New Start, Fresh Start, Great Start!

-by Jaime Willis

For many teachers and students, this is their final weekend of “freedom” before school starts in earnest on Monday. Whether you are looking forward to the fresh start of a new year of dreading getting back into the “grind” of school, you can help yourself have a great start by doing a little bit of preparation.

Have a Plan

Whenever you are going to start a new task, you’ll feel better or more confident if you have a plan. If you are starting the new school year, lesson planning in advance is a huge help!

Have a Routine

When you are anticipating a fresh start, do so with a routine already in mind. What time are you going to go to bed to ensure a good night’s rest? What will your morning look like? How about your commute? Plan your routine out before the “start” day, and you’ll feel more prepared and confident.

Anticipate Challenges

Think about everything that could go wrong on your first day. Then, as much as practicable, plan a “solution” to the problem in advance. Worried you might forget your camera? Put it in your trunk the night before. Concerned that traffic might be a problem? Plan to leave your house earlier than usual. Scared the students will be really difficult to manage? Plan out a system to manage behavior ahead of time.

Visualize your Success

The night before your fresh start, take a few moments in the quiet of the evening to visualize your way through the day. Start by “waking up” refreshed, going through your morning routine, getting into school, and walk through every part of your school day. If you imagine what a successful day looks like, your brain will help you match your real day to your imagined success.

Smile & Have Fun

When you are nervous or worried, all of your energy is focused on the negative, which has a negative impact on your ability to interact with the world. I recently took a flight where I was seated across the aisle from a couple and their 9 month old baby. The mother was very stressed about keeping the baby quiet, and as a result, literally every time she held her child, the baby started crying. The father was much calmer and soothed his child right back into a peaceful sleep.

When you are scared, nervous, or worried, this is a great time to smile, to encourage others, to laugh and have fun – do things that calm or uplift your mood!

I hope this tips will help you have a wonderful “new start” soon!

Happiness Is Not The Goal

- by Matt Leedham

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My friends, I’m afraid he’s right. If you have your sights set on happiness, you’re going to be searching for quite some time.

Happiness is a result.

Feeling happy is what happens when you live your life with purpose and meaning. Happiness occurs when you are grounded in core values that you intentionally act on daily…with conviction.

Happiness is not the goal. It’s a result of living well. Of being part of something bigger than yourself. Of contributing. Of being authentic.

Do these things, and you will one day wake up feeling fulfilled. And happy.

P.S. Same goes for money. Those in search of money will be kept very busy searching for money. Money should not be the goal. Money is typically the result living well, being creative and innovative, working hard, being responsible, and having your priorities straight. Money is the result.

Just Do It

- by Matt Leedham

There comes a time when all of the writing, thinking, planning, etc. just needs to be put aside. Sometimes, it all comes down to one thing: action.

Four winters ago, before my wife and I were married, we walked home one January evening after dinner in Dupont Circle (Washington, DC). It must have been 15-20 degrees that night. And it was windy. As we approached my building, my wife noticed a man at the top of some stairs leading to a service entrance of the hotel across the street from my apartment. He was curled up in a ball, with no coat or blanket, visibly shivering. My fiancé (at the time) demanded that we do something. She was right. He might not have made it through the night. We called the city’s hypothermia hotline, grabbed a thick wool blanket from the apartment and ran back outside to let him know that help was on the way.

Ever since that night, my wife and I have casually talked about doing a coat drive among our networks of friends and colleagues. Every year around the holidays it kept coming up, but we never took action. There was always so much going on at work, or with family, or with travel. The usual excuses.

• Eight weeks ago in reflecting on my personal core values and what I wanted to accomplish in the coming year, I wrote down the goal of having a coat drive.
• Six weeks ago, I reviewed my goals and told my wife about it.
• Four weeks ago, I expanded on that goal, jotting down some ideas about next steps.
• Two weeks ago, I started telling some people about my plans.
• Last week I realized I hadn’t done anything about it and the depths of winter were approaching rapidly.
• This past weekend, disappointed that I still had not moved the ball forward, I committed to taking action on Monday.
• Yesterday, I made 3 phone calls: 1) to my friend who used to work in the wine industry, 2) to another friend who is a phenomenal amateur chef, and 3) to a non-profit dedicated to helping feed and clothe the homeless in the District.
• Today, my wife and I will be sending out an Evite to 50 friends and colleagues inviting them to our house on December 18^th for our First Annual Holiday Wine Tasting for the Homeless. Price of admission = $20 + all the lightly used winter clothing they can find in their homes.

When I boil all of this down and distill it into the truth, I find that making this dream a reality required me to make 3 phone calls and send one invitation. That’s about it. All together, maybe 30 minutes of my time.

Sometimes, you need to “just do it.” We all have resources and networks at our fingertips. We all have the ability to make things happen. Just do it. If you don’t think you have the resources to pull something like this off (or some other big idea you have), I challenge you. By virtue of reading this, you have the same resources I do. Just ask.

What about money, you say? Well the $20/person will cover the cost of the wine. The food is our holiday gift to our friends, family, and colleagues. And the winter clothing is free to collect and donate. Don't let money be an excuse. It's just a brain-teaser with many possible solutions.

The world can ill afford to wait for you to act. You have what you need. It is time to apply your education, knowledge, experience, and resources to improve humankind.

I wrote this one day in my journal a few months ago. The other day, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Just do it.

So, what goal or dream do you have that's just been lying around collecting dust? Leave us a note or a story in the comment section below.

Don't Let Your Feelings Get in the Way

- by Matt Leedham

“It’s not how you feel, it’s what you plan to do.” - Warren Rustand

I’m not going to harp on this one because it speaks for itself. Think about it.

“I don’t feel like going to the gym.”
“I don’t feel like getting up early to work on that business plan.”
“I don’t feel like going over to the in-laws this Sunday.”

If we all operated based on how we felt, guess where we’d be. Nowhere. It’s not how you feel, it’s what you plan to do. Each of us makes a conscious decision to tackle a goal or not based feelings, our gut emotions, desires, ambitions, etc. However, once the decision is made, feelings need to go out the window. Especially if you care about achieving the goal.

I’ve run two marathons in the last 5 years. The first one was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC. I “hit the wall” at mile 17 and limped my way to the finish line 9 miles later in 4 hours and 34 minutes. That was a very disappointing time for me – my goal was 4 hours. Why didn’t I achieve the goal?

Because I didn’t feel like pushing through the pain to achieve my goal. I stopped. I drank water. I stretched. I walked. I stopped again. And for the next few years, I regretted that I let my feelings get in the way of my goal.

This past February, I ran a marathon in Austin, TX. I crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 42 minutes. Why did I not only achieve my goal, but crush it?

Well, I certainly didn’t feel any different (or look in any less agony - see picture). I definitely wanted to stop, stretch, drink water, and give up. But this time, I would not let myself stop moving. I didn’t care that my pace was a 7:50 minute mile on miles 1-19, and then slowly decreased to 9:10 on miles 20-24. I told myself, “just keep moving.” And before I knew it, I was circling the Texas State Capitol building and sprinting down North Congress Avenue looking at that big, red, digital race clock…well under 4 hours.

I worked on that goal for 4 months through the harshest DC winter in decades. It was what I planned to do. I’ll be damned if I was going to let my feelings get in the way.

Don’t just dream it, achieve it!