Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do.What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
My favorite quote from this talk was "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we." In my personal and professional life, I think it is very important to take care of those around me, whether it's my family or my students. What can I do to help them? How can I teach them to help each other? How can we work together to improve? Together we can accomplish so much more than as a single individual if we just take the time to figure out how to work together.
My favorite line was "explore your web, the web in here -- the needs, the beliefs, the emotions that are controlling you". It is important to give to others and allow others to give back to us. We will both have good feeling from those actions. This is essential both at home and at work. Other people have so much to offer that can make our lives simpler and give us so much joy.
I don't know if I have ever listened to Tony Robbins before but I was impressed! I loved everything he had to say! We live in a world today where there are so many greedy and selfish people. Listening to Tony talk about how we are all driven by emotions, made so much sense! He made the comment that so many people just automatically assume that their past = their future and that is not the case! When we do not achieve a goal we are after, we find all of the excuses like not enough time or money or we don't know the right people. This is all emotion driven. What drives me and what are the decisions I need to make to get destiny in my favor? I LOVE how he talked toward the end about our last two needs: Growing and contributing. Grow so we have something to give and the contribute beyond oursel es because the secrte of living is giving! I could not agree more and I try to teach this to my children as well!
In our tired and selfish world, we need more spirit of giving. We need the connection and love to be our driving force. In my personal life, this talk helps me see why some family members are the way they are in their emotions. In my work life as teacher, I need to remember to have the right emotions to help my students grow and feel fulfilled. It is not a lie when they say it takes a village to raise a child, because I also believe it takes a village to keep raising an adult. We all need love and connection to help us feel more fulfilled. This brings the emotions we need to then grow and succeed so that we can then be giving and contributing back into our families and society.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
I really liked the phrase "Decision is the ultimate power" but i also liked "Decisions shape destiny" which i guess are pretty much the same thing but just worded differently. Decisions are tough for so many people and so hard to make at times. I have to say in my younger years, i tended to jump and make rash decisions. Some of those turned out great, but, many were impulsive and without thought. There are so many factors to how we respond to things and how we handle them. My hope is that my i can help to guide my students to make good decisions and help them get through a day with fulfillment.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
I enjoyed his way of presenting, he is pretty captivating and humorous. I really enjoyed his Thanksgiving story. It really pulled a lot of his points together! He used his "state" to create a great movement for the world unlike his dad who used his "state" to create more problems. I think that really shows how ones perspective can make or break something. I think about this at school when we do not like something- we can make a choice to create a bigger problem or we can find a solution to make something better from the change.
I liked the line about how "the defining factor is never resources. It's resourcefulness." I think my students and I are all guilty of making excuses when we are capable of things. We all have power of choices. One of the most frustrating parts of teaching is when someone with "potential" doesn't "apply" themselves or use their powers for good. I think I need to do a better job of encouraging kids to self-reflect ("examine their web"), because I agree with him wholeheartedly about growth and contribution.
"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love"
This quote may sound cheesy, but it's one of my core beliefs as a teacher, coach, and parent. I don't know if I'll ever win an award for teaching or coaching and I don't know if my kids will grow up to attend good colleges and high paying jobs. But, I do know that I can teach, coach, and parent with love and my students, players, and kids will be better from it.
The part that resonated with me most was the question, When do we start to live? When faced with death. This school year, I have been been dealing with a health concern that I’m struggling to overcome. Although not life threatening, it has often left me in pain and struggling emotionally. It has really made me think about how I have been living my life and what quality of life I want in the coming years. It has shown me that I can’t neglect taking care of my body and health. In my professional life, it has made me realize that I need to step away from some of the extras in order to take care of myself. Also, I have learned that I need to focus on accomplishing what I can while at work, so that I am not bringing work home as much as possible.
Some of my favorite lines were: “Emotion is the force of life.” "What makes the difference in the quality of people's lives? There's two master lessons. One is: there's the science of achievement. The other lesson that is rarely mastered is the art of fulfillment…. The reason is, it's about appreciation and contribution.” “We've got to remind ourselves that decision is the ultimate power. If decisions shape destiny, what determines it is three decisions: What will you focus on? Consciously or unconsciously, the minute you decide to focus, you must give it a meaning, and that meaning produces emotion. An emotion creates what we're going to do, or the action.” In my personal life right now, besides spending time with my family, my passion lies in mountain adventures and photography. But a deeper part of this journey has been finding a way to serve others. After I climbed my first mountain, on the drive home, I decided to share my journey by creating a blog, which eventually turned into my website. I was also asked to speak to the teachers in my district on how to overcome adversity when we were coming back to school after covid. I was able to draw from my experiences and challenges in the mountains and parallel them to the challenges we were facing as we came back to school. I’ve also created a youtube channel where I share positive messages as I go on my mountain adventures. With my photography, I try to share the beauty I find in the mountains. In my professional work, I love my job and I am grateful for the students and colleagues I get to serve. I believe in my students, and I let that drive me everyday to create the best learning experiences I can for them.
