Monthly Archives: April 2024

A Simple Shift in Perspective

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I woke up just after 4am this morning and thought to myself, ‘Nice, almost an hour more to sleep.’ Then I had this little inkling to check my alarm…

What? It’s not on?

Thinking for some reason it was a Tuesday rather than a Saturday, I turned on my 5am alarm and made sure the volume was low before snoozing until it buzzed in about 55 minutes. When it went off I hit the stop button quickly, but my wife still woke up, “Why are you getting up so early on a Saturday?” She asked curiously.

‘It’s Saturday?’

I had no idea. I was going to do my typical weekday morning routine, and head off to work. I wasn’t upset about this, it was just another normal school day in my head. I got up anyway, did my morning meditation and went back to sleep on the couch for a bit before heading to meet my buddy first our Saturday morning walk.

My buddy, also named Dave, inspired this Daily-Ink. He told me he struggled to be motivated to do our walk this morning, and I responded that I was excited to come, having realized that it was Saturday and not Tuesday. I’m not great at rehashing conversations, but this was Dave’s message in a nutshell:

‘Isn’t it interesting how that shifts your perspective. Think of how much better every day would be if you framed it the same way. What if next Tuesday you thought about what a great day it is, and ask yourself, who can I show gratitude to? Or, how can I make someone’s day great today?’

Pick any day in the last week, week day or weekend, and imagine redoing that day, but with a shift in perspective of how rich, engaging, and rewarding that day was going to be… What’s to stop us from doing this daily?

Old Stories

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I was talking to a couple teachers yesterday after school and I was reminded of a funny story. I shared it with them. I was explaining a new assignment and sharing exemplars with my class. “This is what an ‘A’ would look like, and this is what a ‘B’ would look like.”

A student blurred out a silly example, “What if I did _____, would it be a ‘C’?”

I responded, “No, that would be a C-R-A-P.” 

Just as the class broke out laughing, I looked over to movement in my doorway to see a parent I’d never met before waiting to talk to me. The joke was funny, the timing was awful.

I started to write about this 15 minutes ago, and stopped to look back at my blog. Sure enough, I already shared this in a post, A-B-C-R-A-P, almost 4 years ago. The post is actually better than what I was going to share today because it examined criteria, exemplars, and creativity. Today I was just going to share a funny memory.

But seeing that I’d already written about this incident made me think about the stories we tell. How many of us have the same stories that we tell and retell? We have friends that generously listen as we share a story for a 3rd, 4th, 7th, even 15th time. We listen without interjecting, without sharing that we’ve heard it before. We generously listen as someone else hears it for the first time, and we laugh at the appropriate time, and with sincerity.

My wife and her friends sometimes do this cute little thing. If one of them starts a story and it has been told before, the people listening will touch their nose. If someone doesn’t touch their nose then they know it’s new to them and the story continues. If they all touch their noses the person telling the story stops…. No hard feelings, they even have a little laugh about it.

A few of my friends will tell it anyway, even if they know everyone’s heard it, but some stories are just so fun that the rerun can be more enjoyable than the first viewing.

I do wonder though, what are the stories that define us? What are those memories that stick with us and revisit us, and invite themselves in like old friends? Would I even have remembered that silly joke if a parent hadn’t been in the classroom doorway? Or was that necessary to make it a story I’ve shared and reshared?

How has the story changed over time? Does my retelling create a new memory? How much has the memory changed as a result of my resharing? Or, how has it remained the same and been emboldened and reinforced from retrieving it many times?

We are an accumulation of the stories we tell. Old stories shape our view of ourselves, and of our friends. As we get older, we don’t add significantly to the stories we share, we get more selective. Maybe it’s because we have more stories to choose from. Maybe it’s because we get to hold on to moments in our past that would otherwise be lost. And maybe it’s just fun to reminisce and to share fond memories with the people we love.

Tell me a story, and I learn something about you. I get to share in your experience, and we are both richer from the experience.

The push

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I’ve been in a workout slump recently. I haven’t stopped working out, it’s just my effort has waned. I’m finding it hard to push myself and get the most out of my workouts. I know it’s just a phase and I’ll get through it, but it’s lasting a bit longer than I hoped.

I mention it because it builds a little fear in me. The lack of drive, of push, scares me a bit. It whispers in my ear, ‘you are getting old’, it says to me, ‘you aren’t an athlete anymore’.

It hits me when I’m doing a short sprint on the treadmill and there is 30 seconds left and I want to shorten the sprint time… Not push through, not muscle it, just end it early. It hits me when I’m on my 3rd set with weights, and I start the set thinking I can get 8 reps, then at 4 reps I’ve already decided I can only do 6… and then I do 5. Or when I know I have more gas in my tank and still I leave a few reps undone, because while I wasn’t at full fatigue, my mind said ‘that’s good enough’, and I can’t push myself anymore.

