The Secret Spots

       One of the things that has absolutely captivated me about running long distances is the opportunities the practice affords me to get into places that would normally be barred from access.  No, I don't trespass (most of the time.)  But typically, I'll use hiking trails as running routes.  Or utilize winding country roads at the behest of my workout and meditation.  The meditative quality of distance running is another fringe benefit.  You get in killer shape.  But you also fall into a meditative state.

       Over the past three years, as I've trained for different events, I've seemed to have lost my attachment to a regimen.  By that I mean, counting miles, time on my feet, strength workouts, speed workouts, etc.  Granted, I still get all these components covered during my usual core fitness cycle.  But the more I run, the more I enjoy what I call the "adventure run."

         The adventure run is pretty much what it sounds like, er,--an adventure.  You take some water, maybe a few calories, leave your watch at home and get lost.  Below I'm going to share with you a few of my favorite finds from some of my recent "adventure runs."

Ahhhhh, take a whiff of the fresh scent of the pines.  Can you feel the tingling in your nostrils?  This shot of the pines was taken somewhere in Bastrop County, on the rim of where the historic fires of 2008 struck.







Below is a prickly pear cactus sprouting beautifully.  Notice the figs on the top of the plant.  They will soon open into flowers.  This cactus, strangely is on the same route as the pines, less than two miles apart.  All I can say, is only in Texas can you have pines and cactus in the same locale.

To the right is a secret pond, I found somewhere behind the Colorado River Refuge.  Good stuff.  Shortly before I took the photo, there was a family of raccoons going for a dip.

To the left is a shot of the Colorado River through a canopy of at the top of a rise on the Colorado River Refuge.  After a fun section, skirting through gently rolling meadows, you'll climb up a ridge that will put you level with a canopy of sycamores and cottonwoods.  If you position yourself just right, you'll see that the river awaits.  (I usually hike down and take a dip, then continue on my run)

The picture to the right is a place the locals affectionately have named, "Quesadilla Rock."  It is just below the canopy pictured above, and is one of my favorite places to meditate.  It's a couple miles in from the Dragonfly Trailhead at the Colorado River Refuge.

 One of my favorite overlooks ever.  This is the top of Bluff Ridge at McKinney Roughs Nature Park.  For the trailrunner, it's a 3-4 mile trek in depending on which route you take.  A good reward for the climb before you head back down.  For the hiker, bring a picnic and soak it in!












Soak up what's around you, my friends!  There are secret spots all around you.  Stake your claim and make it fun.  Let the world be a witness to your fitness.

Need-to-Knows for the Beginning of School

What Parents and Non-Teachers Need to Know About the Beginning of School

         It’s that time of year again.  A time of excitement and dread.  A time of anticipation and anxiety.  The beginning of a new school year.  Think about it:  For the next nine months, your children will be spending the majority of their waking hours amongst complete strangers.  This means two things: Either—1.  As a society we must be a bunch of crazy people…or 2.  As a society we must be a lot more trusting than we give ourselves credit.  Either way, here are a few insider details about the people your children will be spending a big chunk of their time with over the next 9 months.

1.     Summer Break?  You teachers have it easy.  You work a salaried 8 hours, get 2 weeks off at Christmas, a week at Thanksgiving, another week at spring break and you get 2 months off for summer.  If the rest of the country worked your schedule we’d be going under. 

-First of all, you forgot that we do 12 months worth of work in 10 months time.  Those 8 hours on the clock don’t account for the time we spend after school and on the weekends preparing to give your children our best because they deserve our best. 

-Secondly, those two months off are deceptive.  You can go ahead and subtract a week for summer professional development, which is required and for which we are not compensated.  If we teach summer school, subtract another month.  You can go ahead and subtract another week for pre-school team meetings, curriculum planning and arranging our classrooms for the upcoming year.  Yes, we do get that big break, but a big chunk of it is spent prepping for the upcoming year.

In our classrooms, every teacher is a mad-scientist.

