How are you? No Seriously? Can I talk about the elephant in the room?
What a calendar year it has been.
Last year at this time I was spending a weekend away with my spouse after a few busy, but fun weeks at school. No masks, no social distancing, no understanding of what pivot, hybrid, or distance learning would mean in the month to come.
Fast forward. We are getting away again this weekend, but in a much different context. Staying in a room, eating in, but still spending time together. And while I can lament on what I can’t do on this weekend as compared to what we did last year, I can celebrate our health, our opportunity to reconnect, and most importantly take a rest from the day to day operations of school this year.
This week I listened to a podcast that challenged business leaders to focus on the gain, not the gap and I started to think if this type of reframing is important for business leaders why not educators, parents and principals?
One of my go-to resources on my journey to become more resilient in any season comes from the Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress Free Living. The chapter on Joyful Attention reinforces measuring the gain not the gap in these 5 words:
We see what we seek.
Amit Sood, MD, M.Sc
So what are you seeing? Are you look at what is going well, what you have accomplished, what has worked? Or focused on the not done, not goods, or even worse…shame based comments and negative self-talk.
This weekend take some time, offline, with a journal and try to reflect on the last calendar year. What have you learned, how have you grown, and what can you celebrate in this difficult season? Below is a template I use every morning during my morning routine.
Take 5 minutes to write down…
What you are grateful for: what went well yesterday, who you are grateful for, and what you learned.
What you are looking forward to: try to reframe any situations that you are not looking forward to into opportunities to learn, grown and build relationships with others.
Get outside (even in Minnesota cold the fresh air is good), read something not related to work, and find some family time and see if that helps to flip the switch on looking at the gains and good over the gaps.
Take care, and here if you need anything,
Jessica
Principal in Balance: Learning to Lead in Work and Life 