Category: frustration

Just Leave Me Alone

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Billy Bob & Macadamphoto © 2009 Lucie Provencher | more info (via: Wylio)
I awoke today in a bad mood.

Tossing and turning all night, I couldn’t get comfortable. The cat might have had something to do with it.

My feet were cold, too, so when I hit the icy floor, the chill spread throughout my body. I did not want to go to the gym, even though it’s our morning routine. My poor husband could tell something was wrong as I stormed around the house, gathering my workout clothes, downing some coffee, and looking for my gloves.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“NOTHING!” I barked, knowing full well I was in a simply, horrible, very, very bad mood.

Upon returning home, I ate my bowl of oatmeal and read the headlines in The Free Lance Star, feeling my bad humor dissipate. I hate that feeling (and I’m sure my optimistic, happy husband does, too).

When I can’t stand myself any longer, I have found these simple things to be helpful:

  • Go workout anyway. Physical movement can sometimes move the angst out
  • Remember that it’s all in my head, and I have control over how I feel
  • Focus on the good. Gratitude can work wonders

How do you get yourself out of a bad mood? What are your tricks?

Resistance to Change

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NO

If part of your work means helping folks understand the shift in educational reform/revolution and the necessity for change, then this may help.

I stumbled across this e-book by Rick Maurer recently, and his suggestions for helping implement change seem simple yet profound.

He says there are three reasons why people don’t change.

  1. Level One: I don’t get it.
  2. Level Two: I don’t like it.
  3. Level Three: I don’t like you

These three levels, he says, are alive and either working for you or against you. To move things along, he says you should:

  1. Level One: Make your case.
  2. Level Two: Remove as much fear as you can and increase the excitement.
  3. Level Three: Rebuild damaged relationships and tend to neglected ones.

“Making a compelling case for change is the most important thing you can do–and the most neglected,” he says. “Avoid the trap of moving to HOW before WHY is answered.”

His e-book is here (about halfway down the page) and contains many specific suggestions (unfortunately he starts talking as soon as you hit the page, so turn down your speakers if you are in class!) The book (a PDF) addresses each level, so you’re not left with the “yeah, but how do it?” For example, he addresses how to “build institutional muscle.”

I’ve been saying personality plays a role in whether or not people seek change. And that may be. But we can’t change personalities, so these suggestions may help.

Taking Back Control

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Me In TimeI’ve been hearing a lot about having “no time” lately. I”ve been there, too.

And I love Edward Hallowell’s advice in this HBR essay. He say, Never before in human history have we asked our brains to process as many data points per minute as we do today.

He offers these three suggestions:

Remedy # 1: Take back control. You gave it away, you can take it back. People tell me every day that they have no control, that their lifestyle demands they rush, that their boss demands they be crazy busy, that the culture they live in forces them to overcommit. To which I say, “If you really look at how you spend your time, you’ll find ways to save more of it for what really matters to you.” The chief culprit? A habit I call screensucking. Mindless time spent online, on your mobile device, on whatever, sending and receiving inane messages, taking on more obligations than you want, or otherwise making poor use of your most precious asset, your time.

Remedy # 2: Build boundaries. Technology has torn down the boundaries that used to naturally protect our time. But now, theoretically, our day has no end. People don’t have time to think. Ask people where they do their best thinking. Rarely will they reply, “At work.” The most common reply I’ve received is, “In the shower.” It’s one of the few places left where a person can’t be reached! Now that we’ve removed boundaries, we need to reconstruct them according to our own best interests so we don’t get overwhelmed.

Remedy # 3: Prioritize. This is a fact: if you don’t take your time, it will be taken from you. It is now imperative first to know what matters most, and second to reserve time to do it. It is easy in the tsunami of modern life to get so overcommitted and overwhelmed that you do not make time for what you, yourself, really want to make time for. Decide what matters most, then do it!

I can wallow in the “feel sorry for me” syndrome of “busy-ness” too, but we make choices about time. We should make time for what we value. And if we are in a position where we are feeling stress because we are asked to give time for something we don’t value, perhaps we need to be/do something else instead of complaining about it.

image credit

One More Week of Mess?

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LEGO Mini Construction SiteI don’t like to complain.

But ever since I started working from home, my house has been turned upside down. We decided to tear off a porch, remove a wall, and extend the living room. That means, of course, all the furniture is piled in the dining room, where I’m trying to work.

The eight week project has turned into 12, and it’s still going.

Oh, I’ll love it when it’s finished. But in the meantime, my neck hurts from sitting at the wrong angle, the paint fumes are making me hallucinate, and the dust causes me to sneeze constantly.

If I start writing weird posts in the next few days, you’ll know what’s going on. Just thought I’d give you a heads up.

image credit: By bucklava

Will Administrators Use Social Media in the Future?

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Today’s CEO is not social, says Forrester Research’s CEO George Colony–in a study reported today on the Mashable site. I pulled one of the quotes that made me think about administrators in our schools:

Colony has concluded that, “None of the CEOs of Fortune Magazine’s top 100 global corporations have a social profile.”

Wow. None. But should we be surprised? Very few school principals, Heads of Schools, or even high-level administrators have a social profile. George Couros, whose fairly recent jump into social media has propelled him as a leader in this area, started Connected Principals to share those that do. But until the past few months, I saw few administrators willing to take the perceived risk of being “out there.”

I find social media fascinating. I can’t imagine not sharing and learning online. But it seems people either get it or don’t.

Educators are no different in that regard. But those administrators who have jumped report great satisfaction in their transparency with parents and families. Check out Larry Fliegelman’s latest post about connecting with his parents. Josie Holford, head of Poughkeepsie Day School, keeps her families up to date through her blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

So as I read the post on Mashable, I wondered….how different will our “school world” be when administrators around the world will feel as LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman does. In the post he says,  “perceptions around social media being too risky for CEOs are beginning to change.”

“I would predict that more and more executives will see this as an opportunity rather than a risk,” he says.

I hope more school administrators will soon discover the possibilities.

image:By Pranav SinghPranav Singh