The Extra Mile

"At 211 degrees water is hot, but at 212 degrees, water boils, and that makes steam. With steam, a train can be powered!"
It is very easy to give up. Things aren't working out the way you think they should be, and you feel like everything is falling apart, so what do you do? Do say "that's it" and give up? Or do you go the extra mile, and strive to become a better person? When I was very little, my parents trained me to always go the extra mile. This concept seemed like a wast of time to me, but I did it anyway because if I didn't, I would get in trouble! Eventually I got passed the stage of only doing extra work because I was told to, and started doing just out of habit. I learned that many good things happened when I worked harder than I wanted to originally.
The concept of "running the extra mile" has always been in my head, but this fall, I realized that it had been pushed to the back burner, as some might say. I noticed myself slacking off more, and not even doing everything that was required, or expected of me. I was putting my time and energy into trying to fit in, and be a "cool kid in high school" rather than focusing on improving my athletic ability to play sports, and focusing on my school work. Running the extra mile isn't to stop working on something so you can work harder on something else. Going the extra mile is continually working on improving yourself and helping others, but never slowing down on something important to you. This is something that I resized when I got my report card at our first quarter meetings. At that point I knew that I hadn't been going the extra mile in every thing that I was doing. The whole point of going the extra mile, is not to be selective in what you work hard in. A wise man once said "How you do one thing, is how you do everything" Therefore you can't only work hard in one field. If you think you're working hard in one aspect, but are lacking work in another, you aren't really working to your full potential.

I challenge each of you to reflect on yourself, and see in what aspects of your life, are you lacking something. When you find that, act on it!

Transform

I recently got back from the 89th National FFA convention held in Indianapolis Indiana. This year's theme for the convention was Transform. When you hear the word "transform" what do you think of? I think of something changing dramatically! In fact, the definition of transform is to: make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of. This is huge. What do you think needs to be transformed not only in your life, but in the world today? The way we treat people, the way we talk to and about those around us, does that need to be transformed and made better? Absolutely. 
It may sound easy to say, I'm going to transform my actions, and do the right thing the first time all the time! But that is hard to do, it is even hard for some of you to say. Transforming is never easy, but it is necessary. For the world to come a better place, we, the younger generation will have to start, by transforming our actions. We will have to stop will the negative thoughts and words to and about other people, we will have to do the hard things, and do what is needed so that world can become a better place. It's time to face it, America is falling apart! Everyone will have to come together, to transform this nation, and make it a better place to live, to grow up, and to grow old. 
Without people who are willing to do the hard work to transform this nation, it will never happen. Are you going to watch as America falls apart in front of you, or are you going to see a need, and meet it, no matter how great, or how small? 
I am going to help transform this nation! Are you? 

Start somewhere

The biggest thing that keeps us from fulfilling our dreams, and doing what we want to do, is the fear of failure. When we're younger, we don't notice how other people are looking at us, and we don't really care if they like us or not. But when we get older, we start to worry about how other people view us. An example of being afraid of failure is my violin playing. When I was about 10 I started taking violin lessons. It was so much fun, and I enjoyed every part of it. But when I was about 12, my whole world fell apart, and I stopped doing almost everything that I loved. I shut music out of my life, and I didn't want to be a part of anything. When the pieces of my life started to come back together, and I was able to cop with life again, I didn't start back playing the violin, I was afraid that all the time I didn't play it, I was getting worse, and if I went to play a note, it'd sound like it did when I was first taking lessons. So my violin just sat in my closet for three years. My band teacher asked if I ever played it, and I told her that I haven't played it in three years, and I probably would sound like a brand new player if I picked it up right then and there. I didn't realize until then, that I was afraid of failing. I wanted to be the best at everything, and I was afraid that if I wasn't the best violin player, but I still played I would be viewed as a failure. I learned that if I ever wanted to play again, I'd need to get over my fear, and start somewhere. Because if you never start, how do expect to finish? This is a big thing for me, that I need reminded of daily. Whenever I don't want to do something, I ask myself if I don't want to do it because I'm scared of failing. If the answer is yes, I strive to get over that, and realize that everyone fails. We are all human. People won't judge us for failing, and if they do, that is their problem, we don't have to be effected by it.
My point is that if you never start, you will never get better. If you don't work at something, you will never be the best at that thing. If you don't want to do something because you don't want to fail, you're not alone, but you have the ability to get over that, and do it even if you might fail, because you are strong enough to get up even if you do fail!
Have a wonderful weekend!!

