Unlock the Teacher

This blog is about sharing the good found in all things. Today I read a great article I found on my bookcase in a Franklin/Covey’s Seven Habits Organizer on Noe’s, Peak Performance Principles.

NOTE: Organizer belongs to my husband and I am just realizing that it is chuck-full of great inspirational and leadership advice…this organizer has various inserts that he has pulled out of his planner for the last six years to make one awesome leadership reference tool!

Noe breaks down the attitudes he correlates to those who are high achievers into six easy steps:

1. High achievers make no small plans. Although he states that big plans attract big people, he reminds his reader that a high achiever recognizes the small everyday choices that build the cornerstone for the big plans.
2. High achievers are willing to do what they fear. “You don’t conquer fear with clichés, but with action.”  Personally, I love this.  When I was stationary in one classroom, I always had the Latin phrase, acte non verbe on my wall; it quickly became class motto.  Noe states, “That fear is fraud and that only 8% of our fears are legitimate.”
3. High achievers are willing to prepare. We all can organize, plan and prepare for situations or events in our life, but Noe stresses that the high achiever, “gets more excited about what they are becoming than what they have done.”
4. High achievers are willing to risk failure. “Failure is not the enemy of success.  It is the teacher-a harsh teacher, but the best if you are going to be a high achiever…you must learn to “fail” your way to high achievement.”  Imagine if we taught this to our children, our students… what a great lesson to learn early in life.  It could help individuals deal with or look at depression, stress and the plethora of negative influences we encounter daily, in a more positive fashion.
5. High achievers are teachable. Noe explains in this article, that a high achiever seeks knowledge, spends time reading, observing and listening to those around them.  When I was in the Army, the Drill Sergeants in basic training would often state that “if you see another soldier doing something right, adopt it and make it your own.”
6. High achievers have heart. This point stresses that when we look at the plot in great literature, we usually find conflict.  However, unlike literature, the conflict that often occurs in our lives usually does not have a detailed rising action, which hints to what is ahead…it just happens, in a flash of a second and we either crumble or inhale and rise to meet it head on.  Noe expresses in this piece, that he feels that it is during these times of conflict in our lives that we can be propelled to our highest goals…if only we demonstrate courage, persistence and perspective.

If I did not find the six detailed attitudes for high achievers motivating, Noe’s last paragraph in the article definitely did it for me.  To describe the algorithm of achievement, Noe utilizes the analogy of mountain climbing.  A mountain climber would not go from peak to peak, they would reach peak, travel down again, to experience the thrill of a new adventure with climbing up to another peak.  I found this analogy motivating and a visual reminder I can use when encountering a stressful situation.

If we dedicate ourselves over and over again to the goal of climbing one peak to the next…resisting the urge to become discouraged by the task-every one of us can become a high achiever. ~John R. Noe, Peak Performance

Have a great weekend and may we all continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise