My Muddled Brain

I have to admit that as we are heading into a new school year, I have been having a really hard time getting my thoughts together and focused (some would say this is not an anomaly).  Frankly, I have spent a lot of time over the past few months reading tons of great books and articles and all of these ideas seem to have been competing for time in my mind.  Fortunately, today I finally had my epiphany thanks to John Medina's Brain Rule # 1 - Exercise builds brain power.  In his book, Brain Rules, Medina chronicles the evolution of the brain and argues that our brain works most effectively when we are physically active on a consistent basis.  This assumption is supported by research which consistently finds increased cognitive abilities in people who exercise regularly.

I used to run a lot but unfortunately, over the past few years, I have not made the   time to exercise as frequently as I should.  One of my goals over the past summer was to get myself in good enough shape to get myself running again on a regular basis and this morning I found some motivation in a blog post by a fellow principal (Patrick Larkin) to get myself on the treadmill.  As I ran, my muddled thoughts began to clear and a plan began to take shape for a great way to kick off the year to help us focus on our newly defined mission.  It is my hope that this plan will allow for our teachers, students and parents to better understand our mission and work collaboratively to ensure that we are doing all that we can to accomplish our school's goals.

It is amazing how something so simple can often be so difficult.  We all know that exercise is important yet we often fail to find the time to be active even though it can benefit us so much physically and mentally.  I am hopeful that the success of my little jog this morning will help to motivate me to find some time to exercise and allow me to be at my best throughout the year.

Photo credits: http://www.brainrules.net/