Teaching Champions Summer Rewind

I'm Brian Martin, a second grade teacher who find so much joy and fulfillment in what I do. Being in the classroom for almost 20 years, I know all about the time, effort and energy that you are continuously pouring into those you serve. That's why each week, I'm going to bring you an inspiring message to give you a little joy, and help fill your cup back up. Thank you for being here. And welcome to the teaching champions podcast. What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. This week has been perfect. The sun's been shining, it's been that perfect temperature. And it's that time when you step outside, and it just makes you feel good. And it was nice, because I got to get outside and take a lot of walks and some great runs. And while I was out, I ran into a friend I haven't seen in a while, which was awesome. Let me ask you this. Have you ever walked away from a conversation and men like, you know your teacher when? Well, I definitely had to laugh at myself after I walked away from this conversation. So my friend and I are talking and he mentions that he just started playing drums in the band. Now I have so much respect for those who have musical ability, because I have zero rhythm. And my musical talents have a lot to be desired. So whenever I hear about someone having these skills, it always intrigues me. And he goes on to say that he bought a drum set for his kids. And eventually he had started fooling around with it. By watching some YouTube videos, he was able to pick up some different techniques. And he was able to learn to play several different songs. So he basically taught himself how to play. And at this point in the conversation, I'm all in because I can talk about growth mindset all day long, and hearing real life examples of it. It fires me up. So he then takes it to a whole new level. He says that he doesn't know how to read sheet music, that he learns how to play the songs just by listening to. So I asked them, How did that first gig go. And he smiled a little bit. And he said he was getting ready to play in his hand started shake, that his legs started shaking a little bit. And he sat there. And he said to himself, I think I'm nervous. And that's a weird feeling. Because being in his 40s, he said he really doesn't get nervous anymore. And I think that's true for most of us. As adults, we become more comfortable within our own skin. And the older we get, the more we bend through. So we don't get those butterfly feelings that we used to get when we were younger. And my friends said this was great, though, because it forced him out of his comfort zone. It pushed. And he said it was so worth it. And you could see it in his face. And it was such an awesome conversation. And a great reminder is easy for us to get comfortable. And it's easy for us to stay within our comfort zone. And honestly, if we don't make an effort to push ourselves outside of that comfort zone, to do those things that aren't easy. Then we fall into the trap, where it's the same thing day in and day out. It was such a great reminder. Because in that conversation, you could see it, you could feel it, that on the other side of putting ourselves out there feeling uncomfortable, and trying new things. There's so many great rewards. That being said, Today, we're going to wrap up the summer series in some parts of the country, you have started back to school and for everyone else, we're starting to gear up to get back there. So we're going to review some of the takeaways that we've covered this summer. And these past few episodes have been dedicated to you and strategies that we can work on for our own health. And it's always important to remember that we can only give what we have So if we don't take care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, then our effectiveness and what we can give to others, it's going to be limited. If you've listened to some of the previous episodes, you'll know that there were some parallels that ran throughout several of the books that we covered. Whether it was from Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz to soundtracks by john a cough, or how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie, one of the main threads within these books was the power of the words we use. One of the Four Agreements is be impeccable with your words, what we say it matters, our words, influence they build up, they can light a fire and others, or they can leave a painful scar. And unfortunately, not all words are equal. I heard a speaker compare the difference between positive words and the negative words we hear. He said, when we hear positive words, we can act like Teflon. In those words, they feel good, but they can bounce right off. But when we hear the negative statements, is often like Velcro. With those words, they stick to us. Think about that in your own life. At the end of the day, if you've heard praise from people right and left, but there was that one interaction that you had that didn't go well. And some stuff was said, What are you most likely to remember? More than likely, you remember that hurtful conversation. So it's important that we remind ourselves of those positive interactions we had, and learn to let go of the hurtful ones. But it should also be a reminder, what you say, matters. What you saying, in every interaction matters. We're human, we're not always going to say the right thing. There's gonna be things we say that we regret. So what we need to do is we need to recognize it, we need to own it. We need to make amends for grow from it, and try to do better next time. Now, being impeccable with our words, doesn't just mean how we speak to others. The most important words that you speak, are the words that you say to yourself. Too often, the words that you say to yourself are things that you would never say to another person, but you say them to yourself. And many times, we don't even recognize what we speak into ourselves. You may not recognize how you weaken yourself, how you speak down on yourself, how the thing that you have been telling yourself over and over again for years, is wrong. So remember what john Aiko said about looking at the soundtracks that we speak to ourselves. If you want to know if you have a disempowering inner chatter, ask yourself these four questions. One, is it true? Is this thought then I'm saying to myself true? Is it true 100% of the time? Is