Seeds of Excellence For Teens: Life Principles For Those Who Want To Stand Out From The Crowd

By Jon Hansen

Determined to inspire teenagers and young adults to find their identity, purpose, and inner greatness, through over a decade of researching, teaching, coaching, and mentoring, Jon has developed a repertoire of 24 easily applicable and highly powerful habits that can empower anyone to stand out from the masses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jon Hansen
• Release date: Aug 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463023464

Book preview

Seeds of Excellence For Teens;

24 Life Principles For Those Who Want To Stand Out From The Crowd

By: Jon Hansen

Table of Contents

Introduction

Who Do You Want to Be? – The 10/80/10 Rule

Get 1% Better Every Day

Pareto Principle – AKA 80/20 Rule

Forgive

Get Uncomfortable

Contribute Vs. Contaminate

Practice Daily Gratitude

Take Your Control Back

Growth Mindset

Train Your Mental Toughness Daily

Soar With The Eagles

Plan Each Day With Purpose

Find Your Word

Make RESPECT One of Your Words

Three Types of People You Need

Find The Light

Set The Tone – Be A Thermostat

You Need A Spotter

Consistency Is Key

Listen More

Do More

Ask Yourself How Much Can I Handle?

Pain of Discipline Versus The Pain of Regret

Excellent Mistake Response

Epilogue

Introduction

As you read through this book, I want you to think of each principle as a seed - a seed of excellence.

When a farmer plants a seed in a field, the seed must be planted in an optimal environment so that it will grow and develop into its full potential - its purpose - its WHY. An apple tree seed will only grow into an apple tree if the correct conditions are met for its growth - the correct amount of precipitation and sunlight, the correct temperature, and nutrient-rich soil must all be provided for the apple tree to grow into its full potential. Even more importantly, the apple tree must be kept away from disease, insects and other predators that may destroy its growth completely.

The same is true for you: the seeds you read about in this book will only develop and prosper IF you plant yourself in an optimal environment for growth. You will only grow into your purpose if your environment is whole and pure.

What is the optimal environment for these seeds to grow and develop within you? First and foremost, you NEED to surround yourself with positive people who have high standards, big dreams, and strong character (later on, you will learn to call these people ‘eagles’). These people, whether its family, friends, and/or coworkers, need to be the foundation - the nutrient-rich soil - for which these principles and seeds are built and rooted deep into.

Secondly, just how disease, insects, and predators can destroy the apple tree, so can negative and small-minded people do to you. If an apple tree is not planted in the correct environment, it will never grow into what it was supposed to become. Instead, it may grow half the size, wilt, and die. It may produce only a small portion of fruit that it was designed to. The apple tree will never reach significance. In the same way, if you plant yourself in a substandard environment, you will never grow into the PERSON you were designed to be. I PROMISE you will never meet your full potential. Just like the apple tree, you will only grow into a small piece of what you could have become.

Before you read any further, if you have not already done so, plant yourself in an environment so that you may grow to your full potential! I call this a growth environment. Otherwise, reading this book will only be a waste of time - it would be like adding fertilizer to an apple tree planted in sand. Although the seed is planted, it will never grow because the sand is an unsuitable foundation for growth and development.

Planting yourself into a growth environment might mean that you have to say goodbye to some weeds in your life. Weeds choke out the life of the apple tree. Weeds block its sunlight. In the same way, negative people, your weeds, will choke the life out of these principles before you even begin to grow. If you aren’t willing to pull some weeds out of your life, then you will not grow. It’s that simple.

Now that you’ve planted yourself into an excellent environment, it’s time to grow!

Who Do You Want to Be? - The 10/80/10 Rule

Based on my experience, I believe that in any organization or setting - whether it be a classroom, a team, or a work environment (basically any setting where there is a group of people working and interacting together) - that roughly 10% of the people will be above average, 80% of the people will be average, and another 10% will be below average. Which one are you? Let’s find out…

The main characteristic of a below average person is that they navigate through tasks with the mindset of trying to find an easier advantage - meaning they cut corners and try to get away with things whenever possible - by taking the path of least resistance. I like to call these people energy-takers - they take the energy out of others or out of a positive environment through selfish acts; such as complaining, gossiping, lying, blaming, and demonstrating unhealthy levels of anger.

