Ever feel like somewhere along the way what you thought held huge value turned out to be worthless to invest in? It probably happens more than we realize and it can take some new inspiration and creativity to deal with the paradigm shift in our thinking.
My partner in chaos management- er, husband Mike, has a penchant for finding deals at auctions and sales. It's become a hobby of his to turn trash into treasure. Since he's so good at it, I've made peace with the garage full of ...what should I say....masterpieces in the making??? He can upcycle someone's throwaway door into a multi-paned picture frame. He has been known to transform a long-forsaken and damaged coffee table into a shadow box conversation piece full of family memorabilia. He repurposed a rusted file cabinet into a macho bedside table. He converted an old wooden pallet into a colorful sign for my classroom reading canopy. Creative inspiration? Check out the photo evidence, you guys. He nails it! My completely objective proud wife opinion is that he needs to have his own show on DIY Network!
Mike also has his eyes peeled for valuable antiques to pass along to the right collector or business and turn a profit in the process. I could totally see him owning the role of an American Picker... like a boss! Apparently, there's some kind of high you experience when you pick an antique and know you are guaranteed to double or triple your money on the resale. There's also a huge letdown when you think you found a something of great worth that just needs little polish, only to find out it wasn't valuable at all and you lost money on the thing! That's happened to him before. The lesson was learned on a old time silver tea set that wasn't really silver. And again, on the gold jewelry that wasn't really gold...wah, wah, wahhhh! Disappointing, of course, but he recovered quickly enough. You can't keep a good man down- on to the next deal!
Personally, I have experienced the letdown of investing in a skill that I deemed valuable, only to discover it was bankrupting my spirit. When I began teaching, I remember being encouraged to be flexible. Flexibility was key so I could meet the needs of students, follow directions from administration, build relationships with parents, develop curriculum and lesson plans, increase achievement within the parameters of the school schedule and deal with the ever-changing variable of student behavior. {Feel free to insert the laundry list of the challenges of your profession/daily life and how you must change in order to meet expectations here!} In my pursuit of making sure I was being flexible to MEET ALL OF THE NEEDS ALL OF THE TIME, I convinced myself that multi-tasking at work was a very valuable skill that I should possess to help me succeed. My self talk was along the lines of "Sure! I can talk with my students, complete paperwork, and answer emails at the same time. I'm flexible and this is all important." Later it turned into "I can teach this lesson, make notes of student performance, record this good idea that just came to me to use in the future, and troubleshoot the technology issue that has just reared it's ugly head because I am good at multi-tasking and this is all very urgent right now!" Looking back, I have to shake my head in disappointment because it kind of evolved into a prideful attitude of becoming "superteacher" and rescuing everyone and everything I considered within my reach. And you know the saying: "Pride goes before a fall..."
Fast forward to a day sometime ago after living with this value system of several years. I will never forget the feeling of being so drained at the end of the day that I had no mental energy left to problem solve at home. I will always remember that feeling of complete frustration and anger with myself when I lost my patience with a student in need of assistance because I was in the midst of printing off lesson materials from my computer, trying to think of an appropriate response to an upset parent to explain a misunderstanding, and supervise my students at centers - AT THE SAME TIME. I saw the student needing my help as the interruption to my multi-tasking fervor. HOW IN THE WORLD did that happen??? I am the TEACHER and HELPING STUDENTS is my PRIORITY, for the love!!! But my time and energy went into making sure EVERYTHING urgent and important was accomplished as soon as possible. My multi-tasking ways were robbing me of the joy of interacting with my students and the reward of being fully aware of their "a-ha" moments and celebrating with them. I might also add that I realized I had become used to spreading myself so thin trying to cover all of the bases, that I lost my focus and efficiency at getting tasks completed in a way that made me proud of the finished product. Small jobs were taking twice as long and my RESENTMENT AT THE TIME I SPENT AT MY JOB was taking over my life.
It became evident to me that a paradigm shift had to happen for me to create the joy in my life and in my career. MULTI-TASKING WAS NO LONGER MY FRIEND. Living in the moment and FOCUSING MY ATTENTION ON THE MATTERS OF THE PRESENT became the most valuable skill to me in my workplace. I came to discern the difference between urgent and important. My number one job is connecting with and engaging kids in the learning process. I have plenty of other tasks to do, of course. But I don't have to do them all at once.
Now my creativity goes into making efficient routines that focus on one task at a time. Can I just get nitty gritty with practical stuff for a minute? Those emails can wait until my students are out of the classroom where I can steadily work through them and devote my concentration to writing appropriate replies. The words come out easier with less time spent as I respond to one email after another. Printing out lesson resources can be done after I have found several that I like, saved them to one place, and then I can sort through and prioritize without having to assign each idea in its designated lesson as soon as I see it (and probably end up changing it later anyway). Correcting assignments/grading assessments can happen at time in my schedule where I only work on that group of assignments/assessments so that I establish a "flow" in the grading pattern and it takes me less time to finish the stack; whereas when trying to grade a few at a time, here and there, or while trying to listen to a student share their work, makes it take twice as long. I try to start at the beginning of tasks and work all of the way to the end as much as possible.
I owe so much to this author Angela Watson. Her chapter on "Being Present and Looking for the Light Bulb Moments" was just what I needed to help me in my paradigm shift.
However, we all know schedules are not perfect. Sometimes I can't work from start to finish. It really helps me to designate a segment of time and concentrate solely on ONE THING for that time. When the timer goes off, I don't worry about was not done. My self talk goes like this, "That felt good to get that chunk of work done. The kiddos are coming back from lunch now and they will need my full attention to settle back into class after the hub-bub of the cafeteria, so I will finish the rest after school today." No multi-tasking, no guilt, NO MISSING OUT ON THE JOY OF STUDENT AND TEACHER INTERACTION.
I'm so much happier remembering how to focus on my passion for kids and learning. I'm still tired at the end of the day (yeah- because that's normal when you teach 20 four & five-year-olds all day) but not drained. I can feel good knowing that I concentrated on the important and gave my best effort. I am proud of what was accomplished.
Don't miss out on your joy. What paradigm shift needs to happen for your peace and well-being? It might be time to realize that what you thought was valuable is making your spirit bankrupt. Get inspired to develop a new value system based on what you are passionate about. Give yourself some time and grace in transitioning into your new way of thinking- it might take a while to get the hang of it. Adapt your system, execute your plan, and enjoy your investment! YOU CREATE THE JOY THAT MAKES YOUR LIFE BETTER.
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