There are days when I feel I’ve missed my calling and should be a coach instead of (or maybe in addition to) begin a teacher.
I seem to run into a number of people who are wrestling with a behavioral issue, and either don’t see a problem with this or genuinely want to break the habit. (I see more of the first than the second.
When you keep doing something you know you shouldn’t, regardless of how you feel about it, there are generally negative consequences that result from it, and because you’ve done nothing to create a more positive situation, you’ve lost your right to complain about what happens to you.
What I’ve been trying to encourage each and every one of these people to do is to take the energy they would have put into the destructive behavior and channel it somewhere creative. They don’t have to make art, but they do have to create something. So far, no one has told me how it’s going, but I’ve just started promoting this technique, and I hope to find someone having a breakthrough before too long.
Are things going poorly for you? Identify behaviors that might be self-destructive, and every time you see yourself trying to do that, stop and channel that energy into creating something. You’ll find it’s a far better use of your time and energy, and something positive might even come out of it!
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development at 7:41 AM EDT
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I’m nearly done working through the competencies. I think I’m approaching them wrong, though, because I seem to be more focused on my general behavior than finding really specific examples…which really defeats the point of the competencies. I’m sure I’ll be going back through and reworking them with a little more thought.
Things are slowly emerging, though. Patterns and histories I’ve forgotten. It’s been kind of fun to reconnect with myself through something that wasn’t exactly designed to make me reconnect.
I’m also looking through The Artist’s Way with the intention of starting it after I get my competencies straightened out and start organizing them into a new resume. It’s supposed to help you find your lost inner creativity and push through artistic walls, but I’m finding that much of the advice and exercises are things I’ve put myself through in the last year or so on my own because it occurred to me on my own that they’d be useful.
I’m not sure how to deal with that.
The best part about working through all of this is that both together are providing a framework of sorts to start redesigning this website, something I’ve needed to do for a while. I’m learning who I am, what I am, and what’s important to me. That’s going to come in very handy when trying to make this site better reflect me.
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development at 7:46 AM EDT
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Working my way through this competency-based resume and strengths finding material has taught me one thing- teachers really have to have it all.
In pulling together anecdotes and examples for each competency, I’d noticed that a good number of my leadership examples came from my days with a medieval roleplaying group, and the rest came from somewhere in my teaching experience. I think almost all of my communication examples have come from somewhere in my teaching background.
I think this has a lot to do with the fact that a teaching situation is a microcosm. Regardless of how the teacher sets up that teaching situation, they are still the one in charge, the one running the show. They have to be able to communicate expectations and explanations without losing the student. They have to be able to facilitate changes in the teaching situation. They have to remain approachable to their students and their peers. They have to be able to bounce ideas off their peers, and to be able to allow students to bounce ideas off them.
There’s a lot more to teaching than most people realize.
In creating my examples, I’ve noticed a large gap of time where I wasn’t really drawing on any of my innate skills. I was very unhappy and at the end of my rope during that time. I think that speaks volumes about working toward your strengths and being the person you are supposed to be, rather than the one who just tries to get by.
I realize I took this project on as a means of revamping and strengthening my resume, and as a backbone for building a portfolio, but I think in the end it’s going to be an interesting way to find myself, to find the person who’s been lost for so long. Even when I have to ask myself, “Is that all?” when I can only think of one example for a competency, I’m learning so much about who I am and how I function.
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development at 8:41 AM EDT
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