You’re a Natural, Now What?

When I found myself not only at the head of an elementary school classroom, but actually enjoying it, it wasn’t long before I realized that this job fit me like a glove. Not only did it fit me like a glove, but I was just doing the things that felt right for my kids – automatically. I was picking the things I thought would best help them, and I was helping them succeed. I still am. Yet, for all intents and purposes, I feel like I am still not doing all I can be.

So, here I am rolling along, helping my students get good results, yet feeling like I am not giving 100% to them. It would be so easy for me to say, “Hey, they are improving; what more can I ask for?”

Some “naturals” that come to mind – Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods (Say what you will about his problems in other areas of his life, but he is still too good an example to pass up). These were sports figures who were not only known for their incredible natural talent, but for not thinking that it was enough. Despite their talent, they strove to become better and better and better.

Have you heard the saying, “You are only as strong as your weakest link?” Do you understand where that comes from? Let’s say you are working on an assembly line. It is your job to put widgets in boxes. But you are pretty new to the job, so the widgets seem to be coming faster than you can get them into boxes, so you have to press a button which slows the production line down. It doesn’t matter how fast all of the people who are assembling widgets can get them to you, if you cannot box them fast enough, then they will be delayed. So the weakest link is boxing widgets. If you can strengthen that link, then it will allow you to ship out the widgets faster than you had before. However, if you fix that problem, you will find that there is a different weakest link. There is always going to be a weakest link – always.

I remember watching Larry Bird make these incredibly unorthodox shots and wondering how he ever made those baskets. It wasn’t until later that I understood his thought process. Imagine you have this natural talent, and you are clearly a better basketball player than anyone else on the basketball court. When you are that good, there is rarely ever any motivation to actually get better. Why should you? You are already better than everyone else. But players like Larry Bird didn’t just want to be the best players on their team. They didn’t want to just be the best players in their league, or division, or state. They wanted to be the best players ever. They don’t just want to become better players so they could get a bigger salary. They don’t become better players because they want to have people talk about them and say how great they are – although that is a nice benefit. They do it because they want to be the best ever. Are you getting my point?

Let’s pretend we are Larry Bird. We are sixteen years old and we are dribbling the ball down the court with our right hand on the left side. We find it very difficult to make the shot with our right hand from that side, and since we want to be the best player ever, we resolve to do something about that. We resolve to learn to shoot with our left hand! Wait a minute! We have such a great shot with our right hand already, why mess with a good thing? After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – right? Wrong – not if you want to be the best ever.

By the way, Larry Bird had a phenomenal shot with his left hand – yes, he is right-handed. If you have a few spare minutes, check out the video of Larry Bird deciding to make several shots with his left hand:

This is the difference between naturally talented players, and naturally talented players who want to be the best.

Michael Jordan was clearly a natural, but he didn’t improve enough after his freshman year to make the cut in his sophomore year. In fact, he suggests that getting kicked off the team was the catalyst that drove him to be constantly improving his game after that point. I am guessing that his weakest link was lack of willingness to practice hard – but that is pure conjecture on my part. He wanted to be so good that no one would ever think of kicking him off the team again.

Tiger Woods is another example of an incredibly talented player who has never stopped improving his game. Not only does he use repetition to succeed, he constantly works on the weakest part of his game. You might think it would be incredibly frustrating to constantly work on the part of you game that gives you the biggest problems, but not players like Tiger Woods. He knows that practicing that weak link will help him in the long run. In fact, it may always be the weakest part of his game, but at least he is still continually improving it.

Do you think this next video took a little practice?

Well, take a look at this next one!

Okay, enough fun! I am getting a bit off topic here!

The weakest link is usually also the part that we least desire to work on. For me, for example, it is doing lesson plans. I despise doing lesson plans! They are most definitely my weakest link. While I may be a natural in the classroom, there is no question that I teach more effectively when I have well-designed lesson plans. So if this is my weakest link, and if I want to be the best teacher ever (which I don’t really, but why quibble with words? How can you quantify it anyway?), then this is what I need to work on. And I need to work on it until something else becomes my weakest link. Actually, I have a second weak link, the two combined leave me with a bit of a hole to climb out of at times, as you might imagine! My second weak link is organization. I won’t go into detail. Suffice to say I have the stacks and piles mentality rather than the file or trash mentality that I would like to develop. Organization would make transitions from activity to activity or subject to subject flow more smoothly, no doubt.

So, are you in your natural environment? If not, you need to find that. And if you are in your natural environment, don’t stop getting better just because you are already meeting expectations. Strive for greatness. If you do, you won’t have regrets later.

By the way, this is something that has to start today. If you don’t start working on your weakest link today, you will never start. If you keep telling yourself that it is something you need to work on, it will always be “something you need to work on.” Now is the time. Choose to work on your weakest link until something else becomes your weakest link – then work on that. Never give up. Constantly challenge yourself to move forward. Someday, you will thank yourself.