‘In many ways, it comes down to details. The intense focus on those pertinent details cements the foundation that establishes excellence in performance.’ This was a comment made by Bill Walsh, the successful and legacy-building coach of the San Francisco 49ers. We talked about his Standard of Excellence in assembly two weeks ago, which framed our theme for the year: 100% Every Day. It’s a key message for our young people as we encourage them to strive for personal growth and to pursue their potential.
We segued from Bill Walsh to the actor Matthew McConaughey’s work during this week’s assembly, when we continued to unpack our value of Excellence and theme for the year. Excellence is in the details, and as McConaughey passionately argues, it’s the tiny decisions we make every day that lead to ‘high-performance. Life is a verb, he explains, and it’s ‘about the process, always about the process.’
In his excellent book, Greenlights, McConaughey writes about affirmative moments in life, the successes, lessons, and opportunities that signal you are on the right track. He defines these as greenlights, the signal to go forward. He encourages us to watch out for them. Conversely, yellow and red lights relate to hardships, crises, or interruptions that are challenging in the moment. In the rearview mirror, they are often viewed as greenlights, a pivot point at which something might have changed for the better. McConaughey encourages us to lean into the harder moments and create greenlights. His work speaks to persistence and resilience, but also a growth mindset about how we can grow our abilities and draw on all experiences, good and seemingly bad, that we encounter as we journey through life. This was great messaging for our students as they set about navigating the ebbs and flows of the academic year.
I was taken back to the book on the drive to Te Anau last week when I listened to a podcast interview with McConaughey. He talked about his decision to leave law school in his sophomore year to pursue a career in the arts. He worried about his father’s response, coming from a blue-collar and hard-working Texan family. His dad, though, responded to this news by telling him to go for it, but not ‘half-ass it’. While giving his approval, he was also telling Matthew to go all in and give it everything. Nothing else was acceptable.
In the interview, as I shared with the boys, he linked biology to the idea of what he termed ‘giddyup’, the innate ability we possess and work ethic. What are we good at, he asks, but more importantly, what are we willing to commit to, give all our effort to and work our ‘butts’ off for? This was a powerful message to put in front of the boys as the dust settles on the term, they reflect on their start, and what is needed to push forward in the classroom. 100% Every Day.
We discussed other concepts in the book and the podcast that resonate with the learning culture we’re building at McGlashan. ‘Getting relative with the inevitable’, as I shared, is the acceptance that we’ll encounter unavoidable and difficult moments, but as an individual, we can choose how we respond. We can also take control of our lives by eliminating those habits that don’t serve us (the process of elimination) to realise our potential. This connects to the concept of ‘less impressed, more involved’, a call to action: stop being a spectator and actively participate in your life. Finally, we talked about his belief that the ‘roof is a man-made(sic) limit’, which is the encouragement to remove imaginary constraints and to avoid complacency. A key takeaway from McConaughey’s work that I underscored to the boys is his belief that preparation gives freedom. When you are prepared, you are not thinking about anything anymore. Doing the work ‘liberates you’.
As we settle into the term and embed our theme of 100% Every Day, we realise that Excellence is forged in the choices we make, the courage to lean into the inevitable challenges, to remove self-imposed limits and the habits holding us back, and to go all in and prepare to the nth degree so that the work liberates and we realise our potential. Our work is collaborative with parents and whānau, and we ask that you encourage your young people to commit fully to their ‘giddyup’ and embrace both the green and the red lights.
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