The Subtle Art…

As part of the “Self-directed informal learning” assignments, I decided to read “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck; A counter intuitive approach to living a good life” by Mark Manson. Warning: if you’re offended by the use of the F-word, you may not want to read on.

At the end of Chapter one, the last paragraph states “This book will not teach you how to gain or achieve, but rather how to lose and let go. It will teach you to take inventory of your life and scrub out all but the most important items. …It will teach you to give fewer f*cks. It will teach you not to try.”
The not trying part is the counter intuitive action (or non-action) to the the endless feed that we receive regarding the need for unwavering positivity, participation trophies, entitlement and social acceptance. The book is based on the idea that we’ve been conditioned to the need to achieve (bigger, better, faster, more more more) and in reality, even if we reach those goals, we’re still miserable. (side note: which I realize flies in the face of what PSEL is about).
The book didn’t necessarily teach me anything new, but it did give me a new way to apply what I already knew. As a result, I’m trying to spend more of my greatest commodity — my time — on the things and with the people I actually care about, rather than spreading myself so thin. Additionally, it’s helped me recognize when I’m obsessing over something I have no control over and when it’s appropriate to “care”. I find this especially helpful at work, when working in the office. If the person across the hall is talking to her family on the phone more than she’s working, while it’s certainly not a great practice, in reality it does not affect me and my ability to do my job in any way. Therefore, “no f*cks given”. In general, if another person’s behavior doesn’t directly affect me, my ability to do my job (or in my personal life, if it doesn’t affect my finances and ability to live my life), in the big scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. It’s someone else’s job to supervise my yappy co-worker, not mine.
You can apply this logic to all sorts of things, work related or not. So, in short, the take homes from the book are:
  • Focus on what you can control and that affects you – you have the ability to make those choices;
  • Don’t waste time/energy/money chasing a dream that will make you miserable achieving and then not provide happiness when achieved;
  • Get comfortable with your status/body/etc; you’ll be much happier if you enjoy your “status quo”.
If anyone would like to discuss the book more or have any questions, let me know. If you’re looking for some “light” reading, and you suffer from the same “need to care” (some may say “nosy nature”) that I do, it might be a great resource for you to read. My friend sent me a TED talk that is similar in nature to this book, but by a different author. In doing some research I came to realize that the concepts covered in this book are also presented by others under similar titles.
I’ve recommended this book to oodles of friends after reading it. The concept is simple to understand, and honestly, isn’t anything I didn’t already know, but reading this book renewed my desire to live focused on the things I really do give a f*ck about.

Six Words

Recently while on vacation, I was introduced to a new game called “Six Word Memoirs”. It’s based on the story that once Hemmingway was challenged to write a short story in only six words. The story goes that he responded with something like “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.” The Six Word Memoirs game is a little simpler – players are given several (five?) people, places or things, and are instructed to write down 6 words that they think describe the people, places or things. Then, players are given a short amount of time (1 minute, I think) to say those words to their teammate in an effort to get their teammate to guess the person, place or thing.  I grew up watching $100,000 pyramid, and I love word games, so I bought it the first chance I got and plan to play it as much as my family and friends will tolerate it.

In our last PSEL training we were challenged to write a six word purpose statement for our team. Since I have a small ESP team and a larger Dutton team, I wrote two:

For ESP – deliver quality ESP-related education online

For Dutton – deliver innovative, engaging educational content online

While not perfect, I think these brief purpose statements convey a lot of information in an effective manner.

Once I had the purpose statements for ESP and Dutton crafted, I tried to do the same for my personal 6 words, but didn’t get far – outdoor loving, adventurous, caring, fun seeker. Sounds more like a personal ad than a personal purpose statement. It’s hard to write a personal purpose statement, let alone in 6 words.

Our speaker showed us a video about finding our “Why” and then the “What” will fall into place. I’m not sure I completely understood that little section of his presentation, but I think I get the gist. And I think that once I better define the “why” the purpose statement will be easier to write.

What’s your “why”?

 

Impostor Syndrome

Overall, teaching at a college level is challenging for so many reasons. Yes, there’s strong personalities to deal with and administrative processes that bog things down, but the giant, smelly elephant in the room is that I DON’T KNOW HOW TO TEACH. I may know what I know, but I readily admit, I am not an expert in anything. On top of that, conveying what I do know, requires a whole new set of skills. Determining what to convey, how to convey it, and then how to assess if I’ve conveyed it successfully is all an interesting conundrum for me. I would guess that I’m not alone in my inability to effectively sift through the information and determine what to present to the students.

For me, the lack of knowledge related to teaching pedagogy, partnered with the lack of PhD depth expertise in any particular topic, leads to impostor syndrome: “Impostor syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence.” (Caltech Counseling Center, no date)

When I expressed my fear of inadequacy to my Assistant Director recently, she promptly pointed out that Learning Designers are the people that bridge that gap for instructors. Learning Designers specialize in helping instructors determine what to convey, how to convey it and then creating assessments that adequately measure how successful the knowledge was transferred. I was nearly 6 years into teaching online, before I got a true taste of what it means to have a Learning Designer (LD) in my corner.

I have never taught in person, and I’ve only ever delivered courses that were in existence before I came on board. So the idea of creating content is daunting and creates feelings of anxiety that I’ve never encountered before. Not only do I have to put together information that is worth reading but I have to do it in a meaningful, interesting and relateable fashion. I have to write. And then revise. Then write some more. Then revise some more. Putting together each lesson is incredibly time consuming. On top of questioning if I am even qualified to create the lesson, then questioning if I’m conveying the right info, I also question my abilities in conveying it correctly. Is my grammar ok? Is the whole thing crap? What if my commentary comes across as preachy or self-righteous?

Impostor syndrome.

 

https://counseling.caltech.edu/general/InfoandResources/Impostor