Lesson number two in teacher leadership from the Super Bowl:
When we fall flat (and we will), we must not be afraid try again. We can’t let these setbacks “deflate” our plans (I couldn’t help myself here!).
Many of us will remember watching Idina Menzel’s performance in Time Square on New Year’s Eve, or perhaps we saw this video clip after the fact. And she was just taken to task by Twitter, the media, so many. But did she hide? Did she quit? Not at all.
Idina Menzel was at University of Phoenix Stadium on February 1st, with millions of eyes on her as she sang the National Anthem. And what happened can be summed up with these headlines the following day:
- “Idina Menzel Let’s It Go, Nails National Anthem”
- “Idina Menzel Belts Out National Anthem, Makes Fans Forget About That New Years Eve Performance”
She killed it!
Lesson learned: We all fall flat on our faces. It happens. I can remember two years ago during a panel at a conference I was asked a softball of a question and everything just flew right out of my head, I couldn’t cobble a thought together, and I really faltered. I fell on my face. But the lesson we should learn and remember is that it is not a matter of IF it will happen, but WHEN it will happen. And it is part of the learning curve. We will get a lot of “no’s,” we will have failures, but each and every “no” is one step further in our work, and one step closer to a “yes.”
