38. Do not overcomplicate your lives!

In this episode we are going to talk about how to simplify and return to the basics when analyzing new resources in education. Education is notorious for the next new shiny agenda around every corner. This might be in the form of a new technology, the latest teaching technique, the latest social paradigm at school, the newest format of school, the latest grading scheme, or any other number of supposedly amazing new things we are presented with every year. My goal is not to discount any of the above in our education work but we are so susceptible to the shiny object syndrome that we can become clouded to what our purpose really is in education. The more complicated we make our lives in education or our personal lives the more likely we are to burnout and be less successful in all our lives roles. Most new initiatives are well intended and if we were to keep the deeper purpose and correctly defined values in alignment I believe most new technologies and initiatives can become the accelerators they are meant to be rather than an obstacle to our vision. Our lives are often better served by returning to the basics and learning to see the most important parts of our circumstances. Most of the time life is really not that complicated! Really our purpose in education hasn’t changed that much over time and we aren’t asked to accomplish some imaginary Everest sized feat just because our methods might have changed. I feel like some days we need to shift our focus to why the students are required to come to us on a daily basis. Why are we needed as educators in the first place? Why is education such a valuable piece of our society? What parts of our practice are really in alignment with our answers to the above stated questions? Are we clouded with all of the stress and anxiety built from years of self deception and collusion in education? Do we grasp how unique our opportunity is to help so many people? We need to take time to analyze where we are currently and if necessary shift back to the basics of our role and let all the chips fall where they may. The cool thing is if you are ready to tackle this journey, I’ve got you! Come work with me one on one or sign up for Rekindle Your Fire to take the dive on your own. I love you guys!