Push Yourself

This weekend I ran a 10-mile race as part of the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon Miler Series. This was my third of three races preparing me for the mini-marathon in May. Each year, I try to relate my race experience to our jobs as educators. Over the last three  years I have written about the importance of staying consistent, of having persistence, and about finishing strong. Today, my topic is about pushing yourself.

In running, if you ever want to get faster or run farther, you have to push yourself outside your comfort zone. You can’t always run the same pace and same distance over and over again and expect for your time to improve or your endurance to increase. The same concept can apply to anything you do in life. If you want to get better at anything, you have to push yourself. 

I use the Miler Series as a chance to push myself more than my typical runs. I included a screenshot of my pace throughout the race. This pace is significantly faster than I typically run. I was especially happy with the last mile because I was able to push myself even harder in order to have a strong finish.

How are you improving as an educator? What are you doing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone? Have you been trying a new teaching strategy? Have you been reading about or researching about a new classroom management technique? Have you found a different way to teach a certain skill?

Spring Break is a week behind us and ISTEP and ILEARN are right around the corner. Those two things always mean that the end of the school year is looming near. As we are heading into the home stretch, try to push yourself outside your comfort zone. You will never get better if you aren’t pushing yourself.

***

“The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.”  ~ Karen Salmansohn

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” ~ Brian Tracy

“I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.” ~ Joel Osteen