“Being positive won’t guarantee you will succeed, but being
negative will guarantee you won’t.” -Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus
When I became
superintendent, I decided to choose a word of the year that our staff and I could
work towards every day. Last year, I chose the word “team.” During the
excitement, challenges, worries, and success of the past year, our staff
remained a unified team through it all. During the summer, I had a difficult
time deciding on this year’s word until I attended the annual Kentucky
Association of School Administrators’ Conference.
At the conference, I had
the opportunity to hear author and keynote speaker Jon Gordon. Jon Gordon is
well known for his books about leadership, culture, sales, and teamwork.
Several years ago, I read his book The Energy Bus. As I sat in the
conference center listening to Jon and remembering his book, I knew exactly
what the word of the year would be: positivity.
In The
Energy Bus, Jon describes the need for positive energy in every aspect of
life. He defines positive energy as the optimism, trust, enthusiasm, love,
purpose, joy, and passion to perform at a higher level. Positivity is the
ability to overcome adversity, negative people, and negative situations that
threaten to sabotage health, family, team, and success.
Three years
ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. During chemotherapy, I had times where I was
thinking negatively. I soon realized to look at what I did have. I was blessed
with a supportive and caring family, the best doctors, nurses, and hospitals
for treatments and surgery, and a work environment that rallied around me. It
did not take long to realize there were many more individuals dealing with more
difficult situations. There were mothers and fathers who were watching their
child fight cancer; others were being diagnosed for a second and third time.
Once I changed my mindset, my life became better.
Our world is
in desperate need for more positivity. Positivity begins with one attitude and
action at a time. Take inventory of your life and appreciate the amazing things
that are around you. One of Twitter’s trending hashtags is #BePositiveIn4Words.
My hashtags would be #ILoveMyFamily and #MyJobIsAwesome. What would your
hashtag be?
If you want to begin the journey to
a more positive life, I encourage you to pick up your copy of The Energy
Bus. Not only will you feel better, achieve more, and motivate others, you
will better the world through the power of positivity.
