Did you know that you are sitting on top of a mountain of treasure? You are! I am! Each of us sits perched precariously on a ginormous fourtune of wealth that can lead us to success and happiness beyond anything we've experienced thus far and it's waiting patiently to be discovered.
What is this treasure? It is our potential. It is our dreams. It is all that we can be each and every individual day.
What would life be like if each of us lived every second of each day to our fullest potential in pursuit of our dreams? What if we stopped worrying about tomorrow and just focused on the opportunities wrapped up in today? Imagine the possibilities.
Today I was reminded that time is money and there are 86,400 seconds in each day. Would I passively lay down a dollar with each passing second? No way. So why do I passively lay down my seconds? Why do I spend my seconds thinking about what could have been yesterday or what might be tomorrow when there is NOTHING I can do about those things? That is time poorly spent. I've been wasting my treasure. I've been wasting my potential and my dreams on what was and what might be when all I can really know is today...right now...this second.
Today, I begin a new investment plan. I will choose to look for possibility in the world around me. Each day is full of possibilities that can explode at any moment into new ideas and new realities, but the question must be asked - when that moment comes, will we be ready to Carpe Diem? Will we seize the day? We certainly won't if we're not even thinking about today! Let's choose to be ready. These pockets of potential within our lives are treasures worth seeking. Let's allow today to be the first day of many in which we choose not to sit idly as the seconds tick by, but to actively explore our present realities to find the potential in our lives so that as opportunities come, we are ready to live each moment to our fullest potential in pursuit of our dreams.
What is it that you dream? Right now, to be prefectly honest, I'm not sure what my "dream" is except that I would love to do something great. Something worth remembering. I was told that great things are accomplished by ordinary people with extraordinary determination. I choose to believe that I, an ordinary person, can accomplish great things if I have extraordinary determination. Why do I beleive that? Because others have shown it to be true and if it's true for them, why shouldn't it be true for me? Why shouldn't it be true for you? It can be true today. I can have extraordinary determination today to go the extra mile with my students, my work, my Shelby, my husband. I won't think about past failures and I won't worry about where I'll get my determination tomorrow. Today, I am determined and that just might lead to something great. Are you determined? Get determined with me. I know it's not easy, but it's worth the hunt, and we'll do it together.
This week's treasure - determination: Hunt for the story of an ordinary person who has accomplished something great because of their extraordinary determination. Tell their story here.
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In my quest for a story to post, I thought about all of the amazing speakers I heard at my recent staff conference. So many treasure nuggets of greatness and examples of people who've accomplished a lot because of their determination. As I considered their stories, I realized that they have crossed out of the realm of "ordinary people" in my mind and I chose not to include their stories. You can easily find recognized greatness these days. So...I decided to hunt for a truly ordinary person and my mind drifted to my students...one in particular. Brittany H. is a 10th grade homeschooled student who takes all of her classes online at FLVS. She is on multiple medications to help her manage the many curve balls that life has thrown her way. These medications make it very difficult for her to focus on anything, much less Geometry! When she started my class, she and her grandmother informed me that math was not her best subject and that she'd just like to pass so she could move on with the rest of her life. As she began working through the course, she grew more and more uncomfortable and contacted me almost daily with concerns that she was not going to be able to pass her tests and her exam. She decided to go to tutoring to review before every oral component and test leading up to the final. When she reached the exam, she told me how excited she was to have a passing grade but that she was still nervous about the exam. She decided that she would take her practice test as a trial and would get tutoring for every question she missed over and over until she could get a passing grade on the practice exam. She went through that process 3 or 4 times before she was comfortable enough to take the exam. When she finished the very challenging exam, she called me, screaming! She had not only passed, but she had earned a C! This hard earned victory encouraged her to study more and resubmit just a few things to bring her overall semester grade to a C. This was the first time in her long FLVS history that she had passed a math exam on her first attempt. Because of her commitment and determination, she achieved personal greatness in my class and I will be telling her story long after she graduates high school.
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