Perhaps a joke the universe is telling to me, my last post about the new normal has been proven wrong. I'm not writing this over my lunch break. I'm writing it after working all Sunday, preparing online class material for the online classes I'll be teaching this week. (And the volunteer, human values and spirituality based class I've been co-teaching every weekend for a few years.)
One of our students tested positive for covid, so we all went online for the rest of the week and for this coming week. If all continues without further developments, we'll be back to in-person starting a week from now. And yes, I've been tested and came back negative. Though my heart rate was so low they thought something was wrong with me and called me back in. (Nothing was wrong. I just have a really slow heart rate. Probably a mixture of jogging every day and meditating and genetics.)
I love the weekend class I teach because it gives me a chance to review all the important ideas I know and practice them at a deeper level. For example, today I was talking about growth mindset vs. fixed mindset. I shared a video by Carol Dweck, and some nice quotes, and it reminded me how important it is to take that approach to life. It's much more calming, and at the same time, more adventurous. It makes it more fun to take risks, and do stuff I'm not good at. Which, as a still new teacher, is a lot. I feel like I'm continually off balance, and have been for years, but I think that itself is my training; can I be balanced and relaxed in the imbalance? It the intense activity?
And can I be happy, even when I don't feel like I'm doing a great job at something. That's certainly an identity and ego thing if every I saw one. We're all so afraid of being bad at something, we don't even try. Or we just dip our toe in, and then quickly pull it out like it's been bitten, just because we're not immediately good at it. It's an illness particularly endemic to really smart and talented people, who got everything at school easily right away. They never learned how to struggle and grow from bad to good. Though I suppose it's also endemic to many who had learning challenges at school as well. They didn't start out good at it, they were told they weren't good at it, and the believed it and left it at that. Too bad for all of them and us. If I didn't feel bad about doing something poorly, it would be a lot easier to be happy most of the time. If I could just be happy about the effortful process.
OK, time for... maybe not bed, but something non-screen related. I need to wind down before bed, and computer stuff is usually not soothing. Good night!
Oh, let me share some of the stuff I mentioned:
the mindset talk:
The quote:
"... you must have enthusiasm and courage. When defeat and disappointment stare you in the face, you must not give way to weakness or despondency. Never condemn yourself as inferior or useless; analyze the defeat and find out the reasons in order to avoid it the next time. Develop muscles of iron and nerves of steel."
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