Today, I visited The Vitality Show in London – a bit like The BETT Show for the world of health and wellbeing if you will. While there, I spent a bit of time listening to life coach, Louise Presley-Turner, talk on the topic of identifying your passions. Something she said in that half an hour really stuck with me:
Inspired people naturally inspire others.
It’s difficult to argue with that, isn’t it? It seems kind of obvious after all. She also discussed how easily we all become defined by our jobs. Personally, I think that is certainly true of many teachers. I know I find it hard to ‘switch off’ at times and often when I see something I think looks good/interesting/intriguing my brain automatically jumps to working out how I could use it in the classroom. Nothing wrong with that of course. However, I do know I need reminding that although I am a teacher, it’s ok that I don’t want everything about me to be intertwined with teaching. I also know it’s all too easy to slip into that pattern. On some level, that’s why I started The App That a few months back. I wanted a new project about something I’m really interested in, but wasn’t based in education or classroom practice.
So, if you sometimes find yourself feeling bogged down by teaching and all it entails or annoyed because you’re spending all Sunday, every Sunday planning – I know some teachers do, I’ve read the tweets – then perhaps it’s now time to make a concerted effort to do something completely unrelated. I know that is one of those easier-said-than-done statements and is possibly even annoying because you know it already, but I’m blogging this to remind myself, as well as any other teacher reading this, to make inspiring yourself a priority. Or at least more of a priority. Spending some of your time finding and doing things that inspire you, will naturally lead you to be more inspiring, which is only a good thing for the pupils you teach anyway.
How do you inspire yourself? What is stopping you from doing this? Do you have advice for others about how to make this a priority?
Sunlight. by rishibando
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