Two Life Lessons From My Junior High And High School Teachers

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I left school so far back in the review mirror that it’s ridiculous. But there are two teachers, actually one teacher, and one coach, that taught me lessons I’ve never forgotten. I used to be a runner. I could run for miles. When I wasn’t running I was long-distance biking, swimming laps, or performing in track and field events.

I kept coming up short on the 440. Yes, I did the relay too but the 440 — you run the entire distance alone. I recall one day coming around the last corner and once again I came up short. I hit the little white line like I thought I was supposed to. That is until the coach came over and had a chat with me.

“Terry, come here. Follow me,” he said. We walked back to the final turn on the track and he pointed ahead. “You see the finish line, right?” I shook my head yes. “Do you see that fence waaaaaaay down there past the track and before the road?” “Yeah.” was my only response.

From now on aim for that fence.

I was stopping short in order to hit the finish line like I thought I was supposed to. But that’s not how winners win. Winners go above and beyond what people expect of them. My takeaway from that was,

Never let someone else’s minimum become your maximum.