Smile-it makes things better

This last week has been a struggle for me, I've had a hard time in many different areas, and when I would look in the mirror I would see all the flaws in myself that could possibly be there. I was so upset with how the week had gone, and then I was upset with how I appeared to myself, and it took me all weekend to figure out why I was so frustrated with myself. Before I tell you why I was frustrated with myself, I'm going to tell you a short story. This was our homecoming week, and I am in charge of organizations who help put on most of homecoming, and very active in others. So I had tons to do to get ready, and when I would look in the mirror, I would be stressed out about getting everything done, and worried that not everyone would do their job to make the week run smoothly.  Homecoming wasn't the only stressful thing going on this week though, but we can get into that later. The point is that I was letting the activities that I'm involved in stress me out, which made it hard to see the good that could or was happening. Now, the reason I was so upset with my appearance was that I didn't smile at myself. I was stressed and upset looking into the mirror, and then when I saw myself stressed, and not seeing the good in others, I didn't see the good in myself. This made me think, if I have that big of an impact on myself, if I influence how I look at myself, and everything around me by smiling or not, what dose that do to everyone else? No doubt that how I express myself will have an influence on how they look at the event, or their day etc. When homecoming week got over, and I was no longer responsible for making sure stuff gets done, I started relaxing, and smiling, when I looked in the mirror and smiled at myself, it made me happy, I didn't focus on what was wrong with my appearance, I just smiled, and I didn't even know why. The main thing that I would like you to take away from this post is that if you take a few minutes, look in the mirror, and smile, it will make you happy, and your day will go by more smoothly. It can be hard sometimes. You'll have those days when it feels like nothing can go right, but if you take a few minutes to just smile at yourself, I can't guarantee that things will get better, but the way you handle them will!
Have a wonderful week!!

Focus

Good morning everyone!
I know that I'm behind on my blogging. For any Junior Highers reading this post, please understand that you have it pretty easy (as far as school goes), when you get to high school, everything is very different, so enjoy middle school while you're in it!

My topic today is Focus: everyone has heard that if you don't focus on your goal, you will never achieve it.Or something like that. But how many of us really focus on our goal? Do you really have one thing that you can focus on? I know I don't focus near as much as I should, but that is going to change! In school, if you don't focus on learning the information that your teachers are trying to teach you, you won't get the full value out of the information that you should be getting. In your job, if you don't focus on getting your work done correctly, you will not get the job done correctly, which will potentially cause trouble. And in sports, if you don't focus on what you're doing, and why you are in that sport, you will not play to your full potential. If you're evolved in a sport because you have to be, you can still make the best of it, and work your hardest to be the best that you can be, even if you aren't enjoying what you're doing. But if you focus on your school work, or your other work, and especially in sports, you will become better, and you will rise towards the top of your peers.
One of the biggest parts of being focused though, is work ethic. If you are focused, and don't work hard, you aren't really focused, so you will need to work like crazy, and stay focused on your goal for that situation, and then you will become better.

I hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend!

No matter how you feel....

All of you have been in that place, where you just lost. Fill in the blank, I don't know what you lost, but it could have been something big, like your job, your home, your family, a relationship, or even your pet. Whatever it was, you felt like you were defeated, and you couldn't do anything. You feel horrible, and you just don't know what to do with yourself.

If you are like me, you don't want to look like you are hurting inside. If the pain you are feeling you think is to hard for you to hid, then you try and stay out of sight. That's not always the best thing to do. It is alright to show that you are in pain, and that you are struggling. However, there is a balance between showing that you are struggling, and letting it get you down to the point where you can't do other things. For example; you had a really good friend who got in a really bad car wreck, and is paralyzed, the doctors said that she/he would never be able to walk again. You are having a heard time processing this, and you feel really bad for your friend. When you are in this situation, you need to go out and talk to other people. You can't sit at home, or by yourself and be completely isolated because you don't want others to know that you are hurting. If your favorite pet got ran over on the highway, and he/she died, you may be really sad about that, but you need to be able to get up, and keep going with life.
There are a few situations that I listed earlier, you just lost your job, you lost your home, a family member or friend..etc. While these situations are hard, you have to rise up, and beat the struggle. It's really similar to what I said in my last post, you have got to beat the struggle. YOU ARE NOT A LOSER! Maybe you have lost stuff in your life, but that doesn't make you a loser.
My point today, was to encourage you to keep going, even when it's hard. "No matter how you feel...keep going"

Get up!!!

When we get knocked down, the enemy (who/whatever that is) want's you to stay down and get defeated. Are you going to let the enemy win? I know I'm not. If you are not going to let the enemy win, than you need to do the opposite of what they were trying to do. If the odds are all stacked against you, and it seems as if everyone and everything wants you to fail, what do you do? YOU SUCCEEDED. It is hard to not let everything get to you, but when you get knocked down, you have two options: 1) stay down, and be defeated, or 2) get up, and not give up. 

The choice is yours, but I'm going with option number two. I hate to be down, and stay there. I know how hard it is to get back up, but that just proves not only to your enemy that you are stronger than they thought you were, but it also shows you how strong you are. 

Picture this with me: You are towards the end of practice, at the start of the season, so you are kind of out of shape. You've had a long practice, and coach says to get on the line. You know that means practice isn't over, and you'll do suicides until you feel as if you're going to die, and then one more. In this situation, it's the same thing. You can either choose to collapse, and be done, or you can choose to push yourself until coach says that practice is over. And if you are pushing yourself to the very end and trip, what do you do? GET UP!!! And finish strong. 

That was an example in sports, but if you compare it to life, it's not that different. When you can either finish strong until you get told that you can be done, or give up, and get beat.I know what I'm going to do, do you?