The B.E.S.T. Formula: What is it?

“Be your best.” “Look your best.” “Nothing but the best.”

Teachers are always striving for “the best” in their students and in themselves. But what does that really mean? As an educator, you know that “being at one’s best” is more than reaching the highest test score or receiving “Distinguished” in your principal’s evaluation (although that is totally cool).

Being “best” is more than the accomplishment itself; it’s the process of striving.

Synonyms for “best” include: Excellent. Effective. Premier. Optimum. Unbeatable.

Sounds like a star athlete, doesn’t it?

Being a star athlete requires consistent effort and physical training. But ~ even more ~ it requires a certain mindset that trusts the possibility of excellence and inspires you to move toward a goal, over and over again.

Here’s what some of the world’s best athletes say about what it takes to be at the top of your game:

• Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan, Professional Basketball Player
• Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her. ~ Mia Hamm, U.S. Women’s Soccer
• Champions keep playing until they get it right. ~ Billie Jean King, Wimbledon Tennis Champion

And, my personal favorite:

• It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. ~ Muhammad Ali, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

I have spent the better part of my teaching career studying what people do to “keep the faith” ~ to get back up and keep going, keep playing, keep climbing, keep falling in love with what they’re doing ~ even if there’s a pebble in their shoe.

A few years ago ~ just as I returned to teaching high school again ~ I was out for a walk and suddenly got what I can only describe as a “download from the heavens”.

I remember the street I was on and the enormous elm tree I was passing under, on that early fall day. I experienced an explosion of awareness about the ingredients I needed to keep me going as a teacher. Because, quite frankly, I was about to quit after only being in the classroom for a few months.

The word “Best” dropped into my consciousness and set up shop. By the time I got home, an entire framework — a formula — had come into being. A graphic artist helped me explain it this way:

Everything about this “formula” rang true in my heart of hearts, but I didn’t know at the time what it meant for my life, for the reality of being a teacher.

For the past few years, I’ve been exploring these attributes. Answers continue to evolve, but what I am learning is this:

To “stay in the game” as a teacher — to not quit when the going gets tough and there’s a pebble in my shoe — I ask myself one question every morning before crossing the threshold of my classroom:

“Which key ingredient in The B.E.S.T. Formula will help me be at my best today?”

• Do I need to do something that’s a little more BRAVE with myself, a student, a colleague?
• Is there something I can do myself or with my students to be more EFFECTIVE?
• Would engaging in more SELF-CARE help me accomplish the plethora of tasks on my ever-growing To Do list?
• What action would make today a TRANSFORMATIVE one for myself and/or my students or a colleague or even a parent?

I run these questions through and pick the one that feels the most alive.

All I can say is that engaging in this process has saved me, over and over again. I find that I am filled more optimism, and not so shaken when something doesn’t go as planned (which is most of the time). In short, I have more energy for the long game.

This year, I am working on further developing The B.E.S.T. Formula, and will create a handbook and a self-guided course for teachers (with coaching).

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Thank you!

AND REMEMBER: If you want to make a difference, you have to make it YOU.