I know that graduation has come and gone for another year, but now seems like a good time to share this. As principal, I get to address the 8th grade class each year at their promotion (graduation) ceremony. I share parts of my speech with you today as I think it is certainly relevant for adults also! As our 8th graders have studied John Maxwell’s Laws of Leadership, I began with a quote from him:

“John Maxwell said, ‘Few people realize that success is within their reach right now! The “secret” of your success is determined by your daily agenda. In fact, if I could spend 10 hours with you tomorrow, observing how you spend your day, I could tell, with about 95% accuracy, how successful you are. Most people underestimate today and overestimate tomorrow. They promise themselves that they’re going to turn their lives around tomorrow…but “tomorrow” never comes. Success is determined by the daily decisions you make and the daily disciplines you practice.’

You see, it’s so important to make every day a “masterpiece” as John Wooden called it. The reason being is that a lifetime is simply the sum total of all of your ‘today’s’. Because every day is so important we need to start our day in a manner that prepares us for the day to come. Students, you should experiment to find a morning routine that works for you as you prepare to enter high school. View each day as a new beginning, as a new opportunity to make things right, and to make good decisions. You must realize that who you become tomorrow is the direct result of what you do today. It is the law of sowing and reaping…you are only going to get out of life what you put into it.

Another area that I want to address is that we should not be afraid to fail. If we are not failing at something, then we are running the risk of living life too cautiously. It is always better to try and fail than to never try at all. You will have the opportunity in high school to grow as an individual, to work harder than you have ever had to work, and to set about charting the course for your life. I will tell you today that you will experience failures in high school. However, as once again, John Maxwell said, “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of, and response to, failure. All great achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere.”

Lastly, we need to exert control over our attitudes. When you think about it, our attitude is really one of the few things we really do have control over. My advice to you is that I hope you don’t let other people dictate your attitude. You cannot control the fact that some people will act in a certain way. But you can control how you react to them. You have control how you treat your family and friends so use that control to make their world a little brighter. Maya Angelou, who passed away just yesterday, said, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

I believe controlling our attitudes is very, very difficult—even for adults. You will run into many people who have what Zig Ziglar always called, “Stinkin’ thinkin’”. Some people just have a big pile of figurative garbage that they carry with them and they spread it all around as they go through their day. Mother Teresa had a sign in her office that had something to say about this:

Do it anyway

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered…love them anyway
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives…do good anyway
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies…succeed anyway
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow…do good anyway
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable…be honest and frank anyway
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight…build anyway
People that really need help may attack you if you help them…help people anyway
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth…give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, despite what the culture says, life isn’t about how we feel…70 years ago on June 6th, 1944 do you think the U.S. and allied soldiers felt like storming the beaches of Normandy? They did it anyway. If you wait to “feel like” doing almost anything your life will pass you by. Don’t let that happen! Grab on to life and live every minute of it! You have a room full of people here tonight that want to see you succeed and make good choices. On behalf of the entire middle school faculty our wish for you is to give the world the best you’ve got, regardless of what the world gives you.”

More to come…
Jeremy