The world has so much stimulus flying at us in all directions.
We tune a lot of it out.
I’m thinking a lot about how to resensitise ourselves to the world.
What do you focus on? What do you put in your body on a regular basis? How do you move your body?
All of these things have an effect on my capacity to feel and be moved by the world around me.
A feather can be moved by a baby’s breath.
A rock cannot.
If you know, you know.
And you’re responsible, by the way, to be the best yoghurt you can be.
I think this is a good goal. Sometimes when I hear people say “no regrets”, it’s a bit like they are being careless or maybe even reckless.
“No regrets” for me is about never coming out of a situation or interaction with a regret.
I never want to look back on how I was and see someone who is unkind, unjust or short tempered.
And those moments come up, for sure. You’re a bit tired or at the end of your tether.
This frame helps a lot: “will I regret it later if I act in this way?”
If you can do that over and over again, you’ll have a regret free life.
And that’s a pretty great outcome.
“No regrets”
Some days you knock it out of the park
and some days you just do what you can.
Those days count the most, by the way.
In the pursuit of something you want to do or make happen, there are two options that might run through your mind:
I don’t know about you, but my brain LOVES to picture option 2. But just like when you buy a new shirt and suddenly see it everywhere, you tend to get what you focus on.
Let’s spend no energy on option 2.
Let’s spend it all on option 1, shall we?
When you teach a class of kids there are two objectives.
The surface objective: The educational deliverable (times tables, a song, handwriting skills)
And then there is the meta objective.
The meta objective is the underlying lesson you want your students to absorb.
The beliefs in themselves or about the world and the people in it. It might be the ability to seek the answers they need or how to work as a team. Or how to solve interesting problems.
The meta objective is a bit of a through-line and won’t change much day to day.
Ask your self: What do I want my students to fundamentally believe?
The answer to a question like that is the meta objective. The meta objective is never to be spoken outloud- that’s too obvious. And it probably won’t go ‘in’ if you do.
It’s much more powerfully communicated through the way you interact, how you teach, how you speak, what you’e doing when your students think you think you’re alone.
Choose your meta objective wisely- it’s where all our power lies as teachers.
We always have a choice in the way we communicate.
We can let our mood make a choice by default.
Or we can be intentional about the way we want the other person to feel.
You always have the choice to be kind and make someone feel seen, heard and safe.
So it’s up to you.
How you hold your body is how you appear to the world.
And, happily, how you hold your body will eventually affect your mood.
You should choose that pretty carefully too then
You might not need killer productivity
Or the best ideas
and you might not to be the best.
All you need it passion. That vital SPARK that emboldens others, makes them their best and brings out your best.
I’m pretty sure just priming this state each day is about 80% of the battle.
You cannot judge people based on the state they are in.
They may be hungry
tired
or maybe had too much sugar earlier.
It’s generous to give people the benefit of the doubt
