How you do anything is how you do everything!

I’ll never forget when I first truly heard this lesson from my mentor Patricia Moreno. She was talking about habits. The person I am being is a result of my habits because my habits come from the behaviors and words I repeat. Every action I take, every word I speak, and every decision I make is creating my reality. The way I handle one challenge is likely the way I will handle any other challenge. The habits that make up my performance at work are likely the habits that can be seen in my home. It finally hit me and sank in that the person I am being when I do anything is the person I am being all the time.

If I wanted to be more present with my family at home, I was also going to need to be more present at school with my students. I was going to have to develop the ability to focus on what I was doing and only that. This would take practice with intention and I wouldn’t want to continue practicing the old behavior.

Realizing that our reality is the culmination of our habits can be a challenging lesson to face. Looking at ourselves in a mirror to really ask who we are being when things don’t go the way we thought we wanted them to is challenging. Facing that you may not be in alignment with your values at all times can be a shameful experience. If we say we are someone who works hard, then we need to demonstrate working hard on the things we do all the time. It’s important that we develop and maintain habits like positive work ethic, a helpful attitude, an open mind, and focused thinking. If these are the habits that make up who you are in one environment, they will be the habits you fall back on everywhere else.

How you do ANYTHING is how you do EVERYTHING! Think about how you do the thing you like the least. Think about how you do the thing you love the most. Now, consider what doing your least favorite thing would be like if you did it with the same effort and attitude you do your most favorite thing with. It will probably go faster, more smoothly, and seem not nearly as bad. I challenge you to try it out!