Success! How can we do it?

What does success look like? 

Finish by Jon Acuff, a book about goals and reaching them in a realistic but inspiring way. Or more simply in the words of the man himself - Give yourself the gift of done. 

In the “What does success look like?” Initiative, we have been reading Chapter2: Cut Your Goal in Half and Chapter7: Using Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress. We discussed how these chapters gave us the “aha” moments in our professional life, ACCoS life, and personal life. 

Chapter2: Cut your goal in half

‘They cut their goals in half, still did great, and, most importantly, are eager to do it again. That’s the key. Most people will think this approach is weak, but hard-core approaches that force you to overreach forget to take in the importance of the word “pace.”’

The main premise of the chapter was how we all supersize our goals at the beginning all due to the simple reason of perfectionism. To begin with, perfectionism helps us compile a list of all the reasons why we shouldn't begin. Then if we ignore this initial barrage and get started on our goal then perfectionism tells us we need to do it perfectly. Why do it if it is not done to perfection? Go big or go home! When we don’t meet our imperfect goal of perfectionism, it changes its tune once again and encourages us to quit with reasons such as: we have not done it perfectly, it is not good enough or someone else has already done this but much bigger and much better than us. The point the author made was simple; cut your goal in half. By doing this we can still set out what we want to achieve. ‘Goals are a marathon and not a sprint’. 

During our initiative meeting we had a lively discussion on our thoughts about the chapter and all the ways in which we could see it relate to, and be useful within, our professional life, ACCoS life, and personal life. Many ISLs readily volunteered how they have already begun to use this thought provoking idea within their lives to make improvements and set about achieving goals perfectionism screamed at them to stop. We looked at the actions for cutting a goal in half and how we could use this as an ongoing tool. There may be a sense of overwhelming failure but cutting your goal in half allows us to meet our goals in a realistic way. Within the work we are doing in this initiative, we will continue to take small steps to achieve the goal. Every child needs to taste success and this chapter has reminded us that this can be done by using small goals. 

Here are some of the actions that the author recommended to help us reflect on our goals and ensure we can achieve them. Each member of the ‘What does success look like?’ initiative contemplated these actions and used them for inspiration when designing their action plans for term two.

Actions:

1. Think back to other goals you’ve attempted. Were they too big? Write down what happened.

2. Write down a number associated with your goal. (It’s difficult to cut a feeling in half.) Will you read ten books? Declutter four rooms? Lose twenty pounds? Make five thousand dollars?

3. Decide whether you can cut your goal in half or double the timeline.

4. Share your goal with someone you trust and ask him if it’s too extreme.

5. If you’re uncomfortable with cutting your goal in half, spend a few minutes answering the question “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Chapter7: Using Data to Celebrate Your Imperfect Progress. 

‘That’s the funny thing about failure. It’s loud. You might never lose a duck on your watch, but you know when you’ve blown it. Progress, on the other hand, is quiet. It whispers. Perfectionism screams failure and hides progress.’ 

The chapter talks about creating measurable data points so it encourages progress rather than screams failure. It also reminds us to review our goals to see if adjustments are needed, as well as reaffirming what success looks like throughout the journey. The chapter ended with the following actions: 

1. Write down one to three things you can track concerning your goal. 

2. Review a goal from the past to see if you can learn anything.

3. Find your airplane. What’s the way you work best?

4. If you’re already in the middle of a goal, decide if you need to adjust your goal, timeline, or actions.

As teachers, we know all these in theory, the hardest part is to put them into practice. In our initiative meeting, we discussed how this chapter relates to us in many different ways and we realised that by actually practising this notion, the steps need to be small, flexible, and achievable. As teachers, we often focus on the end goal being the grand finale, but does it have to be? As teachers, we often aim for perfection so everyone is happy, but does it have to be? Steve King (Remuera Primary School Principal) added, “aim for excellence, not perfection”. 

How will you celebrate your small win? How will you adjust your goals? How will you reach excellence? How will you succeed at this? 

If you would like to read the book for yourself, follow the link.