Well then, that was rude! 😀

This year, while the students have been superb, their underlying behaviors (drugs, self-harm, drinking, etc.) have caused sleepless nights, as have behaviors our legislature, those in charge of bargaining, and my own family! So yes, I’ve purged way too much (and probably gotten myself on some NSA lists too). So thank you for sticking with me! After a recent post, I went home, had dinner with my family, got some graduation announcements ready to mail, and today, talked with a few of my friends from the other end of the building. In other words, I got to work on my own attitude.

Then this article showed up on my email: 8 Reasons no one cares you’re tired: Letter from an Olympian

#dang

Talk about timely. If you’ve not had a chance to read or watched Lindsey Wilson, you need to. She’s a dynamic speaker and knows her stuff in terms of mental performance training and coaching. She’s also the co-owner of Positive Performance Training, a web site dedicated to positive mental training programing. She knows her stuff and content is spot on in terms of what people need to create better lives.

Anyway, three points jumped out at me from this letter:

  1. It’s not all about you, but it is. Point number one states, “It’s not about you, so get over it.” However, the remaining points ARE about you! They are about your mood, your effort, your attitude, and about how you deal with failure. In many ways, it’s not about you. No one really cared (but you my fine readers) that I’ve struggled, but I cared, and I cared enough to start working on those struggles.
  2. By making it about you (or me), you start to gain control over the things that are causing you struggles. I had a BIG old list of things I’ve been chewing on in my head as I should be sleeping. My students know how much control they have (very little), but the one they DO have control over is mood/attitude. It’s one of those things that is uniquely theirs and they have that power to make themselves happy, sad, miserable, ecstatic, or anywhere in between. If they allow others to distract them, they give up that power to make those decisions stick.
  3. Finally, I loved #4: Your missions doesn’t care if you are tired. In my 8th grade class, we’ve talked a lot about high school, what it’s going to take to graduate, and how that diploma doesn’t care if you are tired. You are going to have to work to figure out how to balance Mom and Dad with basketball with school work with band with having a social life. And it starts May 31 when you walk out of our middle school! Do you think your comp paper cares that you had a big game? It’s not going to write itself. Do you think that the math in your bad cares that you want to see a movie? Those problems don’t figure themselves out either.

I enjoy posts like this, because I get to spout off about the power of being positive, but I give myself a chance to reflect as well. I know my mindset isn’t good right now (my stress eating, restless sleep, etc.) but yet, I also know much of this is due to the end of the school year, our daughter graduating, and my lack of fitness.

So, end of the school year, not much I can control there. Graduation, some control, but again, not much. My fitness, heck yes, LOTS of control there. This summer, there’s some rebuilding of the tired old body to fight old age! 🙂 But until then, it’s smiling, finding the joy, and enjoying each moment with my 8th graders and family, because they don’t care that I’m tired either. All they want, all they expect, it Dad/Darin/Mr. J at the top of his game.

And who am I to let them down? 🙂