Start the School Year Strong by Focusing on Your Gains!

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School's back in session! How's it going? Are you off to a strong start? Not really? It's still the beginning of a new year and it's not too late to start strong.

The Gap and the Gain

I want to introduce you to a very simple but important concept that has become a best practice among leaders. It's called The Gap and the Gain. The Gap and the Gain, which is the name of a book by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. The concept is so simple that I can actually draw it for you, using my very primitive drawing skills (check out the YouTube video to see it in action!).

The start of a new year can be very daunting and intimidating for many students, especially if you're starting middle school, or if you're starting high school, or if you're a junior this year with multiple AP classes, honors classes, papers, projects ... If you're a senior who is taking the SAT for the last time and applying to colleges, this is a big year for you! What often happens is that we get fixated on what Sullivan and Hardy call The Gap--the UNDONE work that lies ahead between the start and the end of the school year. Facing the Gap that only YOU can close can feel daunting, intimidating, and overwhelming.

Setting Goals to Close the Gap

The Gap between September and June will require goals to close it--academic, social, emotional, and spiritual goals.

But here's the principle: don't focus on the gap. Don't focus on the work that is yet to be done. You want to focus on The Gain.

Focusing on the Gain

The fact is that you've already done a lot of work. You've already achieved a lot of success, passed milestones, and made progress to get where you are today. Focus on the GAIN, not the GAP.

Live in the Gain, not in the Gap.

Measure the Gains; don't measure the Gap.

What does this look like? For me, it's literally sitting down every three or four days with my journal and making a list of wins—everything I can celebrate. I literally draw stars in my journal and make a bullet-point list of wins that build my confidence--not just in myself, but in GOD.

Gains are gifts from God. He is the gracious one who gives us every single Gain. This concept is so powerful because you don't close the gap by focusing on the tasks that threaten to overwhelm you or make you question your abilities, perseverance, or grit. Instead, you focus on the evidence and proof that you have what it takes to close the gap--because you have God.

Trusting God's Faithfulness

God has been faithful to you through all the previous years, and there’s no reason He won’t be faithful to you again this year. The leadership principle that you can use right now to start the school year strong is to take five minutes in your journal and answer these questions:

• What are the gains that God has already given me to win my faith in Him?
• How can I trust God to close the gap ahead because He’s already proven, over and over, that He can close the gap every year?

Philippians 1:6 says: "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

This verse is powerful at the beginning of the year because it reminds us that we are in a process—we are on a journey of growth. We don’t want to forget the first half of the journey, the first half of the process of growth that contains all of our accomplishments, successes, wins.

Remember the Gains because they will enable us to trust God and do the work to close the Gap this school year.

For more information about how you can strengthen your personal leadership skills before graduating from high school, go to www.weleadthis.com/mastermind.