The line that stood out to me most was, "The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness." I can apply this to my personal life when I feel that I cannot do something. Instead of looking for resources, I need to look inward for resourcefulness.
I also think this is very applicable to my professional life because I do not have all of the resources that I think I need, but that is not an excuse. Instead of complaining about what I do not have, I can instead look for ways to fill that need using resourcefulness.
Callie Dutenhoffer “Life isn’t about me, it’s we.” When it comes to my personal life, this means life is now about my family. Obviously life changes in your different stages, but before a husband and a child, life was only me. My responsibilities were based on just the things I needed to do for myself. Now, my child comes first. Its now my child, husband and myself, which makes it “we.” In my professional life, to me, it means teamwork. I work in a group setting and it is so important that you don’t focus on just yourself, but all of your coworkers. Where I work now, there would be no success unless we worked as a team. This is true for teaching too, which I am no longer in at the moment, but I feel if you don’t work as “we” there would be a lot more struggles and frustrations. It was very important to me to have others I could depend on when I was teaching.
"Think about your life and the decisions that shape your destiny: In the last 5 or 10 years, have there been some decisions that if you'd made a different decision, your life would be completely different?"
For sure! 10 years ago, my husband and I made the decision that I should quit teaching entirely and stay home with our (at the time) one son. This single decision changed the trajectory of our life as a family forever. We become more courageous as a couple, living on one meager income, selling our home and buying a dilapidated acreage for my husband to begin his dream of a vegetable farm. We had two more children, and then after five years of this loveliness, I decided I wanted to go back to teaching which shocked us all.
I went back to full-time teaching, and my husband became the full-time family and children manager. This is the stage we're at now.
If I had not walked away from my teaching career, and accompanying depression and anxiety, my life and restored joy in teaching would likely be very different.
I had two favorite quotes that he used. The first one was "Decisions shape destiny". This is so true. One decision can change the rest of your life. When you think of it that way it is a little scary and intimidating, but also incredible. If we had done one thing different in our lives it could have led us down a different path. The second quote I liked was, "Life isn't about me, it's about we." This one is so great. It's true that we all need to work together. In education this is spot on. It's about us together as a classroom, and how we can grow together.
I enjoy the "it's not about the me it's about the we". My principal made this a professional learning day one year and it was a really nice reminder we don't all have to carry the load alone. They say it takes an army to raise kids and it takes an army to teach them as well! The more we can all work together the better off we'll all be! I think this can be applied to teaching by remembering to lean on each other for collaboration and support. Sometimes I struggle to ask for help but I have learned and changed a lot from collaborating as well!
"Decision is the ultimate power." "Defining factor is resourcefulness." Those are the two that stick in my mind and kind of go together. This means to me that I have the ultimate power what I do, I can say yes or no. I can't control others, but I can control myself. We can't blame others or get annoyed, we can control that. We control that with how we act. If we want a change or something done, and we are passionate, we will find a way to accomplish it. I think this resonates with me in that at times I get annoyed with other peoples decisions, but then I look at it and I need to tell myself, did I have a say or not, do I need to be annoyed, or what can I do. It is my decision how I feel and that can rub off on my fellow teachers. I shouldn't sell myself short when teaching or trying something, I need to be resourceful if I want to accomplish something, especially when it is new. Bottom line is that decisions and resourcefulness go hand and hand.
"It's not about me; it's about we." Having been surrounded by teens and pre-teens for the last 20 years, this really stuck out to me. That age group is very "me" centered and trying to get them to look beyond that is always an interesting challenge! I have also spent a great deal of time talking with my students in different situations about emotions and how they drive us. In my personal life, much of my time is about opportunities that involve helping other people, whether it is my family, my fellow teachers, my fellow church members, etc. In order to have a happier me, it is essential to help the we!
