How you do anything is how you do everything.–Martha Beck
I have been thinking a lot this summer about habits. This is partly because I have had a hard time getting movitated to do anything and my work and personal habits have suffered a bit. Because I am now a 9-month faculty again after seven years of administration, I have much-appreaciated down time to rethink, refresh, and reorganize my courses. Apparently, however, I cannot be trusted to have large swaths of time, which is why I was thankful to pick up a summer course that started on Monday. Seeing young folks every day helps me feel purposeful.
I have to say that I am really lucky to have a small group of eager, disciplined student athletes who were so joyful and talkative the first day of class that I almost had to pinch myself. But we can all be jubiliant the first day of anything. Summer classes can be a grind–every day for a few hours a day plus homework and assignments that must be completed quickly and then showing up bleary eyed to do it all over again. And that is just me!
It wasn’t a surprise, then, today when I noticed a little weariness in some of their faces. Perhaps this was due to the physical exhaustion of training for their sport coupled with the biting reality that a college class is work tied to the desire to make friends and enjoy their newfound freedom. After a couple of information-packed activities, I took the pulse of the room: “Are you reading the chapters ahead of time? Are you taking notes so you can capture the essential information?” I had begun to notice they were challenged to recall facts from the reading or the day before.
We pushed on through and I reminded them of what they should be doing after class to prepare for tomorrow (Again? We have to be here again?). But I got a sense that I had missed an opportunity to share with them something important.
I want to share it with you readers, parents of college-ready and college-aged students because I think that it frames the experience and how to show up for it in a way that may be more meaningful to young people who come to college with their own dreams and goals (even if they don’t see how what they are doing in the moment can help them–or hinder them–to reach those goals).
The following is the email I sent to them:
How you do anything is how you do everything.–Martha Beck
I wanted to take a minute to share this quote with you because it is important to think about in terms of your goals, dreams, desires, and work. We all have lofty (or maybe just simple) goals about how our lives will go and what we want to accomplish. Some of you indicated that you wanted to be professional athletes, others want to be professional lawyers, doctors, businesspeople, etc.
If you want to realize any of these goals (or even get as close as you can to them), you have to examine everything you do. Are you giving everything your best? Are you devoting time and energy into the tasks at hand (e.g., reading the chapters ahead of class, paying attention and focusing on learning in class, pushing yourself to your limits in training?). Are you letting some things slide because you would prefer to focus on other, more enjoyable tasks?
Your coaches will notice, your professors will notice, your teammates will notice, your classmates will notice, and you will notice whether or not you are doing everything at your best level or only some things. It may be easy to let a thing here or there slide, but those things add up. You have probably noticed this in your athletic endeavors, your academic pursuits, and your personal relationships.
This [student success] course is partly about examining how you do anything and everything. It is about revealing the hidden secrets of what can help you succeed, practicing different strategies so you know what will work best for you, and then creating structures that will ensure you do those things. This is not the only time or place you can learn this stuff, but it is one place that has been paid for and that you have time for where you can really work to create a strong foundation so that can build that dream of yours over the next semesters.
Think about how you do anything. It will reflect how you do everything.
