Stinky cleats and stinky attitudes: both should be tossed

It is like cutting onions. One whiff of my son's football cleats and you're crying. It was so bad this week, my youngest son and I drove with the windows down and our heads out the window in a rainstorm because they were tossed in the backseat before we left school.
Yesterday I was at my desk and I was like “oh my goodness, what is that?” Looking around for the dead rat, I looked behind my door and he had stored… you guessed it, the stinky cleats. Good glory, what's the story?
So unsavory, why is this worth discussing?

Because some people have stinky cleats for an attitude. 

Their attitudes are so bad that others go running when they are nearby. If you get stuck with them in the backseat, you wish you could politely hang your head out the window… even in a rainstorm… to escape the whiny, crabby, fussing.
It makes you want to cry. It makes you want to die. It makes you want to quit teaching. Anything to get away from the smell.
Sour, stinky attitudes are so bad, you lose the ability to savor the sweet aroma of blessings in your life.

Run. Like a gazelle from the hungry cheetah. Run for your life. As far away from the stinky cleat attitude that you can. Your life, your professionalism, and your joy depend on it.
One day these cleats will go in the trash – I'd get bad will from Goodwill if I dared… and I wouldn't dare.

Maybe you're the stinky cleat. 

We've all made a mess of our own attitudes. I have too. Last week I wrote about 3 ways to give yourself a lift. After you accept responsibility for your attitude – take the proven steps to give your attitude a boost.
Your attitude belongs to you. Whether stinky or sweet as jasmine —-it is yours. Like jasmine, it spreads to other places quietly underground in ways you don't understand.
If I had to choose between a good attitude or having a MENSA level IQ, I'd choose the good attitude with a good work ethic any time.
There are reasons. You don't have a bad attitude for no reason. If you think, you can load up on reasons. Good reasons can throw us into bad seasons of life, no doubt. Sadly, most people would rather have a pity party than a victory party. But there are those that transcend. I want it to be me and you!! Let's do it.
Get up, throw out the cleats and start living, my friends.
Teaching is a gift … to your students and to yourself. Take steps to throw that old stinky attitude away… it just repels all the blessings and good things awaiting you and your students.
Out with stinky cleats!
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