"What makes the difference in a person's quality of life? What is shaping this person's ability to contribute? The art of fulfillment - it's about appreciation and contribution and you can only do so much by yourself. " These ideas remind me both of my students, myself and the teachers I work with. We all wonder what we can do to shape a person's life, to make it better, to set them on a path to success. But there are student's who aren't successful or appreciative or even kind to us and you have to stop and wonder why? What is causing them to have a bad day, year, life? Why can't they contribute? Most often, there is some form of stress or trauma going on in their life and it is hindering their ability to see positivity, that growth is possible, that they are important. When my students or colleagues act unloving, I try to act with grace. Deep down, we just want to be valued. Sometimes the most important work we do won't be what we teach a student, it will be how we made them feel. If we can change their emotions, their mindset can shift and then we can get to bigger growth. At the end of the day, no man is an island. We all shape each other positively or negatively. Focusing on how you make someone feel might just lead them to their greatest success.
"If we get the right emotion, we can get ourselves to do anything" I really like this quote because it applies to everything. We need to adjust the way we think and respond to situations and respond with the correct emotions. We can build relationships and home and at school when we use the right emotions. It helps us to to empathize with others and truly understand where they are coming from. It's a mind shift change. Going in with th right attitude and emotions when we go to work or get home can help to create a different environment for everybody.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do.
My favorite part was when he talked about the 6 different needs people are driven by, the first 4 being personality needs and the last 2 spiritual. It made a lot of sense that these needs drive us in our daily lives and often do influence our choices in life.
What does this mean for you in your personal life?
When he mentioned looking back over the last 5 or 10 years and thinking about a certain career or relationship decision and how that has impacted you, it made me think about my choice to continue teaching through health struggles. Though many times I have wondered if I could continue, the Lord has strengthened me to do a work for Him with children. This made me think of the spiritual needs, especially number 6, "to contribute beyond ourselves."
How can this be applied in your professional work?
I think all 6 needs play a part in how we live and also how students experience our classrooms. They need certainty, variety, significance, connection/love, growth, and to contribute beyond themselves.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
Wow...what a powerful message. I appreciated the perspective on the six needs we all have and how we will do what we can for the first four. I wonder how many students are striving to get those four in whatever way they think they can.
Decision is the ultimate power. I have the decision to utilize what I have gained through this course to make a difference in my life. Personally, I can decide to free up my time for the priorities in my life. To establish boundaries and to protect my time so it is not devoured by the things in my life that are insignificant to me. Professionally, the same. What is my legacy as a classroom teacher? What is taking away from that and what do I want to do about it. I have that power to make those decisions. Lastly, God bless.
My favorite line from his talk was, "The sixth need is to give beyond ourselves. Because we all know, corny as it sounds, that the secret to living is giving." I loved this quote and his story about the Thanksgiving meal that he shared after it as well.
In my personal life, it means I reflect on any acts of kindness done for me and I make a silent vow to take advantage of the opportunity when I can return the favor. For example, I've had friends make meals for me after having a baby. I've had neighbors go out of their way to help my family with random tasks. When my dad passed, friends sent notes or thoughtful gifts that really meant a lot to me at that time. Now when I see an opportunity to extend kindness to others, I take it.
With teaching, I have the same mindset. I think of the things other staff members have done for me that meant a lot, and I want to keep paying it forward in the future. Whether it's sharing education materials, giving words of encouragement, or helping out when a coworker needs a hand with something, I want to be lifting others up and offering what I can.
“The third human need is significance. We all need to feel important, special, unique. You can get it by making more money or being more spiritual. You can do it by getting yourself in a situation where you put more tattoos and earrings in places humans don’t want to know. Whatever it takes. The fastest way to do this, if you have no background, no culture, no belief and resources or resourcefulness is violence.” I just thought the whole concept of everyone having the same needs, but going about having these needs met in different ways, was very interesting. This means in my personal life that it would be beneficial to see things from others point of view more. Maybe if I understood where people are coming from, or what needs they are trying to meet, then I would be more understanding. I believe the same to be true professionally. I think I’ve always leaned towards thinking that some policies were put into place to actually harm or neglect others rather than just a quick band aid of a solution at the time. Like the example the author gives of taking away recess from classes 2nd grade and above. You have to be in very desperate shape to think that is a good idea at all. But that is what they were, desperate, not trying to actually harm children. Being more understanding of everyone's position would make it easier to come up with a better solution.
"The defining factor is never resources, it is resourcefulness." Why do we do what we do? We may think it is because we feel that we don't have the resources we need, like a special degree, a lot of money, or special opportunities, but when we start feeling this way, we should be resourceful. Sometimes the school can't supply the things I need for my students, so I have been able to find some resources to obtain these things for little money of my own, and sometimes people will even donate them.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
"The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we."
