Don't Become a Cynic

As Ferris Bueller famously said,

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." 

This is especially true for educators, which is why reflecting (and blogging) is an important aspect of our job. Years come and years go at an ever increasingly rapid pace. I often times find it hard to pin point certain events that have influenced who I've become.  Yet, surprisingly, I can still recall sitting at my desk during my first year as a principal while having a phone conversation and thinking - I'm becoming a cynic.

This is NOT who I was. Nor was it who I wanted to become.

As a district and a school, this year, we've been spending a lot of time talking about our why. Why do you do what you? What drives you? What inspires you? What motivates you? What is your why? At the simplest level, mine is to make a difference in other people's lives; to inspire them.

We have to always keep that (our why) in the forefront of our minds. Because if we don't, it's easy to lose sight of our why. It's easy to get bogged-down with the day-to-day grind, and consequently forget about our why.

I like to think that I am a pretty positive and optimistic person. This doesn't happen by accident. We have to be intentional with our actions to remain positive and optimistic. We have to be intentional.

How? Here are some tips that help me always stay positive and optimistic.

• Be connected - Find your tribe. find your like minded people, find your people that inspire you, find your people that push you to be a little better each day. Lean on these people, problem solve with these people, share with these people, and most importantly celebrate with these people.
• Be balanced - Education (life) can be stressful. Find things that provide you with an outlet. Exercise, read, write, spend time with family and friends; whatever it is, do the things that you enjoy.
• Be kind to others - Assume others are giving their best effort; assume others have positive intent. Always seek to understand.
• Be kind to yourself, too - "Give yourself the grace to be imperfect." You aren't going to be perfect; no one is. Focus, instead, on getting better, bit-by-bit, day-by-day.
• Be grateful - Think about all of the things that you have. Not everyone has all of these things. We sometimes get so caught up in all of the stuff that it can be easy to lose sight of this. Don't forget, perspective is key to life.
• Look for the good - Because the more intentional you are about looking for good, the more good that you will find. 
• Choose your attitude - Life happens. Situations occur that are outside of our control. Furthermore, we don't have control over other people. We do, however, always have control over how we respond. We have the power to choose the attitude that we embody.