2.     Experimentation:  Any teacher worth her salt is going to be trying new things in his classroom every year.  After all, we aren’t spending all this time after hours in team meetings discussing best practices and going to workshops just so we can keep doing the same old same old every year.  Our classrooms are literal laboratories of the mind.  We push ourselves to the limit to get the most out of your kids.  We are constantly trying new things to get the best results.  It is what helps us grow as professionals and keeps the job interesting.  Don't be frightened if you child tells you about something new.  

3.     We Are Going to Forget Names:  Don’t take it personally.  We will forget your name.  We will forget your kid’s name.  It may take a few weeks.  Bear with us.  It’s not intentional.  Keep in mind that most of us have over 100 new names and faces to orient ourselves to, along with the names of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, pets and favorite musical acts that go along with those new faces.  Be patient.  We will get there.

4.     Have a Problem?  Then Talk To Us!:  This is the quickest way to build rapport with a teacher.  You want a teacher to work hard for your kid, then communicate with us first!  We are the ones in the classroom with your kid day-in and day-out.  We want to know if there is a problem or an issue so we can better serve you.  It’s why we got into the profession in the first place. 

-So often it seems that a parent will go straight to the school board or an administrator about an issue before the teacher has ever heard about it.  Please, talk to us first.  We want to work with you, not against you.  When you go over our heads from the get-go, you not only drive a wall in-between yourself and that particular teacher, but you make the job of the other team members, staff and administrators that much harder.  Please talk to us.  We want to listen.  It’s our job.

We may be a bit frazzled the first month.

5.     The First Month is the Hardest:  Yes, we spend much of our summer break working, but it’s on our own schedule.  Having to be back on a straight schedule with no wiggle room is a bit jarring.  The first month or so we will be getting back our rhythm, training new teachers and building up our stamina for the coming year.  We will be more tired the first month than we will be at the end of the school year.  Your kids will be getting used to the routine as well and building up their own stamina.  Push through with us and the rest of the year will be a smooth ride. 

The time is here.  With these insider tips in your toolbox, the beginning of the year should be a breeze.  Now that you know what to expect, pass these tips along to your friends.  I’m sure they will appreciate the info.   

A Reminder To Myself

      Sometimes we all need a reminder.  To look at where we've been in order to prepare for where we are going, but also have gratitude for what is happening in this moment...right...now.

      This hit me hard yesterday:

   It was about two years ago that Stef found out she was pregnant.  I remember the day well.  She had been sick for about a week.  We suspected she may be pregnant.  So we drove into town, (we were living/working out in the middle of nowhere at the time), we went to church.  We picked up a couple of tests on the way to our friends's with whom we were spending the afternoon.  It was positive.  We called our parents.  The rest of the day was spent in a celebratory daze of shock, awe and blessedness.
 
     The next day, I got laid off.  On top of that, we were told that we had six days to vacate the place where we were living.  So here's the scenario:  We go from a newly married with a stable income and the next two years comfortably planned out...to pregnant, unemployed and homeless in a 24-hour time period.  We had $180 in our bank account and $500 worth of bills due.  Needless to say, it was a lot to take in.
   
       Although I wanted to get into a cycle of feeling sorry for myself and being pissed off at how massive a failure the whole thing was, something in my spirit checked me into the boards.  I'd been asking for a transformation.  I'd been asking for the next great thing to "do" with my life.  Well, God gave me exactly what I needed.  As that famous dude once said, "Ask and it will be given."  It was up to me to accept the gift and to see the situation with the right pair of eyes.
   
       Some friends of ours took us in, so we at least had a place to stay, in fact, it was a resort compared to where we had been living.  I couldn't draw unemployment so I took the first job I was offered.  Although generally, I would have considered the work "beneath me" because of my prior education and experience, I took the job because it met my needs.  It was quick money. There was opportunity for rapid advancement.  In the interview they didn't mind hiring me, even though I told them I would be looking for a teaching job in the meantime and was going to quit as soon as I landed one.  They also didn't mind hiring me even though I still had a resisting arrest charge pending dismissal on my record.  I spent the next month as a laborer, working 14 hour days.  In Texas.  In the summer.  Picking up trash.
     
