Hey everyone,
A few days ago, 
Those of you who have parented teenagers, or all of you that were once one, know that there is an inherent sloth in many teens, and I found that the old adage of "good enough" often came into play. Handing in an assignment, I would often hear, "There you go Ms. Coyle; I'm done, it's good enough"; it was something I quickly grew tired of hearing. I used to stress the fact that I never walked in to teach them with the feeling that what I was about to do was going to be good enough, and I quite simply expected the same level of commitment from them.
Eventually I created a HUGE banner and plastered it around my classroom walls; I began each semester talking about what it meant, along with my expectations of myself and of my students. This is what I wrote:
We are all here to learn something new, AND to learn from our mistakes. There's no such thing as failure, because failure is only an opportunity to learn. There are no good excuses. But most importantly, there's neither need nor necessity to wallow in the trough of mediocrity.
It's how I have lived my life, and how I will continue to live my life until my days here are done. Life is about learning, it's about learning from our failures and it's about doing the very best you can, every single day!
That is what motivates me when I wake up in the morning. I ask myself, "How can I be the best Lynn Coyle today?" And I'm able to comfortably rest my head on my pillow at night, knowing that I fulfilled that quest.
I visited with old friend the other night, and I was telling her about giving money to a family that I could tell was in need some time ago here in Mexico. She looked at me like I had horns sticking out of my head and I naturally asked her what she was thinking. She found it so strange that I had seen this family sitting at night, with all of their children and their belongings and took it upon myself to go find out what their story was. They needed help. I gave it to them. Pretty simple in my books; not so much in hers.
There is no need to wallow in the trough of mediocrity as a human being. We are all we've got!
So please, just be the best insert your name here you can be!
This is the spot where I am supposed to tag people to join in. I'm skipping that, but what I would love, is if you have a favorite motivational or inspirational quote, please include it in your comments. If you want to do your own post, by all means jump on the motivational wagon ;)
Cheers!!
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