This is something that I am constantly working on. Sometimes I find myself worrying about myself and the things around me that work for me. When living with someone and working around so many people, I have to remember to also worry about those around us and how they are doing/feeling. It is much easier to accomplish something with support systems. I have a great one around me, so I need to be a great system for those people as well.
"Here's what we really need; connection and love" I feel this in my life with my family. As long as we have the connection of each other and love we can get through things. All of the 'stuff' doesn't matter.
"Contributing beyond ourselves...the secret to living is giving" The gift of giving and thinking beyond ourselves is powerful. Giving in our profession as educators along with connection and love, I know makes differences in the lives of children daily. What a blessing to choose a career path that we get to give each day.
"The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness."--I think this comment resonated for me because it's similar to a concept that I teach in my speech class...and every year, I find that I am speaking as much to myself as to my kids. We can make excuses all day long about the things that we don't have time/money/energy...but if we truly want something, we make a way to get it done. As I've written in previous blog posts and what has been reinforced by reading "Fewer Things Better" is that I have come to the conclusion over the past few years (after feeling stressed and overwhelmed) is that if I want change in my habits and time, I'm going to have to reformulate how I structure my time and what I DO. Doing is how we move forward, and what I do day in/day out is what is going to make all the difference in my levels of stress and happiness/fulfillment both at work and at home.
"We can do small things with love". I think a lot of us have always thought that in order for us to make an impact, we have to do something huge and grandiose. However, sometimes the biggest impact we make is by doing the small things for our students and family. As long as we are caring, nurturing, and supportive, we can make a lasting impression on our students that will follow them well beyond our classroom.
6 needs: 1) Certainty and 2) Uncertainty. Opposites of each other, but both needed in personal and professional life. Personal - we need to know and rely on the people around us, but the uncertainty keeps things fun and unpredictable. This can both be enjoyable and maddening at the same time! The same goes in the professional part of life, we need to know we have a job everyday and our roles with that job. The uncertainty keeps us motivated daily to keep going and provide the best we can do in order to fulfill the needs of the job.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
I really enjoyed listening to Tony Robbins speak. He had several lines that I really enjoyed. Some of my favorites were: "Emotion is the force of life." "The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness." "If we can get the right emotion we can get ourselves to do anything." I thought how he talks about emotion as the key to motivation is spot on. Personally, lately I have been having a hard time getting myself motivated with wellness/exercise. I think I need to work on tapping into that emotion to help drive me to be better! Professionally, I think I have been successful in my current role because of emotion. I genuinely care about what I am doing and the kids I am serving. I did not have those feelings about my last job, and for some time I felt like I was just going through the motions. The level of emotion that exists for me in my current job is very high, and I think that is what makes it so satisfying for me.
"The other lesson that is rarely mastered is the art of fulfillment. Because science is easy, right? We know the rules, you write the code and you get the results. Once you know the game, you just up the ante, don't you? But when it comes to fulfillment -- that's an art. The reason is, it's about appreciation and contribution. You can only feel so much by yourself." This hit me for some reason. I look back at my life - personal and work. I figured out how to play the game. But the fullment part has been lacking. Now to figure out what is missing -- the appreciation, the contribution, or trying to feel so much by myself? Maybe it is a combination of things or has changed over time. I think I appreciate things at times. I think I have contributed at times. I think I have included others in my life at times. But I know I have not been consistent with any of those three due to a variety of reasons and experiences. I think I need to work on the art of fulfillment.
I really liked the quote "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we." I have always classified myself as a giver, and it's probably what drew me the most to becoming a nurse. At work, I am constantly serving "we" by helping the students at the school with their health. I try to model empathy and a caring attitude toward the students. I care a lot about these students and I hope that they realize this. At home, the same mindset is present as well. I put my family before myself, and don't even think twice about it. I am always happy to help out others, that could be carpooling to activities, helping my neighbor with an errand, or volunteering as my daughters Girl Scout troop leader for the past 6 years because no one else did. Sometimes this can be draining, but I am truly a more fulfilled person because of this.
My favorite line was "It's not about me, it's about we." I think that means when we stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on how we can truly make a difference in the classroom, community, or even the world we will finally feel like we are living a fulfilling life. I get caught up in the everyday "to do's" of life and forget about what really matters, which is my relationships with my family and my students. So if I would just stop and think about what's really important and make decisions based on that, then I would be able to feel like I've lived the best life I can and touched the most lives to make the world a better place.