       Everything worked out.  Much more has happened since.  It's a long story.  But here are a few lessons I learned during that trying time.

All dolled up for some hard work.

        1.  The world doesn't owe you anything.  Nope.  Not one red cent.  God doesn't owe you anything either.  You've already been given the gift of life.  That is opportunity enough.  Thinking any differently will automatically turn you into a victim and make you powerless to every circumstance that comes your way.  My boss didn't care that I had a master's degree.  The garbage wasn't going to pick up itself just because of my education.  All my boss and the company cared about is that the job got done right and the client was happy.  It was eye-opening when this realization hit me, because for most of my life I had been walking around with a chip on my shoulder thinking the world owed me a great payout for how hard I'd worked up to that point.  Because that had been my attitude, most of my life had been spent as a victim.  Knowing that you're owed nothing, will show you that you already have everything.  Now you're in the driver's seat.  The world, and any circumstance that befalls you, are gifts and teachers, rather than "enemies" trying to steal from you.

         2.    Who or what you blame will have power over you.  When picking up trash all day every day, I had a lot of time to think.  Usually, my first thought would be where does all this trash come from?  From there, it would be really easy for me to get mad at the people who didn't clean up after themselves.  After all, if they did, I wouldn't have to be out in the sun cleaning up.  When I began to think like that, blaming others, I immediately gave power over myself to 100s of strangers.  Again, blaming others or circumstances not only will make you a victim, but it will also make you a victim that has willingly been victimized.  I spent much of my life secretly blaming others for my "failures".  I blamed my parents for not sending me to a better college and causing me to go into debt.  I blamed religion for not going further with my career as a basketball player.  I opted out of playing in many high-profile tournaments because games were on Sundays and I felt guilty for playing on Sundays.  The list goes on.  Ultimately I had to learn that I was responsible for everything that had happened to me in my life up to that point.  You have made every decision and thought every thought that has culminated in you arriving exactly where you are right now.  It is no one else's responsibility.  You have unlimited power and energy by which to create, partner with and transform the world around you.  If you are constantly blaming other people or circumstances you are telling that person or circumstance that you would rather they hold onto your personal power because you are afraid to use it.

Worth it.

       3.     There's no such thing as failure.  For a guy with two college degrees, working as a laborer picking up trash could seem like a giant failure, before that, leading my family into unemployment and homelessness could also look like a big fat failure.  But failure indeed is in the eye of the beholder.  You only fail when you choose to see the results as a failure.  In my situation, although my circumstances did not look the way I thought they should look, I was learning valuable lessons and skills along the way.  I got promoted from general laborer (where I picked up trash all day) to crew leader.  I got a company car, and I learned how to use all kinds of machines I never knew how to use before.  Now, it is a bold-faced lie to say that getting what you want is going to be easy.  It isn't.  But even if your outcome is less desirable than you may have imagined, you still have become something in the process.  Your thoughts have changed.  You have changed.  Because in the midst of doing things, what you've learned through it can never be taken away from you.

      Maybe that's one of the mysteries we're supposed to learn as humans.  Maybe that's one of the doors that can show us the eternal seed we all have burning within.  
 


Love you all,

Matt.
 

Is Great Teaching Really Just Great Customer Service?

As some of you already know, when I’m not chasing a toddler around, running a ridiculous amount of miles, working on one of my various writing projects or out rescuing puppies from burning high-rise apartments, I am a teacher at a high school for at-risk youth.  Last week I had the opportunity to present a development seminar to colleagues in my district about changing the educational paradigm and how it really starts in the heart of the teacher.  Later in the week, after having a horrible experience as a customer in dealing with a representative of a particular company, I had a marvelous revelation:  Great customer service and great teaching are parallel.

I know what you’re thinking, especially if you’re one of my fellow teachers reading this,  “Students aren’t customers.  They can’t choose not to be in my class and I can’t choose not to work with a student without some serious legal gymnastics.”  Bear with me.

