August is a pressure filled month in schools, and ours is no exception. In the midst of the August rush, I found an unexpected wave of insight while pressure washing my sidewalk. Specifically, the efforts of my labor made me smile as, inch by inch, each strip of dirt on the sidewalk disappeared, leaving a shiny clean spot in its place. How satisfying, I thought, to see results like this! Wouldn't it be great if I could get these results in all aspects of my life? Then it hit me. Intense concentration of like efforts is the only way to garner results whether your work is pressure washing, educating children, or coordinating a space probe to Mars.Finding the proper application of intense concentration is a finely tuned initiative; aim too high and you lose accuracy, causing your efforts to wash over your target without actually getting what you had hoped. Aim too low, and the overflow spills back at you, again missing the mark. So to my my digital friends, I leave you with this: we find success as the result of collective, continuous pressure, aimed exactly in the right direction, from exactly the proper vantage point. Miss any part of this formula and you risk losing a foot (or a student's 'ah ha' moment, or maybe even evidence of a Martian...).
