I always end my vlog with my personal mantra, “The world is waiting for your greatness. Be great today.”

Every day we have a choice to make. It begins the moment we step foot out of bed and encompasses our decisions for the next 24 hours. How we spend our time, those we choose to speak to, whether we go to the gym, and how much time we spend nurturing the relationships in our lives are all decisions we make daily that contribute to our greatness. Research states that the average adults makes about 35,000 decisions per day. With that being said, my conviction is that I strive to make decisions and choices that will benefit those I care about most – my family, the school community I serve, and the world at large. How do you do this with fidelity? I think at the core of being great are a few savvy life hacks.

  1. Know your “why” and let it guide your choices and decision-making. I love Simon Sinek’s TED Talk about How Great Leaders Inspire Action. A great video shares his research on the impact of starting with “why.”
  2. Watch what you are feeding yourself (both literally and figuratively). We have all heard the saying, “You are what you eat,” but I believe this is also true of the things we feed our minds. It even extends to our self-talk and the conversations we choose to engage in daily.
  3. Commit to a growth-mindset. Carol Dweck’s research on growth-mindset has been quoted by several scholars and is a phenomenal work on how “teaching people to have a ‘growth mind-set,’ which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.” In short, it is the practice of striving to be better daily and learning from each experience.
  4. Pursue your purpose with passion. Once you have figured out your purpose, let nothing stop you from accomplishing your goals. Pursue it with a single-minded focus and fervor that cannot be diminished. Prepare. Practice. Pursue. Prosper. I watched Angela Duckworth’s TED Talk on Grit a few years ago. Once her book was published, I read it from cover to cover. It was life changing. I highly recommend it to anyone. It gave me the words to describe how I feel about my work and pursuits. It also gave me a guide to increasing my productivity and living a grittier and fuller life.

I leave you with these questions. What practices attribute to your greatness? Do any of these resonate with you? What will you do to live your “why?” How will you monitor what you feed yourself (literally and figuratively)? How can you begin to either cultivate or share growth-mindset thinking? What does your pursuit of passion look like?

Until Next Time. The world is waiting for your greatness! Be great today!