The start of School:

Another year is upon us and the staff appears to be ready to go in full swing.  Every teacher I've known always is excited and anticipates the start of school.  With our late starting it does seem odd to already have our football and volleyball scrimmages and a volleyball tournament prior to the start of classes.  We wish for everyone involved to have a successful year.

I came across an article in the Harvard Business Review which really stuck with me and it wasn't talking about school but could apply to whatever endeavor you wish to apply it to, whether it is school, business, sports, or professional growth.

The Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything:

1.  Pursue what you love.  Passion is an incredible motivator.  It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

2.  Do the hardest work first.  We all move toward pleasure and away from pain.  Find delayed gratification by taking on the difficult work in the morning, before you do anything else.  That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.

3.  Practice intensely.  Try to go no more than 90 minutes without interruption then take a break.  Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring highest level of focus to any given activity.  Great performers usually never practice over 4.5 hours a day.

4.  Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses.  The simpler an more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments.  Too much feedback, to continuously, however, can create cognitive overload.

5.  Take regular renewal breaks.  Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning.

6.  Ritualize practice.  Will and discipline are wildly overrated.  As research tells us, none of us have too much of it.  The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them-build specific, inviolable times at which you do them.

I hope one or all of these strikes a cord and helps you along life's journey.