by Jackie Panos, 3rd Grade Classroom Teacher “Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t." “You are not a true success unless you are helping others be successful.” “The goal is not to be better than anyone else, but rather to be better than you were yesterday.” These are just a few of my favorite quotes from author and public speaker Jon Gordon. I was first “introduced” to Jon Gordon about eight years ago when I joined Twitter. I wasn’t sure how or where to begin building my professional learning network. A colleague of mine shared several inspirational educators and authors that she had been following, and Jon Gordon was one of them. It didn’t take long for me to see exactly why he was one of her first recommendations. He consistently tweets thought-provoking words and messages of motivation and inspiration. Though he isn’t an educator, I was constantly seeing ways to apply his words to both my professional life and my personal life. I soon discovered that he had written a book called The Energy Bus and made a trip to the local Barnes and Noble to start reading it right away. It is a quick read and I found that it applied to all areas of my life! This book discusses how each of us is the driver of our own bus and we get to determine its destination! The bus must be fueled with positive energy or it will run out of “gas” in a hurry. In addition, we need to be selective about who we allow to get on our bus. There are people Gordon calls “energy vampires” who will try to steer our bus off course; we don’t want these people on our bus! These are the people who always have a negative attitude or tell us we can’t do certain things. Instead the people we want to allow on the bus should be those who will bring more positive “fuel” to keep the bus going, and those who have a similar vision. Gordon’s work also appealed to me due to his love of sports. He has worked closely with many sports teams and coaches, and his written works include many sports examples and analogies. One of my favorites is his “one great golf shot theory” which explains that when out on the golf course, it only takes one good shot to keep you wanting to return to the course again for another round. This is so true for me! I am not a great golfer, but there always seems to be that one good shot that keeps me yearning for my next opportunity to golf again in hopes of replicating it! Gordon’s reasoning for including this analogy was for us to apply this same principle to our daily lives. When we go to bed at night and reflect on the day, what if we chose to focus on one good thing that happened that day, instead of focusing on all the things that went wrong? Imagine how much this would change a person’s attitude from day to day! Imagine the positive energy we’d be fueling our bus with each day if we adopted this mindset! This past summer as I was searching for children’s books on building a positive culture, I discovered that Gordon had written an Energy Bus for Kids! Of course I purchased it to share with my class! In fact, it became the theme of our class flag! I hope to make it even more of an emphasis next year and make it a year-long theme with bus tickets and all! (Thanks Jenn DeLaRosa for the idea)! I could continue to share parts of this book that I love, or reasons that Jon Gordon’s books, talks, and Twitter posts continue to inspire and motivate me every day, but hopefully you get the gist by now! I want YOU to take control of your own bus, set a vision, build a culture of positivity, and don’t allow any energy vampires to steer you off course! Regardless of what level you teach or coach, I promise there is something to be gained for each and every one of you! Imagine what we could do in this district if we all adopted such a positive mindset! The possibilities are endless!
Additional Information If you have a Twitter account, I highly recommend following Jon Gordon @JonGordon11 I’ve also included a link to Gordon’s website. Here, you can peruse his many books, read about Gordon’s background, and sign up to receive his weekly tips via email. http://www.jongordon.com/
5 Comments
12/16/2019 06:15:41 pm
Your words really resonate, especially at the brink of a winter break! Thank you for these thoughts and for spreading the joy and the energy of positivity!
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Sarah
12/16/2019 08:29:47 pm
I love, love, love the book (I need to read the kid version; do you have a copy I could borrow?)!!!!!
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Zach
12/17/2019 06:36:00 am
Been wanting to read this. Thanks for an awesome synopsis and taking the time to share Jackie. Kids deserve positivity--I find myself trying to position everything in a positive light with my own children, but it's hard to do. Really hard. Viewing life through an optimistic lense is the tougher choice.
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Jenn DeLaRosa
12/20/2019 09:16:58 am
I love your class flag! :) I want to put my picture on it as well. Thanks for helping to bring out the best in everyone. :)
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Lori P
3/24/2020 10:23:04 am
I read this book too! Great read! It does make you stop and think about the things we say and convey to our students. Putting a positive spin on it can only help the students and yourself! I may need to re-visit this book. I'm also interested in the kids version--would it work for 9th graders? Let me know!
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