Tis the season to be graduating!  Yes, everywhere you turn there’s an invitation requesting the presence of family and friends to honor a student’s accomplishment of a major academic milestone.

Speakers from all backgrounds are invited to the hallowed halls of high schools and colleges.  However, their common goal is to motivate and inspire graduates to continue to pursue their dreams.

Recently, I too had the opportunity to do just that.  The high school graduates had decided that their theme would be, “Moving Towards Success Through the Power of Dreams”.  Powerful stuff!

If you spend any length of time working in education, you WILL encounter the green-eyed monster called ENVY.  No industry is immune to it as long as the emotional beings called humans are involved.

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The Impact of Envy at Work

It could be an evil glance, an unjustifiably snide comment or maybe even an outright attempt to sabotage your success. No matter how it materializes, envy stings and it creates serious tension.  Although teachers are usually thought to be fun-loving, kind and cordial, schools are not exempted from this. 

What do you expect teachers and school administrators to be doing on their much-deserved spring break?  Resting, right?  Well, it was refreshing to see educators taking time away from their “chill days” to receive information, inspiration and motivation to work on developing themselves.   They realized that they had to begin working harder on themselves than they do on their jobs.  And that’s commendable!

Photogrid courtesy of Lanet Glass (Photos: Lanet Glass & Aleka Colebrooke)

During the session, the educators were challenged to make personal development a priority.  Though it’s not always convenient to attend a seminar, the avenue of accessing books, CDs, blog pages and other online resources was highlighted.  Attendees saw how easily they could be mentored, motivated and moved to improve their personal skills. 

No doubt, you’ve attended scores of workshops and conferences all focused on equipping you with scores of teaching strategies.  But how many seminars have you been a part of that targeted your personal development? I’m talking about the kind of development that focuses on YOU as a person and not just you as an educator.

Image courtesy of Lanet Glass

If you are like most teachers, you probably can number the personal development seminars on one hand.  This is a serious indictment, especially for persons who work every day to shape the lives of future leaders.  When we consider that we teach what we know but duplicate who we are, then it’s a crying shame that we take little time to improve our personal skills.

Though I have been teaching since 1994, I must admit that all of the personal development training I’ve ever received came through my involvement in private business ventures.  Thankfully, I had a mentor who ate, slept and lived personal development.  So, she always encouraged me to do the same in order to increase my skill set.

Wouldn’t you agree that skills such as balancing life, listening attentively, arguing constructively, communicating effectively and people skills like influencing people positively are worth enhancing? Sure they are!

So, why is it that personal development, which focuses on improving oneself on a continuous basis, gets little attention among educators?  Perhaps if we consider the benefits of this dynamic process, we would readily embrace it.  Here are ten advantages of engaging in personal development:

1. Clearer ideas about the kind of life and work you want
2. Greater confidence in the choices you make
3. A better understanding of how you learn and how to improve your performance
4. Greater confidence in your own skills and talents that you bring to education
5. Better positioning for promotion
6. Improved reflective thinking capabilities that enhances your performance
7. Better problem-solving and planning expertise
8. A more positive attitude and approach related to a successful personal and professional life
9. More enjoyment and less stress as you keep yourself motivated AND
10. A sense of direction that brings improved focus and effectiveness

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but one that should nudge you to reconsider the value of personal development to you.

What you have today, you have attracted by becoming the person you are today.  So to have more than you’ve got, I challenge you to become more than you are.  Our students deserve it; our community deserves it and you owe it to YOURSELF.

Leave a comment:  In what type of personal development activity do you engage?  How has such an activity impacted you?

It’s Monday morning and you’re so excited to get to work!  Mentally, you’ve already mapped out your day: successful implementation of lesson plans, minimal classroom disruptions, self-disciplined students and a chance to mark some projects.    But the reality is, things don’t always go as you envision, nor as you plan.   Strangely though, you still experience a deep feeling of satisfaction.  Why is that?

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If this is you, then you might be in that group of people who value the work relationships that they have developed.

Nothing is as distasteful and upsetting as a chronic complainer, a giddy gossiper or a nonstop negativity nitwit….unless of course there’s one person who qualifies as all three.  You know these people all too well and you feel the effects of them on the job every day.

Maybe you’ve had the delightful pleasure to have your students finally “get it” after many unsuccessful lessons on a particular skill.  So, you bounce into the staff room, bubbling with excitement over their response and eager to share it with your colleagues. 

Children’s lunch packed?  Check. √

Breakfast prepared?  Check.  √

Work bag packed?  Check.  √

Coffee in hand?  Check.  √  Okay, so we are ready to go.

Well, that’s what I thought as I pulled out the yard, focused on delivering two of my children quickly and safely to school.

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I was looking forward to getting the day started with my high-priority activities to maximize my productivity.  I pulled up to my work destination, gingerly turned off the motor, and instinctively leaned over to gather my things.

“What???  Where is my laptop bag?  Don’t tell me……nooooo!  Okay, calm down Sharmane.  Maybe your husband put it in the back seat when he was seeing you off.  Nope, it’s not there either.  Grrr!”

Have you ever had something disappointing happen to you that you kept replaying repeatedly in your mind?  If you’re human, I am sure you have.  It’s only natural to relive circumstances that evoke great emotional responses, especially those negative ones.  Unfortunately, though, this unhealthy practice limits our ability to move forward.

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In James Allen’s classic book, As a Man Thinketh, the mind is described as a garden.  Whether cultivated or neglected it will most certainly yield a harvest: useful fruit or useless weeds.  Our choice of thoughts creates our circumstances and even our character.

A student topples your favorite coffee mug, causing the handle to break off.  A colleague reverses into your parked car, putting a dent in the passenger door.  Your principal verbally chastises you for a matter in front of several other colleagues.  Wherever we might be, situations always seem ripe for an offense……that’s if we let them.

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