As we come to the end of this week, we’ll reach the point where 60% of our year has passed, and this is roughly where we’re at in terms of the school year as well. We can all feel we’re beyond the half-way point, but the end is still a long way off. It’s easy to think that there’s a window of time to ease off a bit, an opportunity to sit back and save some energy for a sprint towards the finish line, be it an exam block, a finals round, or a gala performance.
I’d like to challenge this thinking. Just as Peter McDonald refers to noticing those small things in his comments this week, I believe investing focus and energy into actively improving, step by step or by small increment at a time, is the key to improvement and success. And the time to do this is right now. This could look like any number of things.
Academically, it may be that you give yourself a set amount of time to complete a set of practice questions for an exam, and slowly push yourself to answer the same amount in a shorter period of time. Or the opposite: it may be that you actively slow down to ensure you’ve fully understood the concept of a question, and plan how you can answer it in as much depth as possible. Physically, it could be that you push yourself to work that little bit more, and test your perceived limits. Our athletes at the Commonwealth Games are certainly a wonderful inspiration here. Can you go faster, further, for longer?
Often, I think we back away from things we think are going to hurt, but it’s actually leaning in to these things that help us build "muscle" and lead us to discover we are actually more than we thought we were. Can you sit with discomfort? Challenge your perception? Imagine yourself in your next evolution?
Now is the time to take a breath, and set some goals, to actively commit with a promise to yourself that you can and will keep your energy up. Look ahead to when you’ll look back at yourself now, with gratitude.
Ms Ellena Papas
Executive Director (Operations)