Thinking

For those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter may have noticed my status updates following school yesterday. In short, it was a bit of a rough day for me. However, the more I thought about it, it really wasn't all that bad. Perhaps the thing that had the most effect on my attitude was my thoughts about my own actions.

Upon reflection, I noticed that my attitude and thought process changed dramatically yesterday based on one relatively insignificant event. No doubt these small events will happen again and I must take action to train my mind to not get down on them.
What is your thinking? So much of the time things happen relatively the same, albeit with minor variations. For instance, yesterday was just another day at school. Sure, there was a two hour delay, but school is school. There's nothing inherently good or bad about these situations, but our mind makes them good or bad depending on our thinking. What is your thinking?

Failure

I think that Alfred Pennyworth is the most underrated character in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Today's Thought is just one of his many words of wisdom that he shares throughout the movies. Hearing this quote I always think back to the many times that I have failed. As a youth I took piano lessons for a number of years. There was always a big state competition that I took part in, always with the goal to make it to the state competition. Time after time, I prepared for weeks. And time after time, I failed to reach my ultimate goal of getting to state. Yet, I kept trying, I kept learning to pick myself up and try again. Finally, in my last year of eligibility, I made it to state. Quite a turnaround I'd say.

One of my least favorite interview questions has to be, "If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?" My life is all about learning. I firmly believe that failure is the best way that we can learn. Without failure, how can we have learning?
Perhaps you came out of a failure with not quite the best attitude. Have faith, your failure is only setting you up for future success. Just like my piano competitions, failure is teaching us to pick ourselves up and try again. Don't be afraid of failure. Embrace it and learn from your failures. Learn to pick yourself up.

Hungry

Today's Thought comes from the great mind of the late Steve Jobs. While this isn't his most popular quote, I do believe it speaks strongly to folks of my age. It's so easy to get caught up in trying to do things by the book, get the A+, get a good job that we forget what it's like to be hungry and foolish.

At the beginning of my summer, I thought back to another great summer experience: attending Washington Leadership Conference (WLC) through FFA in Washington DC. What made WLC such a great experience? What made it fun? In the end, I came down to two points: 1) I had no expectations and 2) I had a desire to prove myself. In short, I was hungry to show what I was all about, I wanted to prove my worth.

Think back to one of your best experiences in your life. What made it so great? I'd venture a guess that you too had this sense of hunger to prove yourself. Or maybe it was on the other side of the spectrum. Maybe you just didn't care what people thought of you. You found a way to stay foolish. So don't worry so much about what's supposed to happen. Don't worry about following the path. Maintain that sense of hunger. Stay foolish.

Attitude

This last spring semester I had the opportunity to teach a group of middle school students as part of on after school program.  I had often heard that middle school is the hardest age to teach, but I had never experienced that challenge.  Throughout the semester I had good days and I had bad days.  Sometimes the students just got on my nerves to no end, and some days they gave me the best hour of the day.  The teacher whose room I used had a habit of putting up quotes on his whiteboard everyday.  This quote really spoke to me as I was teaching these blooming young minds.

Many days, it was hard teaching this group of students.  Looking back, it was the most challenging teaching experience I have ever had.  That's not to say I didn't learn anything, on the contrary, I  learned more about myself as a teacher than I had ever learned before.  Every day I walked into that classroom, I had a decision to make.  What was my attitude going to be for the day?  Was I going to let something that happened at college get me down?  Or was I going to brush it all off and do my best to teach my students?  It's a decision we all have to make, everyday.  We ARE in charge of our attitude.