my thought helpful? Is it making you better in any way, shape, or form? And last is this thought kind. Some of your thoughts may be broken, they may be disempowering you. So analyze your thoughts. And if it's making you weaker, get rid of it. So be impeccable. With the words you speak to yourself. In the words you speak to others. Your words they have power, your words, they matter. We also talked about tips and strategies that Olympic athletes use to perform at their highest level. Think about gymnast J. Carey, the young lady who was part of the women's gymnastics team, she was favored to come home with a metal on the vault. And she goes out there. And she messes up. Her timing was off, and it threw her whole execution off. And she flubbed up and she walks over to her coaches, and you just see the tears running down her face. You know, we watch these Olympics. And we can't comprehend what these athletes have had to do to get to this level, the 1000s upon 1000s of hours that they've spent working on their craft, all the sacrifices that they've had to do. And in one brief moment that all slips away. And not only does that happen, but this young lady knows, all her family and friends are watching along with millions of people around the world. Imagine how you would have felt if that was you. And as I watch Jade, my heart broke for her. But less than 24 hours later, she's competing in the floor exercise. And this was an event that she was even supposed to medal it. And she goes out there, and she wins the gold. Think about what that took to be able to go from being devastated by your performance, where I'm sure after that the vault event, she had to deal with so many difficult emotions. And then less than 24 hours later, she goes back out there refocuses herself, and is the best in the world at the floor exercise. It's amazing. We were able to see the physical aspect of her performance because that's visible, we can see that. But the mental awareness, the mental strength, the ability to come back and do what she did was so impressive. And after the event, they asked her about how she was able to overcome the pain of the day before. And she said I had to let go of yesterday, and focus on today. And that's sage advice for all of us. Let go of yesterday, and focus on today. And remember, just as Olympians do, make sure you celebrate the wins, and not just those big ones, the small ones, that helps maintain motivation helps maintain drive. And when you need a jolt of self confidence, relive the successful moments, create personal highlight reels. Take time to see yourself succeeding in your mind. This is gonna help remind you of what you're capable of. As we were talking earlier, you also want to monitor that inner chatter. One thing that athletes like Jay Carey, have learned to do is talk to themselves, not listen to themselves. You have a dialogue that's constantly running through your mind. Sometimes we're conscious of it. And sometimes we're not. But it's there. And if it's left unchecked, it can hold yourself back. So make sure you control that narrative. You control those words that you speak to yourself. So be your biggest cheerleader, and bring out the best in yourself. And every now and then take time to step back and look at the road you've traveled. You know, we can get so fixated on everything that we have left to do, how far we have left to go, that we forget how far we've come. We forget how many obstacles we've overcome. So make a point to pause, reflect and see how far you've come. It's important, and it's something we need to do. Last week, we talked about lessons that Navy SEAL commander Admiral William mcraven, shared and one lesson that he shared that can ring true for all of us, especially as we start into another school year, is to say, when you find yourself neck deep in mud. He talks about the infamous Halloween where the Navy SEALs go with no sleep, and they're just bombarded with physical mental torture. And he talked about the Tijuana mudflat where he and the rest of the trainees went for the day in an area that was filled with thick, what sticky mud. And he talked about how the future seals spent the whole day, trudging through that mud to the brink of exhaust. And they continued into the night where the temperature dropped. And all the trainees were physically and mentally done. And he said as they were at their breaking point, one of the trainees began to sing. And the Admiral mcraven talked about how that one person that one person who was cold, what and hurting was able to bring a little positivity to the group, a little joy and that one person's energy spread from one person to the next to the next and completely turned around the whole mentality of all the trainees. He's. And that's important as we go into this school year, when times get hard when we are pushed when things aren't going right for the year. Because there's going to be those moments when that happens. Will we choose to sing? Or will we choose to given this is a wrap for this summer series, my friends. Next week, we're going to move into some thoughts to help prepare us to get back to school. But put some of these practices into place. Just like you can't expect to run a marathon if you don't train for, we can't expect to handle those tough situations, to the best of our ability. If we don't practice strategies during the good months. I appreciate your time. Thank you for being part of the teaching champions community, we support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you could subscribe, or share this with others. I truly appreciate it. And always remember, it doesn't matter whether you're from rural America, urban America, to Canada dismayed by rain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mesh. And we're always better together. My challenge for you this week, is the look at the people around you. If we truly open our eyes, we can see so many great people. There's inspiration to be found. If we look and if we listen. And my friend who joined the band reminded me of this. Life is short. step out of your comfort zone. Do things that push things that stretch, things that give you butterflies that make your hands and your legs shake. Because there's a great reward for us when we do that. Keep being amazing, my friend. And as we go out into this week, may you step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions up. Have a great week, everybody