From our guest contributor, Frank Sonnenberg. 

Everyone is born with the potential for greatness. What happens next is up to you. You get to choose which path you take, how high to set the bar for yourself, and how hard you’re willing to work to clear it. You get to decide how to spend your time, who to spend it with, and what you’re willing to forgo when time runs short. Every choice that you make and every action that you take has consequences, but who better to decide what’s best for you –– than you. It’s your life to live. Own it!

Securing the ultimate prize takes strength and courage. You’re going to face challenges that seem insurmountable and suffer setbacks along the way, but faith, hard work, and determination will see you through. Don’t listen to naysayers or allow others to lead you astray; follow your heart and let your dreams lead the way. You owe it to yourself to be the best you can be. You’ll travel this road only once. Believe in yourself and make yourself proud. There are no dress rehearsals in life.

Words to Live By

Here are 14 guideposts for your journey through life.

• Be your own person. Get real; be yourself. Consider the advice of others, but trust yourself in the end.
• Make yourself proud. Do your best; nothing less. Set standards of excellence that make the most important person –– you — proud.
• Keep good company. Surround yourself with positive people who genuinely care about your well-being and bring out the best in you.
• Find your passion. Pursue your dreams with fervor, and put your heart into everything you do. Everyone was put on this earth for a purpose…what’s yours?
• Make a difference. Be a positive force in people’s lives. It doesn’t require a gift from your wallet but rather, a caring heart.
• Prioritize your activities. Focus on the things that matter most. Everything on your plate isn’t of equal importance.
• Invest your time. Think of time as your most valuable currency, and invest it wisely.
• Be accountable. Accept responsibility for your behavior. When things go well, accept your well-deserved rewards. When they don’t, admit fault, learn from your mistakes, and move on.
• Face reality. Be the change that you want to be. If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see, don’t blame the mirror.
• Invest in yourself. Don’t stop educating yourself. Learn something new every day. You’ll be able to leverage that investment for the rest of your life.
• Be grateful. Appreciate what you have, while you have it, or you’ll learn what it meant to you after you’ve lost it.
• Make lots of memories. Take time to smell the roses. Possessions age and lose value over time; memories last forever.
• Remain true to your values. Compromise on your position, but not your principles. Listen to your conscience. That’s why you have one.
• Guard your reputation. Protect your reputation like it’s the most valuable asset you own. Because it is!

Live the Dream

Success and happiness don’t just happen by chance; you have to go out and earn them for yourself. No one says they’re simple or easy to attain; it takes courage, hard work, and dedication. The key is to set high standards, remain true to your values, listen to your conscience, and never stop trying. At the end of the day, it’s your life to live. Own it! You have to live with yourself for the rest of your life.

This is adapted from BOOKSMART: Hundreds of real-world lessons for success and happiness by Frank Sonnenberg released November 2016.

Frank is an award-winning author. He has written six books and over 300 articles. Frank was recently named one of “America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders” and one of America’s Most Influential Small Business Experts. Frank has served on several boards and has consulted to some of the largest and most respected companies in the world. Additionally,  FrankSonnenbergOnline was named among the “Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs,” among the “Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs,” and one of the “Best Inspirational Blogs On the Planet.” Frank’s new book, BookSmart: Hundreds of real-world lessons for success and happiness was released November 2016. © 2018 Frank Sonnenberg. All rights reserved.

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Summer vacation is here and now is the perfect time for kids to achieve a goal.  Ask your kids what goal they would like to achieve by the end of the summer.  It could be anything from learning to ride a bike, to reading a certain number of books, to making new friends, growing a garden, make money mowing lawns, or any number of other goals.  The following steps will help your kids create a plan to achieve their goal.

• Establish a goal. It should be realistic, specific, and measurable.  “Get better at reading” is not specific and measurable, but “Read 100 books by Aug. 20” is.
• Ask, what steps will you need to take in order to achieve that goal?  Are your steps in the right order?  Are your steps specific and measurable?  If you want to read 100 books by Aug. 20^th, how many books a week is that?  About how many minutes a day should you read?  What is a good time of day to do your reading?  The more specific the plan, the more likely the goal will be achieved.
• Ask, who can help you with your goal?  Who can hold you accountable to each step?
• Help students determine when and how they will measure their progress.

Helping students develop a goal achievement plan is a wonderful skill to develop.  Plus, students will feel great that they achieved something special!

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The other side of the wall
By: Randy Reynolds

There was a young woman who took great pride in the growth and care of the flowers in her flower garden. She had been raised by her grandmother who taught her to love and care for flowers as she herself had done. So, like her grandmother, her flower garden was second to none.

One day while looking through a flower catalogue she often ordered from, a picture of a plant immediately caught her eye. She had never seen blooms on a flower like that before. “I have to have it,” she said to herself, and she immediately ordered it. When it arrived, she already had a place prepared to plant it. She planted it at the base of a stone wall at the back of her yard.

It grew vigorously, with beautiful green leaves all over it, but there were no blooms. Day after day she continued to cultivate it, water it, feed it, and she even talked to it attempting to coax it to bloom. But, it was to no avail.

One morning weeks later, as she stood before the vine, she contemplated how disappointed she was that her plant had not bloomed. She was giving considerable thought to cutting it down and planting something else in its place. It was at this point that her invalid neighbor, whose lot joined hers, called over to her. “Thank you so much! You can’t imagine how much I have enjoyed the blooms of that vine you planted.”

The young woman walked through the gate into her neighbor’s yard, and sure enough, she saw that on the other side of the wall the vine was filled with blooms. There were indeed the most beautiful blooms she had ever seen. The vine had crept through the crevices and it had not flowered on her side of the fence, it had flowered luxuriantly on the other side.

Moral: Just because you can’t see the result of your hard work doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth the effort. 

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The end of the school year is a stressful time for many students and teachers. Exams, changing grade levels or moving to a new school, graduation and other changes can all induce stress. In these stressful moments, many of us retreat into ourselves so that we can focus, limiting communication with our friends and increasing our isolation.

Researcher Shawn Achor writes, “Time with family and friends…these are the first things to go when we’re in crisis mode. But even though we’re giving our work our undivided attention, our productivity is declining, and as the deadline nears, our goal seems to be slipping further and further out of reach. And so we hunker down, shut off our cell phones, retreat into the bunker of ourselves and double-lock the door.” Unfortunately, brain research tells us that this is exactly the WRONG thing to do. Achor writes, “The most successful people take the exact opposite approach.  Instead of turning inward, they actually hold tighter to their social support. Instead of divesting, they invest. Not only are these people happier, but they are more productive, engaged, energetic, and resilient.”

Stress is inevitable; we know it is going to happen.  It makes sense, then, to prepare for it – to make stress management proactive.  Here are five simple activities you can do as an individual, or with students, to help their brains focus on the positive, and thus be more resilient in the face of stress.

1. Acts of kindness – spend two minutes each day sending someone in your support network (family, friend, classmate, colleague, etc.) an e-mail or text praising or thanking them for something that person has done well
2. Journaling – spend five minutes writing down what positive moments you experience each day
3. 3 Gratitudes – share with a partner three new things you are thankful each day
4. Meditate – let your brain focus on one thing instead of many things
5. Exercise

For more information on proactively dealing with stress read Shawn Achor’s book The Happiness Advantage, or watch his TED Talk.

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