David Goggins

I have a bit of a preoccupation with people that are the best at what they do. I think that it is fascinating to think about the effort that a person has to put into a skill to be the best in the world at it. We often think of these achievements in the form of athletics, especially during the Olympics when a World Record is broken. But to be honest, I'm interested at people that are the greatest at really anything. If you're the world best laundry folder, I want to know what inspired you to accomplish that. That's why I was totally hooked when Dr. Creech sent me a link to a U.S. soldier/athlete that has become the world's greatest endurance athlete.

When the Navy Seals ask you to be their poster boy, you know you've made it. David Goggins is the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces that has ever completed SEAL training, U.S. Army Ranger school and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. He has completed and placed or won many ultra marathons (many of which are over 100 miles), triathlons, ultra triathlons, mountain ascents and bike races. He even holds a Guinness World Record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours. (He did 4,030 in 17 hours before he ripped his hands). Certainly someone with this impressive resume is just talented right? Don't be so sure. David grew up in a physically abusive home and a brutally racist town. He had asthma and sickle cell trait making his health feeble at times. He had a learning disability and barely graduated high school. After high school he sprayed for roaches for a living and grew to 300 lbs. Then he decided to change his life. (Check out his video here. David is known for his "colorful" language, but this video is clean.)

So when he has run all of the races and won all of the awards, when you are known as the Toughest Athlete on the Planet, is it time to retire? Not a chance. For David, it's not about winning acclaim or medals. It's about achieving his personal best. Each race or competition is a test to see what he is made of. He's only racing himself.

So this is a great story, but how does it relate to you and us? I don't realistically expect any of you to feel that you must become the world's best teacher. Being the world's best is insanely rare. What we can learn from David is that anyone can get better and that getting better can happen at any level. The only real ingredient necessary is the determination and desire to be better. We spend a lot of time talking about making students better, but probably not enough time talking about making ourselves better. It comes up a few times a year for your PDP or after an evaluation. But "Goggins-like" growth requires daily attention and evaluation. You have to pay attention to it. That is something we all can do for ourselves.

I Quit

The new year brings about all kinds of thoughts of self improvement for many of us. Our resolutions seek to make us healthier, more focused on a goal or more relationship oriented. We all want to do something better. While most of us may not focus our resolutions on professional goals, the start of a new semester may be a good time to make some classroom resolutions. What do you want to do better or different this semester? Once you determine that, accomplishing and sticking to that goal will likely be more difficult than setting it.

I recently read a great article (you can read it here) about quitting. Not quitting because things are hard or did not go your way, but quitting something because stands between you and your big goals. Doing something new often requires us to stop doing something old, and we often miss that part. Being an educator takes up a great deal of time and that is something that we cannot create. If we need more time to prepare lessons, provide feedback, call parents or implement a new method, we have to quit doing something else. If we are not strategic about what we quit, we will likely either fail at our goal or miss out on something else that was an unintended loss. Think of it this way, if you want to exercise more in the morning, you have to quit hitting the snooze button. If you want to lose weight, you have to quit eating junk food. If you want to read more, you have to watch TV less. When you are goal setting for the start of the new semester, be strategic. What will you stop doing, in order to accomplish something new?