Embracing the light and releasing the darkness

My chair faces the sunrise. I so enjoy how I get to see the day start with the sun rising, the light on my face. The red, then the orange, then the yellow. I love getting a cup of coffee and reading. My mind stretches with each new insight and knowledge. I love books and writing. I start with one book and then find another and another. 

Lately, books of interest have been about listening to voices; my own and that of other people. I am reading on how to let go of thinking and live in the flow of thoughts. Many times when we lose the moment when someone is speaking to us or that we are speaking to ourselves, it is because we have become stuck in thinking and not present in the flow of thought. When we release from thinking and stay present in the thoughts of our own making and that of others, we can keep moving in a stream of consciousness instead of being bogged down in a swirl of repetitive patterns. It is an interesting concept of always flowing forward by releasing the thinking that bogs us down. I think of creativity and creative people and how they create using momentum and flow to keep moving toward their vision. The thinking that gets critical tends to slow them down or stop them. 

I wonder if the adapting to the critical thoughts but keep moving like a river bending around the contours is a more adaptive way of thinking about creative thinking. Instead of fighting thinking keep moving but adapting to the terrain. This way you incorporate the feedback and learn to keep moving forward. I need to employ this in my planning and communication writing. Instead of being defensive and critical, use it as a waypoinot turn and adapt. To dance with the environment while moving toward the goal.

Life is project-based learning

I used to read for hours. I would read all afternoon, stuck in a story that was so fascinating I could not put it doen. I needed to know the end. I remember reading the Bible form beginning to end when I was eight years old. I was so engorssed in all of the stories. From the flood to Joseph to Moses  through the Kings into the New Testament and all of the letters and finally the mind-bending prophecies of the Revelation. I remember reading the Black Beauty series and then Tom Clancy, then Centennial, Hawaii, Texas,...

I enjoy a good story. Now I read mostly business books. I like when an insight or statistic sparks the mind. It feels like lightning in the brain. I would like to share that joy with other people. I would like them to gain knowledge and insight. I would like them to light up when they read something interesting. I believe I have overcomplicated it. With the pressure to get results I have succumb to the pressure to push. The magic is lighting a spark. I have gone through all kinds of training, the latest formulas to stand here and say this. I don't know if giving people a positive learning experience isn't more powerful in the long term.

Let's say we did teach them how to answer questions right. We taught them the tricks of filling in missing knowledge, going through the logic process to eliminate answers or come to the right conclusion. Then, at the end of one year after the other of tests, there is no test. Now for the rest of your life you don't have test questions, you had projects to do. You have to choose what projects you want to do out of all the possibilities. You have to think through the tasks. You have to get other people to help you. There isn't one right answer so now you have to evaluate it yourself. Insn;t that a weird way to set people up for life. 

Life as an experiment

I have been through many types of military training. It was when I was put into those situations and had to decide and act that I learned what worked and what didn't work for me. I didn't believe I was capable of planning a train movement with a 60 vehicle unit comprised of tanks until I did it the first time. I also didn't realize I could outthink and outmaneuver someone who had more rank and experience. I also realized that when things get heavy I get quiet and people need their leaders to communicate. Right or wrong, be bold.

I have been through business training and have a business degree. As much as I learned about the parts of a business, it is only through launching a business that business leaders learn how to lead businesses. What worked in business last year could very well be ineffective in the change of internet marketing, social media, data science, and artificial intelligence this year. Many business owners fail repeatedly before they figure out how to succeed. I have been through doctoral level work on educational leadership and I still fail at leadership in different areas. It is through doing and reflecting that we learn ourselves how we learn and refine on a practice that works for us. 

Performance coaching of scripting and role-playing bite-sized parts to prepare for actual conversations and getting feedback to refine your approaches is valuable. Sales training does this where they role-play sales calls and go through the possible responses to try different tactics before making calls. Supportive schools do this with teachers to help them practice and prepare to succeed at lessons. That is actual practice at the actual work with a way to improve. I learned a lot by trying a coaching conversation using a sparse script, then doing it with a provided script and resources to point to for examples. That full preparation makes a world of difference. I learned that by trying it both ways.

In the animal kingdom animals learn from watching a hunter hunt, then they hunt. It could be that throwing students into a problem or a writing first could help them learn faster than teaching them your method first. They could be a good writer or problem-solver and you just have to refine their work in specific places. They could find a novel way to solve a problem or think or write you did not consider. Either way, the habit of not putting it off, the Do Now, and learning by doing gets reinforced. Then, they may pay more attention when they realize they need more information to be a better performer and pay attention to what you have to share. 

There is a saying I heard in a Kung Fu movie growing up: When the student is ready, the master will appear. I thought that was some mystical wisdom. However, until you relaize you need help you aren't looking for a teacher. Creating a need for help through failure may be the best way to make a good student. Motivation is key for learning and preventing the uncomfortable feeling of failure works after you have experienced failure. Another reality is that each person will likely fail at something in their life if they are taking risks.Google admits they accept that many of their projects will fail, but the ones that succeed more than make up for the losses and the knowledge they get from the ones that fail are valuable. They also know they will get passed up standing still. Creating a healthy relationship with failure as an opportunity to learn by trying something boldly and courageously help people live fully as we talk about the reality of the concept of a growth mindset. To one who seeks to live and learn, encouragement of the experimental mindset is the best recommendation. 

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himeslf in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."  - Teddy Roosevelt