Stubbornness Can Get You Far

Standing outside of a church, I was a nervous 21-year-old kid in a tuxedo that today I would know didn't fit as well as it should. To break the ice before we went inside, my soon-to-be-wife's father made a joke and told me that I was going to make a great first husband for her. I think a lot of people had that in the back of their minds that day and before. She was only 20 then and we had gotten engaged when she was just 19. We were young and dumb, but you couldn't tell us anything.

My wife, Erika, and I celebrated our 15th anniversary this week, and while that's no huge feat by any means, I do think that it's a bit farther than a lot of people expected back then. We are both very different people today than we were then, but one trait that we both have has remained. We are both very stubborn. We hate admitting defeat on anything. Just ask our kids. We are not above cheating in games with them to win. While that trait is sometimes viewed in the same realm of closed-mindedness, when it is applied positively, we often change the word to persistence.

Doing something new in your classroom is often not easy. As adults we are resistant to change and even when we know that change could be a good thing, we stop with early obstacles. At the start of the year, Mrs. Garcia issued a 30-day challenge to make your objectives at the forefront of your lessons and in your instruction. Some of you took up that challenge, and others set it aside for now. Some persisted, and others did not. The great thing about it is that you can start again today. If you do start again, try being stubborn about it. Don't think of it as a task or a change. Think of it as a challenge. I'm sure that some of you are like me and if you went into it with the mentality of a parent in a game of monopoly against an 11-year-old, you would do anything to win. Or maybe you're more sentimental. Then you could use the mentality of a 21-year-old kid, stubborn enough to marry a 20-year-old girl, and stubborn enough to make it work. Either way, put your stubbornness to work for you. Sometimes you never know just how far it could take you.