Are You An "A" Student?

Lack of self-awareness and honesty is one of the most crippling things a human can do to themselves.

Teaching your kids to do the same is worse.

As you get older, you observe that a lot of people never learned why they weren’t "A" students in school. Not that an "A" students can't be irrational, they can, but usually to get As requires a work ethic and basic level of aptitude and skill along with a decent level of self-awareness, i.e. if I don’t work hard I won’t get good grades. While "C" and "D" students easily fall prey to a lack of self-awareness of their work ethic, "A" students can easily fall prey to the same thing because of pride and vanity.

All of us are susceptible to it.

Coaching sports has taught me great lessons in this, both by examining myself and watching others. My team and how it plays is a reflection of me, especially the things they need to work on. If they are doing something I don’t like, I’ve learned the first place I need to look is at how I’m doing things, and what my expectations are and should be.

Parents have taught me how easily it is to get blinded to reality. We all believe in our children, but sometimes their performance and abilities don’t rise to our ambitions. If your judgement is clouded, you will eventually lose credibility and it hurts your child.

Honest self-awareness is the key to developing ourselves and dealing with others. Grade yourself: your work-ethic, your abilities, your strengths, your weaknesses, what can you improve? Are you a good listener, do you do your homework, do you have the humility to hear things you don’t like?

Romans 12:3 "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."