Building a Discipline Bridge
By Erin Elliott
Director of Student Life, Academics and Admissions
About ten years ago, my family planned a trip to San Francisco, California to celebrate my father’ s 50th birthday. Among many plans, we intended to spend an afternoon visiting the Golden Gate Bridge. That same summer I had taken up running, a new sport for me at the time. My dad and I both set a goal to run the length of the Golden Gate Bridge when we visited. In the weeks leading up to our trip, I spent my evenings after work preparing for our run across the bridge’ s 1.7 mile span. I set smaller goals to help me meet my larger goal of crossing the bridge. First I aimed to run. 5 miles without stopping to walk, then 1 mile, then 1.5 miles. I continued this progression until I could run 4 miles without stopping. Though the bridge was less than 2 miles long, I knew it had quite a bit of elevation and wind, both factors that I was not used to in my training environment of flat corn fields. Because of these added factors, I determined I needed to be able to run at least 4 miles in order to build sufficient endurance to cross the Golden Gate. One week before our trip, I met my goal of running 4 miles without stopping. Accomplished, I felt ready as could be for our trip.
Finally, the day of our visit to the Golden Gate Bridge arrived. We parked the car, laced up our sneakers and started running. The winds were palpable. And the bridge’ s incline difficult. But my training had well prepared me for our run, or so I thought. We got to the other side, turned around to take in the San Francisco skyline and my dad enthusiastically declared,“ Great! Now, we run back!” My mind started racing. Could I do that? I was prepared to walk back, but run? And back up the hill, with the wind in our faces? I shot an,“ are you serious” glance at my dad. As he started jogging, he said calmly,“ You can do it. You’ ve been training all summer for this goal.” Giving up on this challenge was not an option, and I knew it. So we ran back across the bridge. Wind in our face.
Incline seemingly steeper than before. Legs burning. Breath running out. But we made it.
I think of this experience often, especially at the beginning of each new school year. Not only did running the Golden Gate Bridge become a magic memory for me and my dad, it is also a great example of the importance of setting worthy goals and maintaining the discipline needed to achieve them. If I had not trained as I did for our run across the bridge( and back), I likely would not have been able to achieve my goal. Just the same, if not for the people supporting me along the way, achieving my goal would have been that much more difficult, if not impossible.
At IJGA, we endeavor to help all our students set goals, identify their aspirations and courageously pursue the actions necessary to achieve both. On Sunday, August 19th, we gathered as an IJGA community for a morning of character and leadership development. We launched our use of the Habitudes Curriculum – working together through a 45-minute lesson fittingly called, The Discipline Bridge. This lesson about determining goals and establishing habits to achieve them, set the stage for all students to identify their life’ s aspiration and mission as well as detailing their golf, academic and college placement goal. In between the Habitudes lesson and goal setting, each student got the opportunity to review their Mental Golf Workshop Profile, a personality profile specifically designed for golfers to better understand their tendencies and learning potentials. In the days, weeks, and year ahead the student life, golf and college placement teams will use the information shared and gathered during this kickoff event to help each IJGA student fulfill their aspirations. We will work alongside each student, helping them build their own, unique discipline bridges for success in school, golf and life. We hope in the course of pursuing and achieving their goals, our students will form healthy habits and the discipline to lead lives of good character and positive leadership in all they do. We hope, too, they will experience the joy of embracing a challenge and overcoming it. Along this journey may they learn the value of hard work, the reward of sustained effort, and the power of creating magic memories like the one I made when I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge( twice).
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