Eat a Frog (Year 3, Week 5)

Have you ever eaten a frog?

Brian Tracy says “if the first thing you do when you wake up each morning is eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen the rest of the day!”

On Monday the heroes dove deeper into one of the studio’s core processes, setting SMART goals. They spent time sharing with each other what “frog” they have been avoiding in their core skills work.

As they set their weekly SMART goal, they were challenged to “eat the frog,” starting immediately that morning. Squad leaders, who check off weekly SMART goals, encouraged each hero to focus on eating the frog they knew they had been avoiding.

As a result, many heroes this week are taking on challenges they have procrastinated, some even finding joy they didn’t expect to find as they tackle new challenges.

What are your gifts?

This week Zane reviewed a book he recently read for his badge plan. After reviewing the book, the heroes spent time sharing with Zane the gifts they see in him.

Discovering your precious gifts is an important part of a hero’s journey. Gathering perspective from your fellow travelers is a powerful way of seeing what you might not see yourself.

Getting it Right

While there have been many new systems and layers added in over the last few weeks, this week the heroes are circling back to core processes with a focus on getting them right.

On Tuesday, the heroes watched a news report where a doctor had performed surgery on the wrong patient. As heroes at Heroes Academy, the goal for these heroes is not to be mediocre or get by, but to be the best in the world. That means learning world class skills and habits.

After discussing what was most important about getting core skills right, the heroes shared personal commitments they would make during core skills. Energy and intentionality is continuing to increase for the first part of core skills (flow phase), while collaboration phase is still struggling to have more meaning and purpose.

After reflecting on struggles during collaboration, the heroes determined that the studio contract and the schedule both needed improvement. The studio contract because they needed to increase accountability, and the schedule because it needed more fun with math power hour and other more focused collaboration.

Next week the heroes will see an infusion of fun into the schedule to help increase intentionality during collaboration phase as the next experiment to making it excellent.

Writer’s Workshop

Now that the writer’s have had a chance to write poems they feel are their best work, this week they focused on making them ready for public exhibition. After being challenged with the question “is handwriting art?” they discussed ways to make handwriting excellent. After a list of suggestions, they set out to create their final presentation that would be used for exhibition.

To go along with their poems, the heroes spent time Thursday creating an art piece they felt embodied their poem.

While a few heroes are more nervous, most are excited to show their work next week for parents in a public exhibition of their work.

Finding a Calling

This week stories of finding a calling and using your gifts continued. The heroes watched Janet Echelman’s TED talk about building artistic pieces around the world, and her journey to follow her passion.

After discussing if she had found a calling, the heroes were asked which was most important to finding her calling:

• dreaming big
• never quitting
• using her gifts
• taking a risk

During close, they circled back to discussed what small things they did that day to move closer to finding their own personal calling. Many shared moment of pushing through, helping others, and dreaming big as they tackled their core skills and quest challenges.

Quest

This week the heroes are preparing for exhibition by creating tools for themselves or others that are designed to help assist a hero on their journey. Some even spent time creating instructions on how to use their tool.

The heroes expressed a lot of creativity as they designed tools. These will be on display at the exhibition next week.

Free Time

Every day the heroes spend time outside in play.

This week they have been highly intentional on what games and activities they will do, even planning in advance.

This Friday, in particular they wasted no time picking teams or setting expectations; the planning was done beforehand.

With light rain falling down, they dug their shoes deep into the mud.

“READY….SET….GO!”

In a synchronized but determined fashion, the runners took off, racing until they were near the point of exhaustion. Over and over again they competed to win the title of Race Announcer.

Wrap up

Some say the endings matter most. At Heroes Academy, a challenging week ends with encouragement and joy as the heroes close the week giving character callouts to each other for heroic character they have each shown. A hero’s journey is not the easiest path, but when heroes walk alongside each other, supporting each other, the path brings far more joy than one can imagine.