My Toughest Lesson at Age 11

In 5th grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Erby.

At one point, she apparently got fed up with me not reaching my full potential. She took me to the principal’s office.

The walk to the office was excruciating.

My heart was racing and butterflies were invading my stomach like myself at a pancake buffet.

Then she picked up the phone, gave me that “look” and then proceeded to call my Mom.

At the age of 11, this was pretty devastating.

She then told my Mom how I wasn’t turning in my homework and that I wasn’t doing nearly the best I could do.

Then it got worse…

She then handed me the phone to talk to my Mom.

“Oh my dear lord NO” was running through my head.

Once I got home, I had a talk with my Mom. And you know what? My grades went through the roof.

You would think that I would have been really angry with Mrs. Erby, but the truth is that she made one of the biggest impacts on my life.

She called me out… and I needed that.

She also had one of those easels that holds those ridiculously large white sheets of paper at the front of the class.

One morning in class, she wrote with a big black marker on it… “God Don’t Make No Junk!”

To this day, I still think she wrote that just for me 😉

I continued to make awesome grades in 5th grade, and it carried over into 6th grade and beyond. In fact, I made a 100 on my Social Studies exam in 6th grade.

Boom.

This was all because Mrs. Erby called me out.

So now, I’m calling YOU out.

Are you really doing your best? Are you doing your “homework”?

I’m not talking about losing fat… it’s much deeper than that.

Your friends and family are depending on you. They need and thrive on your energy.

If you’re not giving yourself your best, you’re not giving them your best.