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- Pursuing Your WHY
I got really tired of going to teenage funerals
In his great book and famous TED talk, Start With Why, Simon Sinek invites us to consider the WHY of what we do
He says most of us have our postures towards our work and our lives inside out.
We begin with what we do, explain how we do it, then flounder to describe why we do it at all
Sinek says we need to invert that by beginning with a clearly understood, focused, and intentional WHY that then directs, guides, and informs how we do what we do
This begins by asking ourselves this question:
Why am I doing this?
I get asked all the time why I started Odyssey Leadership Academy (the school I launched as proof that reimagining education is possible!), and my answer is always the same:
I got really tired of seeing students lose the love of learning and the joy for school they had when they were six
I got really tired of seeing students stressed out and anxious preparing for tests we all knew didn’t matter
I got really tired of students feeling that they were not smart because they got the “orange” math book in fifth grade instead of the “blue” book
I got really tired of students feeling isolated, alone, and adrift with no real sense of purpose and community
I got really tired of seeing students drop out of school who had the potential to be valedictorians
I got really tired of seeing students cut themselves because they felt no one cared about them.
I got really tired of seeing straight A students suffer from anorexia because they felt they could never be enough.
And I got really tired of attending teenage funerals
I could face the failure, foolishness, mockery, belittling, and derision every time I dared talk about a school that placed human flourishing above grades and test scores because I knew the students for whom I was fighting.
I knew I stood on behalf of hundreds of students who could not fight for themselves.
I knew their stories personally, knew their names and faces, and knew I had to fight for them.
This is what kept me up at night.
This is what drove me.
This is what got me and gets me out of bed each morning.
If you follow me at all through this newsletter, on my podcast, on X (Twitter), or LinkedIn, you know my heart beats to help schools tell a better story
Now you know why
It is this WHY that drives me to fight the upstream battle to reimagine schools and transform education
It is what led me to launch the Odyssey Center for Transformative Schooling
It is what motivates me to offer resources to help others reimagine education in their learning environments
It is why I host the Flourishing Schools podcast
It is what led me to write the Edupreneur’s Field Guide as a resource for those wanting to do something new and imaginative in education
It is what has me up at 5am every morning writing my next book on holistic school transformation
It is why I write this newsletter
It is why I have devoted my professional life to the wild eyed, prophetic vision that schools can be transformed and reimagined as places of hope, joy, passion, meaning, innovation, and purpose
I do not know why you do what you do, but I know with crystal clarity why I do what I do
I do not want to go to another teenage funeral
This is the passion that fuels the work I do when the work gets tough, exhausting, thankless, weary, and long.
It is what keeps me going day after day, year after year, decade after decade.
I know my WHY.
What is your WHY?
What drives you?
What keeps you up at night?
What angers you?
What saddens you?
What motivates you?
What inspires you?
What do you bring to the table that no one else does?
What led you to choose education?
What keeps you there?
What keeps you going when the going gets hard?
→ ACTION STEP: Take a long, deep look into yourself and ask why you do what you do
There is a reason you are reading this
A reason you believe things can and must change
A reason you went into education
A reason you are a though leader
What is that reason?
Write it down. Say it out loud. Let others know. Say it over and over again until you are unapologetic about it.
Say it until it becomes your reason for getting out of bed.
Say it until it becomes the passion that fuels your work for the long haul
Once you identify your WHY there is very little that can keep you from pursuing that wholeheartedly!
Before we can fight for genuine school transformation, we have to identify the why that fuels how we go about doing what needs to be done.
Dr Scott Martin
Want to do a deeper dive into identifying your WHY?
Grab a copy of my Edupreneur’s Field Guide, where I take all the wisdom I have learned from the trail starting Odyssey Leadership Academy to help you do something meaningful in education
In it, I do a thorough job of helping you clearly articulate your WHY and walk it out unapologetically.
Plus…you get four free hours of time to chop it up with me!
