Lot’s happening these past few days. We had graduation at Lake Shore High School for the Class of 2015 and I was blessed enough to be asked to deliver the commencement address. It was such a humbling and fabulous experience. I want to make sure the Class of 2015 knows how much I appreciate them having me share their special day with them.
This thought by the great Jim Rohn above is one of the things I am focusing on in my life right now and that is I’m looking to change for the better. I need to continue on this journey of getting out of my comfort zone. I need to keep working hard to learn new skills and to play bigger in my life. Getting out in front of over 2000 people to give that speech on Saturday at gradation was a big step for me. I am totally comfortable in a classroom in front of 30 teenagers, but Saturday was such a rush! It was a great feeling to look around and see all of those people. I practiced that speech many times with the vision of being at that podium, on that stage, in the gym along with all of those people in the crowd. I had to change and expand my comfort zone in my mind before I did it for real.
I think about this quote and I know if I stay where I’m at and not change, not only will I not go any farther in my life, but also I will begin to lose things that I currently have. I would not meet new people along with not learning new skills. The people that I currently know would be slowly start going places and I would be staying behind. The skills that I would possess already would slowly get rusty by me not improving them. My current relationships with those that I love and care about would also suffer and slowly start disappearing with me staying the same, not wanting to do new things, invest in the relationships any more, all of those would really suffer. This game of life is constant in change. From the weather, to economics, to the stock market, to the sports teams, to us simply getting older, and the list goes on and on.
I’ve used this example with all my students over the years. I have yet to find a student who comes into my classes letting me and everyone know they want to get worse in life. They have all wanted to at least get by and get through high school. Plus, we all have to realize that it takes time to realize we need to change along with it taking up our entire lives to keep working at changing for the better. Change is definitely an inside job that takes a lifetime to work on and do.
There is also an old saying about when we look at all the things we want to change, the list looks overwhelming. But if we can just focus a little at a time, just 1% improvement a day, in any of the areas we need to work on – the difference after a month will be incredible. How about 6 months? How about after a year of just improving 1% a day? Just let that one sink in there a little bit. Any thoughts?