Motivation Monday has been a staple for my students since we made the switch to online learning. Each Monday I make a video and talk to them about how awesome they are, about how capable they are, about how together we will learn and grow despite any obstacles that are put in front of us. This Monday though, I hit a wall. I couldn't think of what to say. It has been six weeks since I have seen my students and I miss them. Middle school students have a certain energy that it is hard to quantify. They are at this amazing crossroads of childhood and teen years where they have this fire to see the world for all of its possibilities. In middle school there are no limits on their possibilities or dreams. As adults we ask, "what would you do if you know you could not fail?" You don't have to ask middle schoolers that, they don't yet know about the cost of failure. They are all going to be professional athletes, veterinarians, famous singers and marine biologists. They are burning with passion and excitement. They know what they want and they are not afraid of the possibility that it won't work out.
There's a lesson for us in them, a lesson for us in the excitement of dreams unfettered. Who did you dream of being when you were in middle school? Why aren't you that now? What stopped you? When we look deep, there is something in each one of us that motivates us, that inspires us, that makes us wake up each morning ready for another day. The challenge of thinking back to our middle school dream careers is not to persuade anyone to quit their job and take up extreme sports but rather to think back to the underlying threads of what we were passionate about. Did you want to be a professional football player because you loved the camaraderie you found with teammates on the field? Did you want to be a fashion designer because you wanted to make the world a more beautiful place? A doctor because you wanted to help people? Who were you before the world told you that it wasn't possible?
Now more than ever it is important to get back in touch with our inner spark. With the advent of more and more workers moving to working from home or being furloughed our normal motivation is missing. If I asked you why you wake up in the morning two months ago, your answer would have been simple but today, it all looks completely different. Our normal why of an alarm clock and morning commute are missing. There is no alarm clock, no boss dictating our schedule. Our own motivation is what keeps us afloat in times like these. It is our personal habits, beliefs and passions that will wake us up and keep us going. If you could be anyone today, who would you be? What would you learn? How would you grow?
I asked my students this morning to motivate me. I asked them what inspires them? What makes them want to wake up each morning to learn and grow. Their answers were simple and direct and mesmerizing. They saw all the beauty around us and they saw how they could adapt and overcome even in a situation they didn't ask for and that they have no control over. Their answers knew no limits. But their answers weren't what I needed. I needed to find my own. I invite you to do the same. What's your why? What inspires you, energizes you, what wakes you up in the morning? Would the middle school student you were tell you to do? Would they be proud of the person you have become?
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