I know by looking at me you would probably not know that
almost every morning around 4:15am, you can find me at the gym. Around 5am, the gym starts to get crowded,
but for those first thirty minutes you can usually just find me and just one
other person. He and I don’t know each other well. Until recently I didn’t even
know his name. He and I have exchanged pleasantries through the months, but we are
in our own world. He watches CNN with closed caption while I have my beats on
trying to survive running, well fast walking, either on the treadmill or elliptical.
In the last few weeks, he and I have started to talk more.
If I am completely honest, it really started one morning when I was having a
difficult morning and was crying on the elliptical. He came over to check on me
and ended up, probably not expecting it, hearing my sad story of the last year
of my life. He was just precious, and since that moment, he and I are now gym
buddies. Again, we don’t bother each other, we just check in with each other
and then go about our workouts. He lost his wife about a year and a half ago to
cancer and is having some issues connecting with his adult children since he
has realized the relationship with his children had been through his wife.
Without his wife he realized he didn’t know his children and they didn’t know
him.
Last week, I was running a bit late-like really late-I
arrived at 5am. He came over to me to check on me and I detailed that I was up
rather late dealing with an 8th grader’s project and then had
difficulty staying asleep so the 3:45am wake up call didn’t go so well. He
laughed. Detailed some stories of his parenting days and then he said something
that stopped me in my tracks. He hoped that tomorrow I would be able to get out
of bed rather than push snooze and get to the gym and then he stated, “the best
way to say no to something is to have a burning yes to something else.”
I mulled over that statement all day…..the best way to say
no to something is to have a burning YES to something else. So many factors of
my personal life could be summed up with that statement. But, as the day went
on and I dealt with the day, I realized that that statement really, really
applies to school as well. We are often,
as educators, asked to add more to our plates. But do we ever stop to analyze
if 1. It is worth doing and 2. If our plates can hold one more thing. Going
into my second year as principal, I set three goals for our school. These goals
were not randomly selected, they were based on data, teacher conversations and
goals, district initiatives, and best practice. It is so easy for me to say no
to many ideas, initiatives, pilots, or volunteers because I have a burning
desire to say YES to things that will help us reach our goals.
This statement…..the best way to say no to something is to
have a burning YES to something else…… has been in my brain every day since
last week. I can’t stop thinking about it….So I ask you…what is your burning
YES. Do you have one? I hope you do.
That YES is your WHY, and if you don’t have one, you’re missing out on so very
much.
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