I'm taking a "day off" from my One Resource a (Week)Day series today. I have actually had a pretty rough few weeks and it culminated in a very difficult decision yesterday, a nearly sleepless night, and a challenging conversation I had to have with someone whom I care deeply about. (It's not Geoff, don't worry.)
It made me decide to take a day off and to just read a bit, to settle my mind. I leave you with a couple of old posts recommending good reads surrounding the type of nuanced work that we do: how to foster creativity (in the workplace, in education, and in yourself); what leadership looks like and how that applies to the classroom. I really like these books that straddle self-help and slippery topics. What Should I Do With My Life had really shaped me when I read it back in college, ultimately shaping the choices that led me to become the person that I am today.
I am taking a break from mathy things to read Get Out of Your Own Way today, in hopes that it will be fantastic and that it will be something I can recommend to someone else. (Although that sounds pretty bad to imply that someone else needs to get out of their own way. I really dislike that book title!)
So, anyway, be back soon with more peace of mind, I hope.
[Addendum 7/11/2014: Get Out of Your Own Way made for good dinner conversation with the hubby, but unfortunately I think it's a bit too encyclopedic / laundry-listy to strike a real chord with most readers, which I think is what necessarily characterizes a good self-help book. I'll have to keep looking around. I mentioned to the hubby that I'll keep trying to look into good self-help books. Next on the list: some book about motivation. Hoping to glean something out of it both for personal sphere and for my students!]
I've come to understand that getting out of one's own way is the central challenge of growing up. As I get better at getting out of my own way at the easier things, the challenges become deeper and more subtle. It's hard to get into the habit of "catching yourself in the act" of doing something. Like teaching math, it doesn't actually get easier, but we get better at doing it.
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Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf)
Actually, if you're interested, I would recommend that book. It was enjoyable to read, because the author took a list of 40 behaviors that to me seem to all fall in the spectrum of being normal, and he breaks them down to explain how they can cause people to be very unhappy, if occurring repeatedly. Certainly an interesting book.
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