#MyChicagoMarathon No. 1

I am running the Chicago Marathon in October 2019!

For some people, running marathons are not a big deal. For me, this is a big deal. I wasn't always a runner. However, over time, I've become a runner. This will be my first marathon.

Previously, I've written multiple posts, the past couple of years, that connect my experiences as a runner to my role as an educator; in the near future, I'll make sure that I re-share the links to those posts in a one centralized location. Furthermore, starting now and throughout 2019, I'm going to devote my blog posts to telling the story of how and why I am running the Chicago Marathon.  I hope that you'll be interested, I hope that you'll follow along, and I hope that maybe you'll learn something as a result of my journey.

Coming-up, I plan to dedicate an entire post to why I'm running for charity and why I chose Action for Healthy Kids. In the mean time, check-out my page My Chicago Marathon for Action for Healthy Kids. Thanks!

Brush Your Teeth

On a fairly recent school night, my (eight-year-old) son got home late. He’d been at an Iowa Hawkeyes basketball game with his Grandpa, and by the time he got home it was well past his regular bedtime.

I told him he had to brush his teeth before getting into bed. He pushed back and asked to skip it, just tonight. I insisted; brush your teeth.

That’s the Slight Edge.

Not brushing his teeth that night, in isolation, isn’t a big deal. He would have brushed them in the morning, brushed them again the next night, and so on. However, it would have created a precedent. A precedent that would have made not brushing your teeth a little bit easier the next time there was a reason not to brush them.

But this post isn’t about brushing your teeth. It’s about the Slight Edge. The Slight Edge is a book that I recently read by Jeff Olson. I was turned-on to the book after learning how the University of Iowa football team used(uses) it to shape the culture of their program (article, linked). The book is good; it’s full of good ideas and principles that lead to self improvement.



The Slight Edge is does not involve any one monumental thing. Instead, the Slight Edge is doing the little things with such consistency that over time they become monumental. Notice that I said over time; the Slight Edge is about the process. It is about the long game, and not giving-up.

Through self discipline, the Slight Edge becomes possible. And having the Slight Edge results in success. It results in a success that is sustainable and endurable. It’s what our kids need (it's what we all need).

Love Being a Principal

This past semester, I had the good fortune of having Corey Topf do an internship with me. (Honestly, I think I may have benefited from the experience more than he did.) As we reflected on our time together, he asked me the following question - if my children were considering becoming a principal, is it something that I would encourage? Whoa!

Being a principal isn't easy. It is stressful, it is challenging, it is defeating, it is never ending, it is exhausting, it is more. I think that Baruti Kafele summarizes it pretty well in his Tweet (below). Even more telling are the responses that his Tweet generated; if you get a chance, scroll through some of them.

Circling back to the original question that Corey asked me, my answer was yes. My answer is yes. My answer will always be yes. I can't imagine anything better than a being a principal. Coincidentally, around the same time that Corey had asked me that question, I had just visited my son's second grade classroom to share about my job as a part of their unit of learning about communities.  The Slides pictured, below, outline the top ten things that I love about being a principal.

Being a principal can be hard. But there are things that we can do to combat those difficulties. My friend, and fellow principal Jessica Cabeen outlines a lot of those things in the recent post that she wrote for Edutopia, The Importance of Self-Care for Administrators (linked). The things that Jessica shares are real things that we NEED to do in-order to thrive. The reward can easily outweigh the risk. Doing those things, with the right attitude, mindset, perspective make it easy to love being a principal. And that's the bottom line, my advice to my kids, do what you love.

Process and Persistence - Pt. 2

I run. I run for my fitness/health - both physical AND mental. I run to compete - with the field of runners that I'm with during a road race AND with myself every time that I lace up my running shoes.

I've always considered myself a goal oriented person. Dating back to high school, I've written down my goals, and checked them off as I've accomplished them.

In regards to running, I used to set goals with variables of time and distance. My thinking was that I would either be able to reduce my time OR increase my distance. No, my thinking was that I would have to either reduce my time OR increase my distance. However, I was forgetting a key variable. My age. As I’m getting older (this is not a pity party for me, I'm still far from old), I’m finding it harder and harder to reduce my times. My goals shift to maintaining. My goals shift to just keep running.

Maya Angelou wisely said, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

I used to think being goal oriented was of the utmost importance. I know think that being process oriented is far more valuable.
I’ve had previous conversations with my friend and mentor, Adam Welcome, about the idea of writing a book. This, writing a book, is a life goal of mine. Adam’s advice is always the same: before you even start to think about writing a book, you just need to write, write, write, and write some more. This makes sense; this is being process oriented.

End goals can be paralyzing. They can be overwhelming, they can prevent you from getting started, and they can cause you to quit prematurely. And this is why the process is paramount. Don’t get caught up in the end results. Instead, enjoy each moment; be thankful for the opportunity.

When you’re committed to (this is persistence) and in love with the process, the results take care of themselves.