Think back to a time when you failed, maybe it was losing a sports game, you failed a test or possibly failed a class. Now that you have that memory in your head, can you remember who you blamed for that failure? “The refs were awful that game, we didn’t get any calls for us!” “I’m not going to pass this class now because the professor didn’t enter any grades until a week before the final.” Sound familiar? We have all had experiences like this and will continue to have them; the key to really overcoming these disappointments is to take ownership of them, and do everything in your power to succeed.
I’m going to tell you about the toughest class I took in high school, and how it ended up being one of the biggest learning experiences of my life. The class was AP Physics with Mr. Macon, riveting right? Just wait, it gets better. Now I must preface this story; I don’t believe that I am super smart or gifted or anything, but I can say that I have had great academic success because I cared enough to try. You know the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but GPA lasts forever”. I went into this AP Physics class expecting it to be difficult, knowing that it was going to really challenge me, I just didn’t realize to what extent!
I’m chugging along, taking notes every lecture, getting average grades on the homework assignments, and feeling a little uneasy about the class… until I got a ‘D’ on the first test, and I panicked! I met with Mr. Macon and told him that I think I should drop the class because I didn’t feel like I could learn this material, and that I couldn’t have a failing grade tank my GPA. He simply asked me; “Have you exhausted all your resources?” I thought for a moment and felt a weight of guilt come over me as I confronted the fact that I wasn’t doing everything I could to succeed, yet I had the audacity to ask to drop the class for fear of saving my GPA! Mr. Macon challenged me to exhaust all my resources, and he changed the way I look at adversity in my life.
I started meeting with Mr. Macon every day. Before school, during tutorial, after school, I was in his classroom practicing. I checked out a physics textbook to read and do more problems at home, I watched Khan Academy videos every night. Now maybe you’ll believe me as I tell you I exhausted all my resources! This lesson that Mr. Macon taught me has stuck with me, and you know what, I went from trying to drop the class, to getting an ‘A’ both semesters, and passing the AP Test!
The point of this story is not to brag about my grades, rather to challenge you to think about something in your life that you feel like you’re incapable of succeeding at and ask yourself if you have exhausted all your resources. I believe that you can excel in any area of your life if you are determined, and if you truly put forth everything you must to accomplish your desired outcome. As you face challenges in your life, don’t blame others for where you’re at, take ownership when you are not where you want to be and hold yourself accountable to find the solution to overcome that adversity. It is nobody else’s responsibility to get you where you want to be, so take ownership of your life and exhaust all your resources until you achieve what you’re after!
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