Sometimes the biggest threat to your leadership and career is you.

• If you lose your love for your personal mission--which hopefully aligns extremely well with your school's mission--your productivity will decline, impacting the entire community.
• If you fail to adapt to new opportunities for growth because of tradition or fear, you will yield leadership to your competitors.

So what's the best way to stay motivated--to protect yourself against mission creep and burnout?

Protecting Your Passion

Preparation

Plan a weekly and daily schedule that is reasonable and supports your unique genius and purpose. This is a critical habit for optimizing the quality of your life and your school leadership. Preparation includes having a sustainable cycle of school improvement so that your whole organization is ready for the unexpected.

EMSR

Tommy Newberry taught me the value of an Early Morning Success Ritual. This is a series of activities that you do every morning to start the day off right and set the tone for success.

Prioritizing

Responding vs. reacting to unexpected situations is critical to your effectiveness. You never have a shortage of people and "emergencies" competing for your attention and time, so carefully and consciously assess the options and determine if you are making the wisest decision in light of your past experiences, your current situation, and your future goals.

Team

You're no Superman or Wonder Woman! Sorry, that title is already taken by a mythical figure from someone's imagination. There is no well-rounded person--only well-rounded teams made up of individuals who cooperatively bring their strengths and talent together as a team to pursue a bigger vision than they could by themselves.

Ownership

Do you want to be the chess board or the chess piece? The board sets the boundaries and the goals, while the chess piece is moved according to the will of someone else. Take ownership of yourself and your school, making decisions from a standpoint of courage and strength.