Monday, February 17, 2014

If you don't try you will never know...

We've all experienced it at one point or another.

We all know that feeling of hopelessness and despair.

As educators we naturally put ourselves out there... we naturally make ourselves vulnerable by trying what's never been tried before.

We take on and accept challenges most would run from.

As we push harder and take on more and more, we eventually find our limits.

We eventually find a challenge that despite our best efforts, we aren't able to overcome.

Even after reflection and trying multiple approaches, we discover that the best we have to offer isn't good enough... at least not good enough for that particular challenge.

Sure, we can try to predict which challenges we will be able to overcome and those we can't, but the reality is we will never know which challenges will prove to be beyond us until we try.

We won't know until we've tried and given it our best. We won't know until we've invested our full-selves into the challenge.

Now, here's the deal and here's what makes being an educator so important.

We aren't in the business of trying to figure out which challenges we can overcome and which ones we can't.

We are however in the business of stepping up and taking on challenges that appear to be insurmountable.

We are in the business of changing and positively impacting lives, and in order to do this, we must accept challenges without hesitation regardless of possibility of success.

Remember, if we don't give the challenge the best we have to offer, we will never know which challenges we can overcome, and which we can't...