Good morning! Happy Wednesday to you! Or…as I like to call it 3’s Day! You know, yesterday was 2’s Dad (Tuesday) and today is 3’s Day! Ha Ha Ha. Now…that’s a Josh joke for you to start your day and fitting for the topic.
Tomorrow is the kids last day of school. Luke finishes Kindergarten and Liya will finish 3rd grade. It’s been a GREAT year at their new school and I could not be any more proud of them. Their teachers have been REMARKABLE and the school team there is “Awesome with a Capital A,” to steal a phrase from college basketball commentator Dick Vitale. I’ve been toying with a few ideas for this post and was torn between a couple, but then today I glanced in one of our cabinets and saw a stack of colorful notecards that contained notes I’ve written to the kiddos each school day and put in their lunch boxes to read during their lunch. When I saw those notes stacked up this morning, it gave me the spark for this post.
Leadership author John Maxwell once wrote “people tend to become what the most important people in their lives think that they’ll become.” I love that saying and it’s something that I’ve had posted up in my offices over the years or written down on post-it notes in various locations (running books, my vehicles, etc.). I love that quote because I have always really tried to offer something encouraging or positive to others to make their days better but more importantly to let them know that what they were doing mattered and that they were important. From my experience, when people believe you think that they can do something–especially if you are responsible for them or their work–then they will exceed your expectations a hundred times over. Not always. But…I would say 97.78 times out of 100 they will. 🙂
Now that both of our kids are in elementary school and they have both started trying to navigate their school worlds without us being there with them, we’ve tried to remind our kids daily of how much we believe in them. On the first day of school last September and as a surprise, we put notes in both the kids lunch boxes that told them something along the lines of “we love you and are proud of you.” When they came back home from their first day, they both came home excited about their day and they were so happy to have those notes. So…on the second day they got another note. And…then on the third, fourth, fifth, 150th…well you get the point. Suddenly…we’re at the end of the year and there are 100s of notes on colorful notecards that have communicated something positive to each kid to help build their confidence and self-value while they are away from us. If people truly do tend to become what the most important people in their lives think that they will become, then I love the amount of times our kids have read something positive about themselves.
As I think back over the year, the content of the notes took many twists and turns. When Liya was learning how to memorize and be tested on vocabulary words for the first time, I started to imbed the vocabulary words into the notes. It worked–seeing the words constantly and having to remember what they meant helped her make a lot A’s on those tests. Also, fitting the words together created humorous sentences that I am sure cracked her up at school. When Luke was tasked with learning his site words, those words started to be included on the notes each day. After a few weeks, Luke could identify all 70 something site words and he was so proud of himself. And…kids sometimes go through things with other kids and so some of the notes just reminded our kids that they were awesome, that they were believed in, and that things get better even when they think they will not. Also…I got to try out SO MANY JOSH JOKES on the kids. Like…”Hey Liya, this is the only Monday we’re going to have this week. There is not going to be second Monday this week so make this one count.” Or…Hey Luke, “Knock, Knock. Who’s there. Hello. Hello who? Hello Luke!” You get the picture. By the way, my jokes only win awards when there is an audience of one and I’m the judge. Ha, there’s another one. During basketball and football season, they had a TON of IU logos, Go Dawgs, and Go Colts in those notes. Our kids love America’s Got Talent so now the notes have references to AGT. For instance the hit song, “I always want more Parmesan but I’m embarrassed.” No matter what though, the notes always end with “love, Mom and Dad.” Our kids hear that from us everyday because that matters, and you never know what’ going to happen and I believe you don’t let a moment pass without telling someone how you feel.
When you are trying to run a marathon, it takes many miles run on many days to be able to do it. I’d also say, when you’re trying to build confidence in your kids or others around you it takes a plethora of positive moments (or notes in this case) to build that. In running, not every mile is great and in life not every moment with another person is great. But…if you can put enough good miles in then you can be a good runner and if you create enough positive themed moments with others then you can help positively impact the way another person feels about themself.
Thank you for taking the time to read and/or listen to my post. You could have spent this time doing something else and I appreciate you spending it with me. Feel free to engage with me by commenting on this post, sending me an email at joshuadavidskillman@gmail.com or on Twitter. Have a great day and never stop believing in yourself! It’s never too late to be great.
What I Learned While Running 