Wade Redeker

Hey! My colleagues at NPR made a voter registration guide. Enter your state and learn the deadlines to register in time to make your voice heard in this year’s primaries. apps.npr.org/voter-registra…

Truth. 💯

One of the easiest traps to fall into is confusing productivity with progress. You answer emails. You attend meetings. You organize files. You check things off your to-do list. And at the end of the day… you feel busy. But being busy isn’t the same as moving the needle. In fact, a lot of what we call “productivity” is really just comfortable procrastination. It’s doing the easy, familiar tasks that make us feel accomplished while avoiding the harder work that actually drives results. The tough conversation. The creative thinking. The deep work that requires focus and courage. High performers learn to ask a simple question: Is this task helping me move forward, or just helping me feel busy? Because real progress usually lives on the other side of the work we’re most tempted to avoid.

Doing the reading is a superpower, and it's even better in a world where "no one" is doing the reading. (Inspired by a conversation I had with some college students.)

“Stress is the desire for things to be different than they are in the present moment.” Stress is not caused by circumstances and events - it’s caused by resisting them. Accept what is.

I asked Ben McCollum why he approaches every practice and game like an NCAA Tournament game: “If you create that habit of being ready, then you don’t always have to motivate yourself to get ready for that game.”

When a high percentage of students can’t read on grade level, school leaders face a defining moment. Incremental change isn’t enough. It takes urgency, focus, and the courage to challenge practices that aren’t working. Nothing matters more than ensuring students can read well.

“The most successful and highest performing people in every industry are those that go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they woke up.” - Charlie Munger

"The way to accomplish everything is to wake up each day with the mindset that you haven't accomplished anything." - anonymous

“We’re not going to recruit selfish guys, I guys, or guys who don’t want to pay the price.” - Curt Cignetti 🔥 That line should be printed on every locker room wall in America. Talent matters. But mindset, toughness, and team-first habits matter more.

It’s easy to be enamored with someone’s talent. But I am far more impressed with someone’s discipline, work ethic, and process.

Being coachable means you're willing to consider feedback even if you don't like what you hear. It means resisting the urge to make excuses or get defensive when challenged. Getting better is more important than your ego.

If you wait until you love the work to start doing it, you'll never get good enough to actually enjoy it.

The habit you should really be paying attention to is how you think. Your reactions. Your patterns. Physical habits are discussed a lot, but nothing will uplevel your life like changing how you think.

Leaders aim to serve, not please. They aim to impact, not impress.

You should promote your culture openly and consistently. Those messages should be clear, unique, and repeatable. This will make them easy to amplify!

Your values (as an individual, team and organization) aren't what you say they are. Your values are what you consistently do and allow. Live the standard you preach.

People are not loyal to jobs. They are not loyal to businesses. They are loyal to other people. Relationships create loyalty.

Discipline is taking ownership of what you can control. Trust is letting go of what you can’t control. Having high awareness of each is a vital requirement for maximizing performance and fulfillment.

You can complain, compare, make excuses, waste time on distractions, criticize and blame. Or you can do the work to make things better. How you spend your time is a choice.