You're Further Along Than You Think

Most teachers I know can recite their shortcomings from memory. Their wins? That takes longer.

For the next six weeks, we're going to break down the STRONG Framework — one letter at a time.

You've heard me talk about STRONG. Maybe you've used pieces of it. But I want to slow down and actually live inside each pillar for a week — not just define it, but show you why it matters, what it looks like in a real classroom, and how to practice it without adding more to your plate.

Six letters. Six weeks.

Week 1 — S: Successes. What you're already doing right — and why you keep missing it.
Week 2 — T: Thoughts & Takeaways. How to actually learn from your experience, not just survive it.
Week 3 — R: Recovery & Renewal. Rest isn't a reward. It's a practice.
Week 4 — O: Optimize. Small improvements, compounded. The STRONG Teacher way in and out of the classroom.
Week 5 — N: No to Perfectionism. Release what you can't control.
Week 6 — G: Gratitude & Growth. Presence, purpose, and moving forward — even when it's hard.

Each week builds on the one before. By Week 6, you won't just know the framework. You'll have lived it.

Here we go.

QUOTE

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." — Seneca

RESOURCE

The Win You Walked Past Today

You're staring at your to-do list — everything that didn't get done, the lesson that ran long, the student you didn't get to check in with, the email you still haven't answered.

Sound familiar? Most teachers I know can recite their shortcomings from memory. Their wins? That takes longer.

The S in STRONG stands for Successes — and it's not there to make you feel good. It's there because what you focus on grows. Seneca knew it two thousand years ago. Neuroscience confirmed it more recently: the brain has a negativity bias — it registers threats and failures faster and more durably than wins. You're not being hard on yourself because you're a perfectionist. You're being hard on yourself because your brain is doing exactly what brains do.

The practice of naming your successes isn't a gratitude journal exercise. It's a recalibration — a way of training your attention toward what's actually true, not just what's loudest. The pull toward what went wrong is strong. But I've learned that skipping the wins doesn't make you more rigorous. It just makes you tired.

Here's what I want you to notice: a success doesn't have to be significant. Any win, no matter how small, counts.

Try it this week — three ways to practice S:

Friday at 3:00 pm (or whenever your kids leave): Before anything else, write down three things that went better today than they could have. Not better than last year. Better than they could have gone today.
One student, one moment: Think of a student you connected with this week — even briefly. Name the moment.
The system that held: What's one routine, structure, or habit in your classroom that worked without you having to fight for it? Write it down. You built that.

Research on teacher self-efficacy — a teacher's belief in their ability to influence outcomes — consistently shows that it predicts retention, resilience, and student achievement more reliably than almost any external factor. And self-efficacy is built brick by brick through noticing what works.

You're further along than you think. The evidence is there. You just have to look for it.

BOOK

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff - Neff is a researcher at UT Austin who spent years studying why high-achieving people — teachers included — find it so hard to acknowledge their own progress. Her answer isn't what you'd expect. This isn't a feel-good book. It's a science-backed argument that self-compassion is a performance strategy, not a soft one — and the chapter on how self-criticism actually undermines the growth it's meant to produce is worth sitting with slowly. Check it out.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Your purchases through these links help support this newsletter at no extra cost to you. Thank you.

AFFIRMATION

I don't have to earn the right to acknowledge what I've done well — noticing my wins is part of doing the work.

P.S. The STRONG Framework isn't just something you read about — it's something you practice in community. Inside The STRONG Teachers Lounge, this week's discussion prompt goes deeper on the S pillar: what counts as a success, how to spot wins you've been dismissing, and what other teachers are actually doing to make this stick. Come practice it with us. Join the Lounge.

Stay STRONG, Jeremy