Life Lessons "Wins and Losses"

I am writing this blog tonight after returning home from watching the Lady Goblins Soccer Team win the 5A Arkansas Soccer State Championship!   This has been an emotional high for me as the Asst. Principal of Harrison High School but mostly because my daughter is one of the Lady Goblins.

As I scanned social media, reading all of the posts shared by players and parents about the Lady Goblins victory, I read one that really struck home.  One of the Goblin football coaches Chris Keylon whose daughter also plays for the Lady Goblins Soccer Team posted on facebook about the event.  He mentioned how being named State Champion was something so few athletes will accomplish in their lifetime.  This made me reflect on winning and losing.

You see sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.  They both matter, but in life what matters is what you do with your wins and what you do with your losses.  When you win will you stay hungry and humble or will you become complacent because of your victory?

"Success breeds success," says Mia Hamm but it can also breed complacency if you forget the effort, sacrifice, and determination it took to win.  You cannot allow this to happen, instead you must channel these emotions into a quest for excellence.

Everyone will suffer losses from time to time, that's life.  Jon Gordon says "the key is to make the loss stand for something, LOSS (Learning Opportunity, Stay Strong)."  If you lose you need to learn from mistakes made and reflect on how you can improve.

Yes, I'm writing this blog because of the phenomenal soccer game I watched earlier today that ended in a victory for the Lady Goblins but this philosophy applies to life.

School is winding down, graduations are taking place, and futures are uncertain, so students and especially seniors take note of your wins and losses.  You will experience many wins and losses in your future, but life is about more than winning and losing.  It's primarily about the lessons learned, your actions and attitudes, your character reflected, the strength you build, and the person you become.

One Word

Transform is my OneWord for 2016.  Jon Gordon said, “Past success does not determine future success, you have to consistently improve if you want to consistently win.”  The only way to improve is to transform and become better.  I don’t mean change necessarily, change means to become different.  If you were successful in the past you don’t want to change what made you successful but you will need to consistently improve or transform to maintain excellence.  

Notice I didn’t say transform to maintain success, I used the term excellence?  Success is a term used when you compare yourself to others around you or in similar environments.  Excellence means performing to the best of your ability.  Can you see the difference?  You can be successful and still not perform to the best of your ability, so I think it’s important to clarify the difference.   

My goal is to transform, consistently improve, strive to the best I can be, and hopefully by doing so will help others transform to be the best they can be.  I want to assist students with their transformation through education to become lifelong learners and reach excellence by performing at the best of their ability.  The exciting thing is that every student's path to excellence is different so the transformation process for each student will be different. After all as Tom Deighan says, “Education transforms generations, and we are blessed to serve all in need, no matter their background or station or ability.”

I encourage you to choose OneWord for 2016.  Choose a word that centers on your character, assists you with developing goals, and creates a vision for your future as well as the future of those around you.