Practice Challenge Update | Week 20 of 20
In January of this year, I issued a Practice Challenge to my students. "It's a new year. We're stuck in quarantine. Let's make this our year of best growth ever." As anticipated, the students were ready to go, but I wasn't sure who might have the wherewithal to maintain such dedication to a goal. After all, this Challenge was no joke. The goal was to practice for 20 minutes 5 days a week...for 20 weeks. Every week this was accomplished, they received a letter clue to a phrase. In order to succeed, they would not only have to collect all 20 letters, but embrace the objective of any practice challenge I give my students: to see marked improvement and to create the powerful discipline of daily habits.
I made it my personal challenge to document our weekly progress by sharing it in this blog format every week. This was a decision I regretted pretty much every week. I found it laborious to set aside other tasks, sit down and try to fill an empty page with meaning. On particularly lethargic days, my thoughts would whisper to me, "Julie, you know nobody reads these anyway. It doesn't matter if you write one or not." Or "You don't really have anything to say this week. Skip it. Hey, look! Your Pinterest window is still open!" Unfortunately, I had already advertised to my students that I'd be taking on a Challenge alongside them, so not doing it wasn't an option. Checking in with them each week, I knew they were putting in the time. Listening to their progress was so deeply inspiring, so I made myself sit down every week and write about something important to me and this studio.
When the Challenge officially ended and all of the final clue letters dispersed, 78% of the studio had crushed it.
The finishers will be recognized at our mini Award Ceremonies this week, but their rewards for this accomplishment are incredibly long-lasting and transferrable. Their boldness this year has inspired new changes in this studio that I will be unveiling over the next couple of weeks.
The Unlocking My Potential Challenge Winners are: Adalyn, Audrey, Ayannah, Barrett, Becky, Ellis, Ethan, Evelyn, Jack, Jasmine, Liam, Lillyana, Nick, Priyanka, Rachael, Rayne, Riley P., Simrik, Willa, Zach, Zeke and Zoe. Congratulations!!