Daily painting challenge: August Wren Creativebug.com class
*From Ryan Holiday’s Thought Catalog: Find a Way To Connect To Something Big— Marcus Aurelius would look up at the stars and imagine himself running alongside them, he’d see them for their timelessness and infiniteness. Try that tonight or early in the morning and try to make it a daily practice. A glance at the beautiful expanse of the sky is an antidote to the nagging pettiness of earthly concerns, of our dreams of immortality or fame. But you can find this connection from many sources: A poem. A view from the top floor. A barefoot walk across the grass. A few minutes in a church pew. Just find something bigger than yourself and get in touch with it every single day.
#11: [*] Put The Day Up For Review — We prepared in the morning, now we reflect in the evening. The best way to improve is to review. So, each evening you should, like Seneca did, examine your day and your actions.
The question should be: Did I follow my plans for the day? Was I prepared enough? What could I do better? What have I learned that will help me tomorrow?
I write make a list of tasks (aligned with my goal(s)) on an index card daily. A quick way to review is to check my list. Did I get them all done? And then reflect on how I spent my time. I’ve definitely been checking news too much. Red4Ed affects me directly, so I check to see Ducey’s reaction. But then I fall down the rabbit hole and read irrelevant “news.” Reflecting this way helps me get back on track the next day.
[*] Say Thanks—To The Good and Bad — The Stoics saw gratitude as a kind of medicine, that saying “Thank you” for every experience was the key to mental health. “Convince yourself that everything is the gift of the gods,” was how Marcus Aurelius put it, “that things are good and always will be.” Say thanks to a rude person. Say thanks to a bungled project. Say thanks to a delayed package. Why? Because for starters it may have just saved you from something far worse, but mostly because you have no choice in the matter.
Epictetus has said that every situation has two handles: Which are you going to decide to hold onto? The anger or the appreciation? The one of resentment or of thanks?
Ryan Holiday recommends seizing the “alive time.” You know, the moment in front of you – the only one that counts. Look into the eyes of the person speaking to you, don’t check your phone when at lunch with others.
Alive time.
“Face fears. Reach out and connect with someone. Do something you’ve been putting off. Expose ourselves to sunlight and nature. Be still and empty. Prepare for what lies ahead. Or just live because who knows how much time we have left.”
Ryan Holiday
Today, educators from all over Arizona are marching from Chase Field to the Capitol. We are working to create change. Change is uncomfortable. It’s not easy. But it’s necessary and unavoidable.
I march for Lily, who wants to be a teacher someday.
I march for my students, who deserve resources to learn and become critical thinkers and productive adults in our society.
I march for myself and my peers who deserve to have resources to get our jobs done and to feed our families.
I march for education which is the only antidote to discrimination, violence and inhumanity.
*9th Habit from From Ryan Holiday’s blog “13 Habits You Should Adopt Every Single Day” (Thought Catalog)
I still oscillate from watching Hulu/Netflix to reading a good book. Reading ALWAYS provides me with more value to share and enriches my work and life in general. I’ve learned that being observant and having a good partner improves chances of success (Elementary). But going down the path of writing from one’s imagination (obsessively) to producing shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” with Shonda Rimes (Year of Yes) is priceless.
Practice a kindness every single day. If you’re already doing this, consider being kind to – yes – a rude person, or someone you are not particularly fond of. It’s challenging, but it’s important, if we’re going to change the world.
I love taking walks. I’ve had epiphanies and inspiration while walking in the desert. Strolling elevates my mood. Before you veg out in front of your screen to “relax” (by watching a video, movie or scrolling through Instagram)…go take a walk. You’ll feel refreshed.
I enjoy reading Ryan Holiday’s Thought Catalog blog. He just published an article on “13 Life-Changing Habits to do every single day.” These habits will definitely lead to good things for you!
I’ll share them with you. Here’s #1:
Prepare for the Hours Ahead
Holiday refers to the stoics often. Here, he informs us that Marcus Aurelius used to keep a morning journal, where he connected with his intentions for the day and planned how he might react to people and events that were less than desirable. This helps us to prepare for potential setbacks.
The author of this book, Paul Tough, did NOT graduate from college!
Tough does not fit the demographic of college dropouts: He came from a well-to-do family; and got admitted to (and briefly attended) Columbia University.
However, he was rebellious after high school (where he did very well). Inspired by Jack Kerouac, he wanted to travel and do something uncertain, unsafe…something he felt uncertain if he could succeed at. Believe he would learn more on the road than on the campus.
Steve Jobs’ famous graduation speech at Stanford (2005): Job told graduates that dropping out “had been one of the best decisions I ever made.”
allowed him to take classes he was interested in (calligraphy, typography)
this led to his creative typography in personal computers – distinguished Mac from all other computers
Biggest failure – being fired from Apple – a very public failure
allowed him to reorient himself and his work that led to his greatest successes: buying and transforming Pixar, getting married, returning to Apple rejuvenated
“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.”
Paul Tough: became a magazine editor and journalist. Twenty-four years after dropping out of Columbia, Tough quit the New York Times and wrote this book.
2. LG Parenting
Remember the high and low level Licking and Grooming experiment with rats?
Paul Tough thinks about that often now that he has become a new father.
Realizes that the most reliable way to produce and adult who is brave and curious and kind and prudent is to ensure that when he is an infant, his hypo-pituitary-adrenal his functions well. How?
Protect him from serious trauma and chronic stress;
provide him with secure, nurturing relationship with at least one parent, ideally, two.
provide lots of comforting, hugging, talking and reassuring;
also provide discipline, rules, limits, someone to say “no”;
help him to learn how to manage failure;
“More and more graduates from prestigious colleges are going into investment banking and management consulting and far fewer become artists, entrepreneurs and iconoclasts. Why? Because Wall Street decision is easier…they are driven by fear of not being a success than by a concrete desire to do anything in particular.” p. 184
3. A Different Challenge
Liberals and conservatives differ greatly on how the government should aid families in poverty, but just about everyone agrees we need to do something.
“The government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep.”
In 2012, the child poverty rate was 22%. This means between a fifth and a quarter of American children are growing up in poverty. (From 1966 to 2010, the child poverty rate was 15%.)
Unsurprisingly, children who grow up in poor families in the United States do very poorly in school.
If we can help poor children escape the cycle of poverty, we can help them improve their academic skills and academic outcomes.
Conclusion: We could replicate on a big, national scale the accomplishments of the schools outlined in this book and make a huge dent on poverty’s impact on children’s success.
4. A Different Kind of Reform p. 189
For a long time, educational reform was focused on teacher quality and they way teachers are hired, trained, compensated and fired.
Whatever your stance, research on teachers remains inconclusive in some important ways:
we don’t know how to reliably predict who will be a top-tier teacher in any given year;
variations in teacher quality accounted for less than 10% of the gap between high and low-performing students.
The only official indicator of the economic status of an American public-school student today is his or her eligibility for a school-lunch subsidy.
If you qualify for subsidies, you probably can’t afford adequate shelter, nutritious food, new clothes, books or educational toys. Statistically, you are likely being raised by a poorly educated, never-married single mother.
5. The Politics of Disadvantage
The biggest obstacles to academic success that poor children, especially very poor children, often face: a home and a community that create very high levels of stress, and the absence of a secure relationship with a caregiver that would allow a child to manage that stress.
Character matters: grit, resilience, perseverance and optimism.
Perry Preschool – 128 children in poverty randomly chosen to attend high-quality preschool program. Experts believe that the school gave a return between $7 to $12 for each dollar spent.
The website displays data that starting quality education for the very poor at an early age has lasting effects (through the participants’ 40s)!
Kismet 