The bell rings. There’s a pile of papers, a sea of emails in your inbox, and you just fought with the copy machine for twenty minutes. By the end of the day, you are probably trying to figure out how you made it.
Did you change a life today? It’s a ridiculous question because, after all, today was just about survival.
This is the trap that we fall into. We often wildly overestimate what we can accomplish in one day. And we tragically underestimate what we can accomplish by the end of June.
A single day just gets filled with noise. There’s usually fire-fighting, instant reactions, and a whole lotta triage.
But what about an entire school year? A whole year provides us with plenty of opportunity for some real long-term impact.
Did you change a life this year? seems a lot less ridiculous than asking Did you change a life today?
Our problem isn’t lack of passion or effort. It’s that we are struggling with our systems. We need to let the little things done consistently each day add up to something big over time.
There’s no magic bullet that will make today easier. There are, however, simple things that you can do every day to make a big impact.
Check in with that student every day for two minutes. Do it day after day, and you will change a life this year. That student will know someone cares.
Stop trying to win just today.
You want to become that unstoppable force by June?
It starts with realizing how much you can actually accomplish this year.
Rich