For those of you on the customer service end, you may be thinking, “Yeah, I’m in this business because teachers are crazy people.”  I won’t debate that.  But you may say, “I’m not trying to teach my customer anything.  I just want to create a good experience for them.”  That’s when I say:  B-I-N-G-O.

A Yucky Classroom experience and
Bad Customer service 
both feel like the above photo.

Two of my big takeaways from the last week both in my teacher training and through my terrible customer service experience are:  1.  Great teaching and great customer service both create a positive experience.  2.  Great teaching and great customer service employ action to build trust.  I will talk about both briefly below.

                 1.  Great teaching and great customer service both create positive experiences.  In my work environment I generally deal with what are known as “reluctant learners.”  That is the politically correct way of saying most of my students are at very low levels academically and socially, usually several grades levels below their current grade level.  In other words, my average student may be in 10^th grade, but may only be able to read at a 4^th grade level and write at a 3^rd grade level.  This being the raw material I have to work with, forces me to ask another question:  What isn’t the educational system doing to get this child where he/she needs to be?  Why is this student shutting down?  The simple answer is that these students have not had very many or any positive experiences in an educational setting.  In the world of a teacher, if I can create a positive experience for these learners, their reluctance dissipates and they will go above and beyond any of their or my expectations.  If I create a negative experience, why is a student going to work for me?  My students lose out if I create a negative experience in my classroom. So do I. 

The Monk says:
Customers and Students 
require trust.

It’s the same in customer service.  My wife and I really love Kerbey Lane Café in Austin.  In particular, we love their original location over on Kerbey Lane.  We just can’t stop going there.  Why?  We love the food.  We like the building.  The staff is friendly.  Put all of that together and what do you get?  A positive experience.  Because we have a positive experience we keep returning.  On the flip side, earlier this week, Stef and I had a very bad customer service experience with a certain representative.  As a result, we are no longer working with this individual.  While we could have been sending the representative a ton of referrals, both the representative and company are losing since our experience was terrible.  Our recommendations and future business will now go elsewhere.

 2.  Great teaching and great customer service employ action that builds trust.  Kids are the masters at holding adults to their word.  Any parent can attest to this.  If mom and dad promise little Johnny he’ll get an ice cream if he finishes his homework, once that homework is finished, mom and dad better have ice cream for him.  If mom and dad do not get him the ice cream, not only are they risking a level 47 meltdown...  mom and dad also run the risk of Johnny never doing his homework again AND more importantly, Johnny is going to think his parents are full of crap.  In other words, Johnny will not trust mom and dad, and will continue to push the limits thereby creating extreme scenarios for his parents to regain control. 

Teaching is the same way.  If a student asks me for something and I affirm that I can arrange to make it happen, I better make it happen.  If I don’t, the student then thinks I’m full of crap, and I run the risk of losing that student for the rest of the year.  As a teacher, my most powerful words are, “Go ask the principal.”  In all seriousness, NO is one of the most powerful things I can tell a student when I can’t back an affirmation up with an action.  The student will get over it and I will have maintained trust in our relationship.  In the student-teacher relationship it is imperative that a YES is backed up with immediate action. 

On the customer service end, please do not tell a client one thing to make them feel good and not back it up with an action.  This will immediately break the trust of the client and they will think the representative and the company for which the representative works is full of crap.  This was the bane of our bad customer service experience this week.  Stef and I were told one thing, no action was taken on the part of the representative.  This broke our trust and confidence in the representative.  So we quickly terminated the relationship and went in another direction.  Because the representative did not take action, his company lost immediate and potential business.

"The man who doesn't reach decisions promptly when he has all the necessary facts in hand cannot be depended upon to carry out decisions after he makes them."  --Napolean Hill

To conclude:  Action builds trust and trust builds positive environments.  Students need positive environments in which they feel safe and empowered.  I find the relationship intriguing and empowering.  I’m excited to delve into this topic more in future posts!  In what ways can you employ these concepts to empower you own life?  Let me know and let the fun commence!