Part of it might be that I’ve been working out on my own too much and I need some external motivation. It might also just be a slump. But it eats away at my confidence. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes the next push experience harder.

I’m confident that I’ll find my focus again, and I know that the fact that I’m still showing up and not letting this discourage my commitment is a real positive. But I have to say that this slump has been mentally challenging for me. I want to feel I’ve left nothing in reserves after I finish a set or a sprint. I want to really feel ‘the push’ again.

Easier and hard

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It’s easier to eat unhealthy. It’s hard to avoid unhealthy snacks.

It’s easier to watch TV. It’s hard to push yourself hard in the gym.

It’s easier to scroll on your phone. It’s hard to get to bed early and get enough sleep.

It’s easier to skip a day. It’s harder to start a new streak.

It’s easier to make excuses. It’s harder to stick to a disciplined schedule.

It’s easier to make excuses. It’s hard to avoid excuses and do what needs to be done.

It’s easier to make excuses. It’s hard to convince yourself that your excuses aren’t good.

In the end, doing harder things is more rewarding. Easy things just aren’t as memorable, and aren’t as rewarding, and the satisfaction they provide are fleeting. Harder things bring results that you can see, and feel… and done often enough, the hard journey itself gets easier, even if the individual tasks remain hard. That’s the end goal, to make the hard things that are good for you easier to do, than the easy things that aren’t good for you.

And remember, you are always a work in progress… as long as you are moving in the right direction, don’t be too hard on yourself.

Empowering students

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There is an element of control that needs to be given up by teachers if they are truly empowering students. There has to be a willingness to accept a potential outcome that is less than ideal… An understanding that students won’t always hit the high standard you expect.

This isn’t about lowering standards or expectations, in fact, if you are empowering students you need to make your high expectations clear. Rather, this is the realization that students bite off more than they can chew (or rather can do), and then they end up scrambling to do less and still produce a good product or presentation. It’s an acceptance that a student’s vision doesn’t match yours but their outcome is still good, or (and this is the tough part for teachers) good enough. It’s about mistakes being honoured as learning opportunities rather than as something to penalize.

Empowering students doesn’t happen with outcomes that are exactlywhat the teacher envisioned and expected. Outcomes will vary. Results will be less predictable. But the learning will be rich, authentic, and far more meaningful and memorable for the students… As long as they feel empowered, and are given the space to have autonomy, lead, and learn in ways that they choose.

And while that won’t always end with results that the teacher envisioned or expected, it will always end with learners feeling like they owned their own learning. Shouldn’t that be the essence of a great learning experience?

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Related: Teacher as Compass

AprilMayJune

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One of the biggest challenges in being a school principal is the month of AprilMayJune. Three months that feel like they are condensed into one single month. From here to the last day of school it’s Go-Go-Go… It doesn’t feel like there is a break or a transition, it’s just non-stop action.

Good things will happen, wonderful events will be a big part of this extended month. So, it’s not just a slog, there will be some special moments to come. It’s just that things go so fast, and the pace feels accelerated, and then at the end of June we will look back and we won’t remember anything that delineates separate months from now until then.

To all the educators out there, have a fantastic AprilMayJune!

Block and Move to Junk

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I might have shared a similar rant before, but I had to deal with this a few times last week and I hope at least one person in sales will learn from this.

If you cold email me with a product or service when we have had no relationship beforehand, that’s a cold call, it’s a virtual knock on a strangers email door. I find it annoying. I understand it’s hard to get your product in front of people and while I don’t like it much, I tolerate it.

However, when you then follow up with an email saying, “I haven’t heard back from you…” Well now that’s just rude. I don’t owe you anything for taking my unsolicited time to look at and maybe even read your first message. You didn’t hear from me because I’m not interested. How many thousands of ‘I haven’t heard back from you’ emails do you have to send to get a positive response? I bet it’s astronomically low. I bet your time would have been better used elsewhere.

On Friday, I got a call from someone who had sent me an email and a follow up. The only reason it got through my secretary is because the product name had the word ‘class’ in it, my secretary thought the voice sounded like a student, and I said to put it through instead of asking her to take a message like I usually do. When he started in with, “Hi, I’m [Name] from [Company], I’m not sure if you’ve had a chance to look at my last 2 emails…” I was already done. I was actually politer than I needed to be and started into a routine I’ve gotten pretty good at. I start with ‘We’ve gone through a lot of changes in the last while and I’m not interested in adding anything new at this time… and I go on for about 10 more seconds on double speed and end with, ‘I wish you all the best but we really are not interested, thanks, bye’. And I hang up even if the person has time to respond.

