM—on a Sunday morning. After winning the SEC championship. This is why winners win.

None of us are coaching in a nationally televised conference championship game anytime soon, but as educators we are all—each of us—involved in a high stakes industry. What we do—and leave undone—has tremendous consequences for the children under our care. There is no doubt that teacher salaries are not commensurate with Mr. Pruitt’s but their responsibilities are far more important, so ideally we should possess the same passion for excellence.

Most likely all of us are getting ready for a well-deserved winter break. Perhaps some of us are thinking about how glad we will be to walk out and not walk back in for approximately two weeks. I have no doubt the educators I know and work with on a daily basis deserve this break; they may even need this break. However, if you want to be great at what you do, this upcoming winter break is a great time to recalibrate and adjust your course for the remainder of the academic year.

What is on your to-do list for the break? Most everybody works hard during the season, that is when school is in session; but the difference makers take advantage of these breaks to reflect upon and perfect their craft. I wish you the best this holiday season!

Make tomorrow better for others

“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.”

---Frederick Buechner

            What if other’s tomorrow were entirely up to you? I mean, what if your influence, your very presence, determined what type of day each person you came into contact had? How would today have been? Would folks be glad they were with you or would they have just wished you stayed home today?

            Tomorrow each of us will come into contact with numerous people—some we know and others we have yet to befriend. Each of us possesses the potential to brighten their day, put a smile on their respective faces, and send them off prepared to do the same for others.

            Now, many of these folks will most likely have a perfectly fine day no matter what we do, or leave undone. However, there are countless others who need us: folks who need us to smile at them because it has been a long time since their heart has been warmed by a smile; folks who need us to compliment them because it has been far too long since someone made them feel special; folks who have been pushed to the margins of society and are just waiting for someone to bring them back in with an act of kindness that restores their dignity.

            What we do, or leave undone, will have ramifications tomorrow. Imagine how much better tomorrow will be if each of us accepts the responsibility to be kind to all those we meet tomorrow—it would be a great day. Tomorrow we can make a difference, and none of us knows where that difference will end or how important it will be. 

“Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be.”
―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

            I love this quote. However, I need to remind myself of it on a daily basis. Far too often I allow what I see—or have seen—to influence how I treat others. A past slight, perceived or actual, possesses the potential to determine how we view, and subsequently treat, others. A negative first impression may doom an individual to a lifetime of indifference or lowered expectations. We must guard against this tendency.

            John Maxwell suggests there are three variables that assist folks in changing: they learn enough; they hurt enough; or they are allowed to change. We can play a role in all three instances, but the third one is where my focus is today. When we hold a view of someone, especially a negative view, we are creating an environment that serves to inhibit or prevent any change on their part. Scroll back up to the top of the page and take a look at the quote again.

            We all possess incredible potential, but each of us requires a certain set of circumstances to reach that potential. How we view, and treat, others either lifts them up or keeps them shackled to the ground. Today I encourage you to think about a person in your life who could benefit from you changing your view of them. Do something—anything—that edifies them and allows them to become that which they were created to be. Identify the student or staff member in your life that could benefit from a new, improved view and write them a letter, call them, or meet with them and help them see the good within themselves they are unable to see without your assistance. Do it today; tomorrow is not promised to us.

            

Thinking about what might have been led me to appreciate what already is

How many of you purchased a Powerball ticket when the jackpot was approximately $1.5 billion? I really, really hoped to have the winning numbers for that drawing; I even bought two tickets. I usually restrict my financial donation to the purchase of one ticket, but this time I was going all out in an effort to win.

When the numbers were announced I am sure none of you will find it surprising that my two tickets to a different life simply turned out to be two new bookmarks. Subsequently, I may still head to an Alabama football game this upcoming season, but I will not be driving a brand new motorhome to get there. That is too bad, because I most likely would have invited a few of you along for the ride. Heck, I would have even picked up the tabs at the numerous Waffle House and Chik-fil-A stops along the way!

I purchased two tickets because I wanted an opportunity at a better life, but the experience made me more appreciative of the life I already lead. While thinking about all I would do upon adding a whole bunch of zeros to my checking balance, I also began thinking about the abundance of blessings in my life currently.

I am blessed to be born and live in a nation that allows me certain freedoms, rights, and opportunities that countless others risk death to obtain. My country is far from perfect, but it is a country that allows its citizens to continually challenge it to live up to the promise it made to the world at the very beginning of its history. Moreover, it is the land of opportunity. Don’t believe it? Simply look around you and see the numerous examples of many who through hard work and determination have elevated their station in life. Were our nation’s borders open to all, we would double our population in no time and triple it soon after that; the only people cynical about the American Dream are already living here.

On a daily basis I pray to be a blessing to others as so many others have been a blessing to me. Time and again, I have been blessed by the wonderful people who have walked in and out of my life. I simply could not fathom having a better family or group of friends. I can count on them to lift me up when I fall, applaud me when I succeed, or gently cut me down to size when I get a little too big for my britches. For this, I am eternally grateful. I am where I am—and who I am—thanks to their efforts. The credit for all that is good is largely theirs, and the credit for what is left . . . well, I guess that falls squarely on my shoulders.

There is a lot I would have done had I been in possession of the winning numbers a few weeks back. No doubt there would be a few salespeople out there in a better spot financially due to the commissions they earned off my impulsiveness.  Had I held the winning ticket, I would certainly be in possession of more things, but I really believe I already have all I need.