We can probably all think of an energy-taker. This is the person that is seemingly never happy and will find a way to complain about everything: it’s too cold outside, my teacher doesn’t like me, I hate homework, and the list goes on and on.

Energy-takers can be very dangerous people to be around for two reasons:

• They will take YOUR energy AND;

• After taking your energy, they will replace that energy with negativity

To put this into perspective, let’s say you arrived at school with an extremely positive attitude and mindset - you had an amazing sleep and feel refreshed and energetic, you got a compliment on how well you look this morning, you have an amazing relationship with your first period teacher, and you had a nutritious breakfast that is going to fuel you to lunch break - so your positive energy level is at a 10.

However, as you walk into class, your long-time best friend since second grade begins to immediately complain about their morning - they got into a fight with their parents, they slept in and missed the bus and didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast or prepare a lunch, and didn’t do their homework because they were binging on YouTube and Netflix the evening before. Once this negative language attaches itself to you, your energy is taken - you too are now in a bad mood. Your level 10 energy is at a 0, and before you know it, you begin to complain about how second period sucks because the teacher is unfair. You are now at a -5. Not only has your positive energy been taken, but it has been now replaced with a huge dose of negativity. Negativity is EXTREMELY CONTAGIOUS - like a flu or cold, if you spend time with someone who is sick, you too will become sick.

Above average people give energy to others! Obviously then, I call these people Energy Givers. Energy-Givers have an others-first mentality. They look for opportunities to do more than their share and leave their environment better than they found it. Energy-Givers bring contagious positive energy that affects others around them. People are often happier around energy givers. This is because just like the negative energy that energy-takers infect people with, positive energy is also very contagious. As a result, people are often drawn to energy givers. Energy givers are world changers. People won’t remember what you said, but people will remember how you made them feel - energy givers get remembered.

Years later, not many of my students will have remembered a single curriculum-based lesson that I taught. Not one has mentioned the amazing activating strategies I used when presenting the levels of industry. But what students do remember is the environment that was created within the classroom - students have felt valued, heard and respected. And they will remember those feelings for the rest of their lives. Those feelings of value and respect will be paid forward to others they meet as well. Just like dropping a rock into a lake, the ripple effect that energy-givers bring to others will go further than anyone can imagine. The legacy of an energy-giver lives on forever.

I like to call average people energy yo-yo’s. Just like a yo-yo, the energy of average people goes up and down, up and down depending on their environment or circumstance. With an energy-yoyo, you never know who is going to show up - it could be the really happy, cheery friend who is smiley and talkative because it’s a warm sunny day and they finished their homework, or it could be the grumpy version of your friend because it started raining this morning and it’s slightly colder than normal. The energy yo-yo is very inconsistent, forever going up and down, depending on what outside circumstance is currently dictating how they should feel and act.

Average people - or about 80% of the population - do what is asked of them - they meet expectations - but they do nothing more. THEY DO NOT CHANGE THE WORLD. They fit in and get comfortable with their surroundings. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with being average. However, average people aren’t influencers or inspirers.

Average people are also greatly impacted by the environment that energy-givers and energy-takers create. They will follow the group that has more control and power. As a teacher, I put most of my focus on the energy-givers because I knew that if they have more control and influence than the energy-takers, the middle 80% - the average - will follow them. Conversely, if the energy-takers have more control and influence, the average will follow them. That is why some classrooms have a toxic environment - the energy-takers have pulled the middle 80% to complain, get distracted, talk loudly, etc. I have seen the exact set of students go into a different environment, but then suddenly, the environment has changed to something way more positive and inviting than it was the period before. This is because the energy-givers are winning the battle this time. As a leader, I make it a priority to cultivate