Greetings! Today, I am hosting RRBC Spotlight Author John Fioravanti!
Take it away, John. . .
The REFLECTIONS Blog Tour
I’m grateful to my host of this seventh post of the REFLECTIONS TOUR, and to Nonnie Jules and the #RRBC Team who arranged it all!
Reflection 46 • What Winners Have that Losers Don’t
” Winners view ticking clocks as precious time, and work fervently to accomplish much before the sun goes down.
Losers view ticking clocks as the means to get them closer to the end of their 8-hour work day.”
~ Nonnie Jules
Nonnie Jules, founder and President of Rave Reviews Book Club, inspires those around her to be the very best they can be, both in their personal life and their professional life. She is an excellent writer in her own right, as well as a loving mother and wife. She dedicates enormous hours, in any given day, to promote the well-being of others.
The central idea behind this quote is the most significant ingredient in any formula for success, and that is a person’s work ethic. We all know people who work hard at whatever they do and those who seem to be allergic to honest work. I have known families where not all the children grow up with strong work ethics, despite the fact that they had a good example from their parents. I have often wondered why one child in a family is incredibly lazy, while another works very hard at everything. There is so much not understood about human development, but I suspect that a good work ethic is the result of both heredity and environment. A predisposition to exert yourself could be an influential factor.
Having said that, I do believe that responsibility is learned. Parents must teach their children about priorities and then model those lessons. Not only must we teach the important priorities, but also that priority activities are completed first. One other aspect to this teaching is the importance of giving our work our best effort every time. We need to instil work principles: a job isn’t done until it is done well; it’s important to strive to improve our performance each and every day.
When a child grows to maturity having mastered and internalized these lessons, how can they not be the winners Nonnie Jules references? My parents modelled hard work and taught their children the lessons outlined above. Yet, I recall that it took a long time for me to develop my work ethic. I could have earned much higher grades in high school and university if I hadn’t been so lazy then. I did only what had to be done and that was all. I wasn’t prepared to expend any extra effort. Perhaps it was immaturity. I do understand laziness to a degree – it’s easy. Unfortunately, it is a one-way ticket to Loserville.
I turned the proverbial corner and began to develop my work ethic after my first year of teaching. My attitude changed because my work became very important to me. I chose to become the best teacher I could be, and spent the next thirty-four years working each day to be a better educator than I was the day before. It was, and is, a mindset.
This quote describes how winners view the passing hours on a clock. I immediately identified with Jules’ words. That’s how I feel, I thought. But for me, the concept of the sun going down is more figurative than literal. As a young man beginning my career in education, my whole life stretched out before me. Now, most of my life is behind me. There is an urgency within me spawning my second wind. I have unrealized dreams and I don’t have decades more to achieve them. The hours of each day are precious… not to be wasted… but filled with the best efforts I have to give. I begrudge the hours of sleep my body needs each day.
Am I a winner? I know that I may never achieve my dreams – either because my days ran out or skill was lacking. But as long as I stay in the race and put my heart and soul into my work, then yes, I’ll die a winner. My dad taught me as a teenager that the perfect man is one who never quits in the face of failure. I have tried my best to live that way, and I’m grateful to mentors like Nonnie Jules for the wisdom and inspiration to fight the good fight and run the race.
Author Bio:
John Fioravanti is a retired secondary school educator who completed his thirty-five year career in the classroom in June, 2008.
Throughout his career, John focused on developing research, analysis, and essay writing skills in his History classroom. This led to the publication of his first non-fiction work for student use, Getting It Right in History Class. A Personal Journey to the Heart of Teaching is his second non-fiction work; it attempts to crystallize the struggles, accomplishments, and setbacks experienced in more than three decades of effort to achieve excellence in his chosen field.
John’s first work of fiction is Passion & Struggle, Book One of The Genesis Saga, and is set within Kenneth Tam’s Equations universe (Iceberg Publishing). He claims that, after two non-fiction books, he’s having the time of his life bringing new stories and characters to life! Book Two is Treachery & Triumph.
At present, John lives in Waterloo, Ontario with Anne, his bride of forty-six years. They have three children and three grandchildren. In December of 2013, John and Anne founded Fiora Books for the express purpose of publishing John’s books.
