As a former classroom teacher, I focused a lot of my efforts on building relationships with students and preparing them for life. Every day we would start our class with a character education quote. I would have the students copy the quote. As they copied the quote, I would share some thoughts about the quote, the person responsible for the quote, and how the quote related to life (often by sharing personal experiences). The students’ were encouraged to reflect on how that quote could be applied to their life. At the end of every year, I received many thank you notes from students, with most of the notes specifically mentioning the life lessons learned from the character education. Over the next several weeks, I will share some quotes that have impacted me over the years. Hopefully, they can have a positive impact on your life as well.
- “There are three things you control everyday: your ATTITUDE, how HARD YOU WORK, and how you TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY.” – Pat Summitt
Life itself is very challenging. It moves at a very fast pace, and quite often it seems as if we don’t have a lot of control over the things that happen on a daily basis. Fortunately, Pat Summitt shared this advice. Pat Summitt was the head basketball coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers form 1974-2012. During her tenure, she won 1,098 games and led the Lady Volunteers to 8 national championships. This quote reminds us that there are 3 things we can control on a daily basis: our attitude, how hard we work, and how we take care of our body. Attitude is so important to our success in any endeavor. I always encouraged my students to have an attitude of gratitude. From the very moment we wake up, we should be thankful for the breath of life and just the chance to live another day. We need to have the mindset of “I get to go to ______ today” instead of “I’ve got to go to _____ today.” As a wise person once told me, no one can ruin your day without your permission. A second thing we can control on a daily basis is how hard we work, or as John Wooden espoused in The Pyramid of Success, how industrious we are. Every day, we each have a choice to outwork everyone else. I’m thankful for that. I’m not the most talented in many of the things I do, but I’m going to try and outwork everyone. It’s a mindset of everything that I’m associated with is a reflection on me, so I’m going to do everything in my power to be successful. A third and final thing we can control is how we take care of our body. As a good friend of mine still says to this day, “God only gave us one body. It’s up to us how we take care of it. Are we getting enough sleep? Are we exercising frequently? What is our diet? How conscious are we about exposure to the sun? Are we reflecting on the things we are putting in our bodies? The questions could go on and on, but inevitably, we control the answers to those questions.
Please feel free to share your comments and any examples that have made a big difference in your life. I hope you have a great day.