First of all, how did you do this past week with setting
more specific expectations but this time with clear examples? What did you learn by doing things a little
different? Could you see a difference in
the outcome? I’d love to hear your
discoveries.
Here’s a quick recap of our weekend in Illinois for Jon’s
birthday and the first football game of season two for Jason. We had a wonderful time with the
grandchildren playing, playing, and more playing. That meant climbing up the rock wall to the
top of the play set in order to go down the spiral slide. If you’re on
Facebook, there is evidence of our two year old grandson pushing Poppa down,
and Jon coming out at the end. Driving a mini gator was a definite hit, and the
kids were all great about taking turns driving around the yard. I love football
and the atmosphere of game day! The
Spartans kicked off at 6:00 Saturday night for the first home game. This is
only the second season EVER for the program Jason is building and though it was
a loss they did score a TD (it wasn’t until the second or third game before
that happened last year) in the first half. There were many positives, many glitches
and things to work on, but that’s all to be expected. The key is to learn, make adjustments, and
keep moving forward. So though it was a loss, we were extremely proud of Jason,
his coaching staff, the players, the support staff, the athletes’ parents who
made the trip, and the fans. Now it’s time to move forward for game 2.
I had a sign on the wall in the front of my classroom
for 15+ years that read, “You are not finished when you lose, You are finished
when you quit.” In my classroom, that
applied to reading, math, getting along with one another and all aspects of our
classroom team. Doesn’t that apply to
anything, really? In fact, I would have
celebrations when kids struggled because that meant mistakes happen, but they
needed to learn from those mistakes to move forward. They had the mindset that
quitting/giving up was not an option just because something was difficult. Their
mindset was, “What do I need to do to learn, to get better?”
We never learn and grow when we’re comfortable! When we get comfortable playing tennis, for
example, we need to take it up a notch and learn new skills or play a different
partner who will challenge us. When reading has now gotten easy, it’s time to
find a harder book to get to the next skill level. When our exercise routine is becoming routine,
it’s time to change things up. That may
mean sore muscles again, but that’s a small price to pay to get better. Of course, we can’t be challenging ourselves
in all areas of our life all the time, there have to be some areas of comfort,
but if we truly want to Be the Best we can be, staying comfortable is not
moving us forward. As I said last week,
that’s one of the many things I admire about Jon. He is not
willing to always stay comfortable.
Jason’s football athletes or any athlete in any
sport on any level will be challenged to push themselves, change bad
habits, learn a different way to do something, handle different expectations
with new coaches etc. etc. It’s different going from high school into
college. That mindset is totally
different as are the expectations and level of competition. The classroom from high school to college is
another huge leap. It takes a period of
time to adjust, however, those with a mindset of learning and growing and
increasing their skills with the focus on continually getting better will NEVER
quit.
Have you ever heard the word “intestinal fortitude?” That word
seems to definitely apply to what I’m blogging about this week. The dictionary
definition is “courage and endurance to go on.”
Rosa Parks had intestinal fortitude when she refused to give up her seat
on the bus. The three Americans on the
train in France who brought down the terrorist had intestinal fortitude. Each
day you hear of someone fighting back a cancer diagnosis, a stroke victim
pushing forward to gain speech or movement in their arms and legs, it’s a
parent with a disabled child making life special, our service men and women who
are daily fighting for our freedom, the middle school students who stand up for
a fellow student that’s being bullied.
Each of these situations are people who have intestinal fortitude. They are people with courage, they are people
who continue on with what’s right and will not quit no matter what.
So what about needing courage and endurance to handle
criticism, gossip, and others trying to pull us down because we’re a threat to
their comfort level? What about the people who are jealous that we are losing
weight and getting fit? What about the people who are threatened by our success
in the classroom and that we will have a degree at the end of the four
years? What about those “wanna be”
athletes who aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to be successful, so they
try to pull the rest of us down with them? Don’t each of these situations, and
more, take intestinal fortitude?
I admire these people who are focused on doing what’s
right and yes, they have intestinal fortitude.
They are not listening to those who are trying to pull them down. From a piece Maria Shriver wrote earlier, “These
people who have intestinal fortitude go through life with a steady, strong
integrity. They don’t rage at people or
call them names, bully or belittle them.
They walk through life with a strength that is captivating.”
What if we each made the decision to focus on our own intestinal
fortitude? What might that look like? It
could mean strengthening our personal faith.
It could mean staying strong, centered, and focused on what we want in
life. It could mean not listening to jealous relatives who secretly want to see
us fail. It could mean ignoring the
naysayers and not even giving them the time of day. It could mean focusing more
time on what’s right than what’s wrong, what’s a blessing rich in gratitude,
and it definitely means not getting caught up in the drama that seems to get
attention. Can we learn, as Maria says,
to “respond, not with anger or weakness, but from a place of intestinal
fortitude? After all, that is where the strength is, that’s where true power
lives.”
Here’s to your week of strengthening your own person
intestinal fortitude. Will you move
forward, never short change yourself, and NEVER QUIT?
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