No, if I didn’t respond to your first email then I’m not interested in your product or even a free trial. A follow up email won’t help. A follow up email then phone call is doubly obnoxious. In fact, you can be sure of two things. First, I don’t want to work with you even if your product is great. And second, I won’t see a third email from you because I’ve blocked you and moved your email to junk. If enough of us did that after second unsolicited cold-call emails, that company email address might even find itself on the wrong side of spam filters… and I’m ok with that because if their first email wasn’t spam to begin with, their second email was definitely was.

Biography and Biology

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I’ve found conflicting information about who said this first, but I love the quote, “Your biography becomes your biology.” It also works the other way, “Your biology becomes your biography.”

Our habits and routines, whether good or bad, affect our biology. Our overall energy levels and health affect what we do with our lives. We tend to place blame on one or the other of these, but it’s a symbiotic relationship between our physical makeup and the physical environment that we consistently expose our bodies to.

Eat foods that are not nutritious or create imbalances in our sugar or energy levels, and we end up exercising less, and being more lethargic. Work out regularly and start noticing positive results, and we start thinking more about how to fuel or bodies well.

Sometimes we are dealt bad biology, and we have less to work with… allergies, a bad back, a chronic illness… sometimes we are dealt a bad biography, and it’s harder to change… a life altering accident, a tough or traumatic childhood, and it’s harder to change. But more often or not there are windows of opportunity to deal with these factors in some way, to better ourselves and the circumstances we face.

The greatest opportunity we have is to alter our biography. The past influences the future, but it doesn’t write it. We can be authors of our own biography… and ultimately change our biology too (to varying degrees). What’s essential is that we act, that we make intentional decisions about who we are and who we want to become.

Barometric Pressure Headaches

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Yesterday there was a drop in barometric pressure. I know this because I felt it in my head. Since I was a teenager I’ve been susceptible to getting headaches due to barometric pressure changes. That said, they really don’t happen often, and I am still surprised by them. I don’t think to blame the weather for the low grade headache that I develop from a drop in atmospheric pressure.

Yesterday morning I was at my desk and the pain grew as I tried to look at my computer screen. I needed to give my eyes a break and as I walked out of my office I mentioned to my secretaries that I had a headache. One of my secretaries instantly replied, “I feel it too, it’s the weather.” And only hearing this and looking out the window at the grey skies helped me realize what I was dealing with. Even though I don’t get a lot of headaches, it just seems odd to me that this happens and so I don’t draw conclusions or throw blame on a weather change for how I feel.

Looking at the historical data now, there was indeed a big drop in pressure yesterday.

Of all the skills and abilities I could possibly have, detecting atmospheric pressure drops with a headache is not one I can say I’m grateful for. I felt ‘off’ the whole day, and left work not convinced I’d be up to going to work today.

But it’s a new day, there is a rising barometer in the forecast, and I am headache free after a good night’s sleep. Yesterday was a blip, (or perhaps a better word is dip), and I will be blissfully ignorant of the barometer until the next big drop. And if I’m true to form, I’ll draw the conclusion that the weather is the cause of my headache well after I should have made the connection. It just seems like a really weird place to throw blame.

Gen X Wave

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We are in for a unique change in the workforce. We are approaching a wave of Generation X retirements and that’s leading to shortages in the workforce. Teachers, nurses, doctors, plumbers, and many more positions that AI won’t easily replace, are seeing retirements happen faster than they can be replaced.

So part one of the change is simple to see, and that’s workforce shortages. The other part of this wave is these same Gen X’ers taking on different jobs. People retiring in their late 50’s and early 60’s are not all going to leave the workforce completely. This will happen for a couple reasons.

They won’t leave because their pensions need to be subsidized to live the life they want to live, and they won’t leave because work gives meaning to a lot of them… being productive is important in feeling young and staying healthy. Some of these people will continue working in their old fields after receiving there pension, ‘double-dipping’ and earning both a pension and also doing their old job part time. But others will go into whole new fields.

This is a part of the wave that is undefined and even exciting. I think you are going to see an increase in ‘creatives’ who are going to be 55+ in age. Older social media influencers, and artists, and producers of creative content. You’ll see novelists whose first best seller was written after the author turned 60. You’ll see short, clever, high quality filmmaking and storytelling. You’ll see new companies going viral with first-time CEO’s and entrepreneurs who are also senior citizens.

When Gen X retires they are going to ‘hit different’. Then again they are a generation that seemed to define themselves as different all along. I’m excited to see how they hit retirement are redefine it in the coming years.