I was recently reminded of this quote when a friend posted it on social media.  I first heard this saying many years ago.  I love words and am a firm believer in surrounding myself with positive statements and visual images.  As a middle school principal, when I heard this quote, I thought it would be a superb choice to use ending the morning announcements each day.  Day after day after reading announcements about club meetings and daily events, I paused and said, “Make it a great day or not…the choice is yours.” 

Silly me…I believed that all of my middle school students would make the right choice and choose to have a great day.  Yet day after day,

Let’s face it.  We all go through tough times in our lives.  For those of you who say, “I’ve had a great life and nothing really bad has happened to me.”  I would say, “Hold on! Your time is coming.” 

The one Latin phrase that I really remember from my two years of Latin in high school is:  “Vita est Dura.”  Life is hard.  I have found it true that scattered among the joyous times of life are the tough times.

I have neglected my blog for quite some time, because frankly the tough times have overwhelmed me.  It is only by looking back at how God has carried me through other tough times, that I am certain He will carry me now.  Both in our personal and “leader” lives we will be faced with tough times.  How on earth can we push through?

I am not sure what it is about summer that makes us take a step back and be a little more lackadaisical.  Someone coined the phrase the “Lazy Days of Summer” but I prefer to look at summer as a respite for the soul.  If you have or have had any connection to education – even being the parent of a school-aged child, you know the excitement that comes with the last day of school and summer vacation.  There seems to be permission to do less.  It becomes ok to lie in the grass and look at the shape of the clouds, catch lightening bugs at twilight, and if you live in my household, run out at night to watch the space station fly over.  I will say that summer is the time that I tend to disengage from the world letting my mind wander allowing my creative thinking to sprout with ideas.  When we push ourselves and are constantly on go, we squeeze out the time for our creative brain to do its work.

Tervis Tumblers…not a promotion or any kickback for my thoughts, but they impressed me this week with their integrity.  Integrity is a key ingredient for sound leadership.  Integrity is defined as the adherence to moral and ethical principals; soundness of moral character; honesty.  Good leaders cast a vision (they say what they do or are going to do) and they do what they say (with integrity).  It’s funny how the day-to-day experiences of life can instruct us if we pause long enough to realize it.

We own a plethora of Tervis Tumblers and use them on a daily basis.  While they are not fine crystal, I like that coasters are not needed to protect my furniture and my drinks stay cold longer.  We have a small group that gathers at our house on Monday nights and since there are a variety of designs on our glasses, everyone gets their own glass with a different design and it makes it easy to determine which glass is yours.  Tervis advertises a lifetime guarantee on their product.  While I knew this, I had never put it to the test.  As a glass became defective, I set it aside and thought I should send it back.  After ten years, I had seven glasses in a pile to return someday. Since I am finally retired, I decided that someday was now, so I went to the Tervis website and easily found the information needed to return the glasses.

Now, leadership and integrity were put to the test.

Whether you are the leader of an organization, the leader of a classroom, a leader in your church or the leader of your children, you will always have the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and take a risk.  Will you take the risk or play it safe?   Recently, I decided to head to the beach with some girl friends of mine.  One of them researching the area wanted to know if I had ever been to the Flora-Bama (a bar on the Florida/Alabama line).  My comment was, “I have driven by it many times.”  She then informed me that we would be in town on the weekend of their annual “mullet toss”.  Now I must admit that I had heard and wondered about the mullet toss, but had never been in town during this particular event.  While I am not a bar person, the thought of watching people fling a fish across state lines did interest me somewhat.

People who influenced my leadership style over the years did so because something they said impacted my thought process significantly and I saw first hand how they lived what they spoke.   One such leader was Dr. Mary Bracegirdle.  I was a young assistant principal and she was a Director of Middle School Education.  Dr. Bracegirdle was passionate about middle school students and the learning that took place for this age group.  Often she would say about the students, “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”

No matter your field or area of leadership, that statement will prove itself to be true.  You may be an incredibly knowledgeable leader, but if you don’t have relationships with those you lead, they really don’t care what you know or care to implement what you ask.  How then as a parent, a teacher, a leader can you create the environment that demonstrates that what you have to share is worth receiving?  First…