Who do you want to be?

A high school principal I know told a story told to her by another principal. It was approximately:

A lot of students ask me what it takes to get into the National Honor Society. But one student stood out for asking a different question: "What is it like to be a member of the National Honor Society?" (emphasis mine)

This question bounced in my mind off something else I heard recently, on a college tour with one of my daughters. There, one of the admissions officials said something like:

Most of our students share the following three characteristics (what they were doesn't really matter). You don't have to have all three of these, or two of them, or even one. But you should want to be around people like that.

For students looking at colleges, or, in fact, for any of us looking at a new job with a new organization, or a new role of any kind, these questions provide a valuable way of thinking about what to do:

• What are the characteristics of the people involved?

• Does that represent the kind of person I am on my way to becoming?

• Does that represent the kind of person I want to be?

• Do I want to spend (a lot of) time with people like that?

If the answer to any of the last three is "no", then it doesn't seem like it's the best place to go, no matter how prestigious, ego-boosting, or monetarily rewarding it may be.