Kristen,
I agree with your opening point…this is
a terrific book to read as we near the end of our program at Full Sail. I was
recently talking to a colleague about our teaching schedules for next year. I told
her that there was a chance I might only have to teach two preps. (This would
be a first for me. Every year since I started teaching, I’ve not only had three
preps each year, but every year one of those preps has been a class I’ve never taught
before. In five years of teaching, I’ve taught more than eight different
courses.) I’m thrilled by the chance to teach only two preps and actually take
some time to reflect on those courses and improve them. But my colleague said, “Wow,
Kim, so you’ll be done with grad school and only teaching two preps. What will
you do with yourself all day?!”
I know that she meant it
lightheartedly, but it raised for me the same issue you discuss in your post—what
WILL we do with all that newfound time? My hope for both of us is that we move
more towards our central selves, and away from the col calculating selves that
too often get in the way. Thanks! -Kim
Kristen’s post
This book is really moving me. I think this book was
the EXACT fit to have to read nearing the end of this long journey. It is
really helping me examine my own life and I find myself relating to it almost
every page. I have kept a Word document of my favorite quotes. I
have been so incredibly busy this past year, I have bought my first house and I
will have completed graduate school all in the same year. Both of these
have taken up all of my time after work, that I have seemed to "loose
myself" in the process. I have been thinking for weeks what I am
going to do next, since I feel like I am not going to know what to do with my
time. I think the next step will be to "find and improve"
myself. I am not unhappy in any way, but I know I can do and be better.
This book is so motivating and is just the right thing to start me on
that path! I especially need to learn to remember the Rule Number 6.
I think that I am going to pass on this chapter to my administration and
see what they think about implementing it in our environment. I think
that it would be a great thing to remember throughout our very hectic days.
I have also realized that I need to find my central self because
I almost always react with my calculating self. I over analyze
almost everything in my life and go back and forth questioning a decision a
million times. I always try have other people make decisions because I am
always afraid I will choose the one that will make someone or others unhappy.
But I guess that leads to learning that you cannot please everyone.
I hope others are finding this book as moving as I am....
Regardless of the changes I would like to incorporate in my life, here are some
of my favorite lines that I feel will help me become an even better person:
“Humor and laughter
are perhaps the best way we can ‘get over ourselves.’ Humor can bring us
together around our inescapable foibles, confusions, and miscommunications, and
especially over the ways in which we find ourselves acting entitles and
demanding, or putting other people down, or flying at each other’s
throats.” (80)
“When we practice Rule Number 6, we coax this calculating self to lighten up, and by
doing so we break its hold on us.” (81)
“When one person
peels away layers of opinion, entitlement, pride, and inflated
self-description, others instantly feel the connection. As one person has
the grace to practice the secret Rule
Number 6, others often follow.” (89)
“Mistakes can be like
ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of
defeat. If we include mistakes in our definition of performance, we are
likely to glide through them and appreciate the beauty of the longer
run.” (102)
“Abstractions that we
unwittingly treat as physical reality
tend to block us from seeing the way
things are, and therefore reduce our power to accomplish what we say we
want.” (108)
“Downward spiral talk is based on the fear that we will be stopped
in our tracks and fall short in the race, and it is wholly reactive to
circumstances, circumstances that appear to be wrong, problematic, and in need
of fixing.
“Focusing on the
abstraction of scarcity, downward spiral
talk creates an unassaible story about the limits to what is possible, and
tells us compellingly how things are going from bad to worse.” (108)
“The more attention
you shine on a particular subject, the more evidence of it will
grow. Attention is like light and air and water. Shine
attention on obstacles and problems and they multiply lavishly.” (108)
“Speaking in
possibility springs from the appreciation that what we say creates a reality;
how we define things sets a framework for life to unfold.” (110)
“We start from what is, not from what should be; we encompass contradictions, painful feelings, fears,
and imaginings, and- without fleeing, blaming, or attempting correction- we
learn to soar, like the far-seeking hawk, over the whole landscape.”
(111)
