The beginning is the most important part of the work. -Plato

For educators, administrators, student affairs professionals and others who work in and around the academic calendar, we celebrate New Years twice each year — once in January and, again, in the fall.

Join me and a cohort of Eight Percenters from across North America as we launch 2024-2025 with a strong start.

Program Overview:

2024-2025: A STRONG Start a is thirty-one day program designed to support you as you:

• prepare yourself for the year ahead
• establish goals, expectations, and aspirations for the year
• plan and plot your way forward
• gather resources for success
• cultivate collaborative relationships 
• manage distractions and — often competing — demands 
• all while maintaining your best possible sense of balance and wellbeing

I design 8%STRONG programs to:

• offer, both, synchronous (specific time) and asynchronous (anytime) components 
• provide meaningful and manageable practical resources 
• ground every component in a challenge-by-choice / buffet experience — that means you engage the program at your own pace and in your own way
 

This is not a "100%Strong" program. A 100% investment is rarely possible — heck, for most of us, much of the time, a 50%, 30% or even 10% investment may seem too demanding. 

The eight percent strong philosophy is: We invest enough to make a difference, but not so much that it is unmanageable or overwhelming. This is never more important than at the beginning of the school year.

The result is a whole month of encouragement, connection, support, and progress.

January, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December...

With their 30 or 31 days, they each represent just over eight percent of the calendar year. 

That may not seem like much, but consider:

• for passengers on a flight from Chicago to London, 8% can mean the difference between comfortably landing at Heathrow Airport and ending up somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean
• for runners, 8% can mean the difference between going out for a nice, long jog and completing a marathon
• for students in a traditional classroom, 8% can mean the difference between passing and failing
• for climbers, 8% can mean the difference between hanging out on the side of a mountain and reaching the summit

By fine-tuning our intention and focussing our attention, eight-percent can make a big difference!

The eight percent strong idea came to me some years ago. It was in late November. The year had not gone as well as I had hoped. I was behind on my goals, short on resources, and low on enthusiasm. 

After a bit of rumbling with gremlin-thoughts, a goodly amount of journaling, and some lakefront nature-therapy, I began to recognize a faulty assumption that I had accepted — that the year was already over. It was not over. With December’s 31 days, I still had 8% of the year left to fill with something.

I love questions and find that good questions are among the best tools we have for finding opportunities, unlocking potential, and moving forward.

So, I began puzzling with the question — What have people accomplished in thirty-one days?

That’s all it took to shift my attention and inspire a revitalized intention for the remainder of the year. 

Since then I have celebrated December 1 as a personal holiday: 8%Day. 

Over the years I have shared the power of 8% with friends, family, client-partners, coaching clients, and tobynote readers.

I launched the first month-long program in December of 2020.

In addition to the potential power available in one month, eight percent has come to symbolize the potential power available to us and through us by fine-tuning our intention and focusing our attention — not completely, this is not a 100%Strong program. A 100% investment is rarely possible — heck, for most of us, much of the time, a 50%, 30% or even 10% investment may seem too demanding. 

For Eight Percenters, our philosophy is ... 

We invest enough to make a difference, but not so much that it is unmanageable or overwhelming.

That is why I design each 8%STRONG program as a challenge-by-choice / buffet experience. This means that Eight Percenters engage the resources at their own pace and in their own way.

"Enough to make a difference, but not so much that it is unmanageable or overwhelming..."

As an Eight Percenter, you engage the program at your own pace and in your own way. 

• For some the daily email messages constitute their way of engaging with the program
• For others it is the midweek huddles
• Still others set aside a couple of blocks of time each week to casually peruse the resources to see what speaks to them
• Of course there are others who will grab hold and dig into every component

The only right way to engage the program is the way that best serves you!