Think differently Archives

Bind Ambition; a rant

Ambition is the last refuge of failure. ~Oscar Wilde

Hungry. Restless. Itchy.

It is in your bones. You have it or you do not. I am not trying to mystify any constructs here, I am getting to the heart of the matter.

Motivation. Ambition. You are always doing what you are motivated to do.

For those who are indeed ambitious, there are some critical steps necessary to develop functional activity and connect that activity to achievement.

Acknowledge
Define
Plan
Discriminate
Sleep

Acknowledge the flood of interests, curiosities, and knowledge that you have. No humble-brag. No intended arrogance, here. It is important to have some self-awareness. I will touch on that in other sections as well. You are someone who has made it this far because you are motivated and love to know about things. You have developed a method for mastery of plenty of domains and you know enough to be an asset to many other people and, if you are not careful, you will be stretched thin and get nothing done.

Define your core interests. I know, it is hard. It is like picking your ONE favorite record or your SINGLE favorite book. Nearly impossible but not impossible. What is the one you couldn’t live without. Well, the same has to be true of your primary contribution. What will people say about you when you are dead? Gone? What is on your career tombstone? What is engraved on your retirement watch? What will they say? Will they agree? Does it match your ambitions?

Plan for success. You have whittled your interests down to a single one. That was the hard part–or was it? Find the true beginning. Is there enough of a foundation on which to stand or do you need to revisit? Is it worthy of a full meta-analysis as a foundational paper or project? Even if you have a solid foundation, it is probably worth a full review for your own work. It is probably publishable, as well, especially if you can connect your work to a notable anniversary or new interpretation of the established publications. Map out your three, six, and twelve month activities and mix them up among local and national speaking engagements, opinion or provocative scholarly articles, and eventual publication of original work. Every thing you write should be publishable, even if it is a letter or opinion to a periodical or critical response to a publication. Always have an iron in every fire at every stage of the game and always be ready to tell someone about it.

Discriminate among your projects, prospects, interests, invitations, and pleasures. Do not be a hoarder. Keep a list and either complete a project or kick it off the island. Remember, you are always motivated to do what you do. If a project is on your to-do list too long, you are probably not that into it and will either A) never get it done; or worse B) hate it when you do.

Sleep. Go to sleep. Sacrificial sleep. Do not allow the distractions to win. The work that you do is necessary, important, and does not belong to you. Put it on paper and let us have it. It is not simply a “contribution to the field” that piles upon piles will justify your position. It may be one thing — or the only thing — that pushes some critical ideas to the surface.

Seventeen and a half Inch Neck

Not everyone knows what it is like to be the odd man out. Lacking fit. I am used to it in lots of ways. Outside of education discussions, my most persistent experience with this is when I buy clothes. You see, I am built for speed. Not too high off of the ground so as to incur headwinds. I have been known to hit the gym. So when I need, say, a shirt this is often the beginning of a bit of an adventure. The best method to get around this is to know what brands and what stores make clothes that fit my body type. In the case of clothing that cannot be tried on, like a new Jiu Jitsu gi, I have to call or send an email. It usually goes like this:

What size gi should I order?
Have you looked at the sizing chart?
Yes. I’m 5’7″ and 210 lbs.
Well, which is it?
What?
If you’re 5’7″ you should get an A2.
But I’m 210 lbs.
Oh. Well, I guess you can buy an A3 and try to shrink it.

Now try getting a dress shirt with 32 arms and a seventeen and a half inch neck. This sums up a lot of areas in my life.

You know? I can’t get behind that.

Classrooms are not designed for class activities, they are designed for class sizes. Seated.

I can’t get behind that.

Curricula are designed for tests. Or teachers.

I can’t get behind that.

Teachers are prepared for management.

I can’t get behind that.

Education is designed for compliance and one path is the best and variants are considered failures.

I can’t get behind that.

It is 2014 and we are not required to accept everything that is given to us. To fit. It is time to rebel. We can no longer accept the teacher who is not also an activist and advocate.

Passivity is acceptance. Endorsement. Establish the rule of engagement. Engage. Fight.

Dig into Goodness of Fit. Seek to understand why we do not have to fit.

Signal to Noise: Behavior

If you allow the business of school to weigh too heavily, it will undermine the foundation of your craft. Focused on the trouble around you, everyone becomes an adversary and eventually the students become problematic.

All you can see is the noise. Behavior — a neutral term — becomes a specific term. Bad Behavior. “I cannot handle their behavior.” The implication is undesirable and pervasive.

By adding meaning to behavior — recognizing patterns, purposes, and goals — we may begin to understand see the signals that are being transmitted.

Signal : Noise as Soil : Dirt

Rather than viewing behavior as desirable and undesirable, I would like to observe it as placed and misplaced. This afternoon I spent many hours weeding our garden — removing what was mis-placed. When I was finished, I left my boots on the porch so that the soil I was working did not become dirt on the living room floor. As I consider this example of placement within context, I laughed as I remembered taking a moment to rinse my hands with the hose. There I was: surrounded by soil, plants, and pulled weeds wanting “clean” hands. My behavior was not appropriate for the context as I had more work to do and more time in which to do it. Sometimes, I guess, a repose is important — I will bring that thought to the classroom as I am sure a student will need a repose mid-task.

Heading into this year, I look to putting things in their correct place. Setting my feet firmly. Defending the faith. Finding my allies. Doing my thing.

WEEDS

Nick Nolte did not have it this good. Think about it. Weeds. Growing, adapting, and developing at a breakneck pace. Some of the greatest diversity and hardiness in your yard, forest, or garden is coming from those things you cannot seem to shake. Your prized flowers and foods wilt after a few days with no rain but it seems that that weeds thrive! It makes you wish that you had a value or a purpose for them. Some weeds have even adapted to become valuable to some–Bio-promotion!

Can we make the necessary changes for our selves in the context of learning and development? Can we embrace the adversity? Adapt? Change? Thrive, even? Of course we can.

These binary robots in the earth outside our homes. They have one task–grow. What is yours?