My favorite quote from this talk was "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we." I love this so much because I feel like my entire life I’ve focused on giving “me” and now I’m dealing with the burnout from it. In my personal life my husband is always asking me how I can take more time for myself and he can support me with this. We are a team. The past year we have focused more on our relationship since having our daughter 3 years ago. We’ve been making weekly date nights a priority and taking 2-3 nights together without our daughter during the summer. In my professional work, this has me considering that I work in a school community. Even in “my” classroom, my students are very much a part of the community. I want to make sure I’m providing the students with a space where they feel supported, challenged and cared for and also where they demonstrate all of these things for their classmates. It also represents the support I should receive from my coworkers and administration so I don’t feel like I’m doing this big job all on my own.
I think the part that resonated with me the most was the "it's not me, its we". Especially in my current role outside of teaching, I'm in a leadership position. Everyday I try and make this my mantra, that we are a team and it isn't about me as the "leader". At the end of the day, the team members are trying their best and have families to go home to at the end of shift. I think it is easy to lose sight of the fact that people are people and that at the end of the day we are more than a "product" to the company and clients in which we serve.
I like the part that says we need connection and love. In my role as a teacher in the primary level I see the importance of connecting with children on that deeper level. We all need to feel important and special and feel safe and loved in our environment. This helps when it comes to understanding students and how they act and what helps them thrive.
My love language is quality time so connection and love is important to me. I like feeling like people are connected to me and I am understood, so I feel I should and can reflect that in my career.
In my personal life this quote means that we need to think of others and not just ourselves. I am consistently caring for my family and my students. I think too many people are selfish and only do things to better themselves. I think that volunteer work and helping in the community as much as you can is very important. We need to think about our actions and how they are affecting others before we do them. I think this is something that we have to teach our children everyday. We need to remind them that their actions affect others and can be very hurtful.
In my professional work I think it is important to create a family atmosphere in the classroom. Our actions affect all of the people in our classroom. I want my classroom to be a safe space for all students. Creating that "we" mentality is very important from day one of class. Our school really focuses on being responsible, respectful, and safe. I think these are all great things to be when in and out of school.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work? "Decision is the ultimate power". This quote sums up so much of my life. Decision drives the way my life are gone, good and bad. Sometimes, a bad decision turned out to be the driving reason for the success I have had. Professionally, my decision to react when a student acts out can go either way. If I over react, it could go south with the student, but if I react with calmness, the incident can resolved.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quote from this talk was "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we."
In my personal and professional life, I think it is very important to take care of those around me, whether it's my family or my students. What can I do to help them? How can I teach them to help each other? How can we work together to improve? Together we can accomplish so much more than as a single individual if we just take the time to figure out how to work together.
My favorite line was "explore your web, the web in here -- the needs, the beliefs, the emotions that are controlling you". It is important to give to others and allow others to give back to us. We will both have good feeling from those actions. This is essential both at home and at work. Other people have so much to offer that can make our lives simpler and give us so much joy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have ever listened to Tony Robbins before but I was impressed! I loved everything he had to say! We live in a world today where there are so many greedy and selfish people. Listening to Tony talk about how we are all driven by emotions, made so much sense! He made the comment that so many people just automatically assume that their past = their future and that is not the case! When we do not achieve a goal we are after, we find all of the excuses like not enough time or money or we don't know the right people. This is all emotion driven. What drives me and what are the decisions I need to make to get destiny in my favor? I LOVE how he talked toward the end about our last two needs: Growing and contributing. Grow so we have something to give and the contribute beyond oursel es because the secrte of living is giving! I could not agree more and I try to teach this to my children as well!
ReplyDeleteIn our tired and selfish world, we need more spirit of giving. We need the connection and love to be our driving force. In my personal life, this talk helps me see why some family members are the way they are in their emotions. In my work life as teacher, I need to remember to have the right emotions to help my students grow and feel fulfilled. It is not a lie when they say it takes a village to raise a child, because I also believe it takes a village to keep raising an adult. We all need love and connection to help us feel more fulfilled. This brings the emotions we need to then grow and succeed so that we can then be giving and contributing back into our families and society.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the phrase "Decision is the ultimate power" but i also liked "Decisions shape destiny" which i guess are pretty much the same thing but just worded differently. Decisions are tough for so many people and so hard to make at times. I have to say in my younger years, i tended to jump and make rash decisions. Some of those turned out great, but, many were impulsive and without thought. There are so many factors to how we respond to things and how we handle them. My hope is that my i can help to guide my students to make good decisions and help them get through a day with fulfillment.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed his way of presenting, he is pretty captivating and humorous. I really enjoyed his Thanksgiving story. It really pulled a lot of his points together! He used his "state" to create a great movement for the world unlike his dad who used his "state" to create more problems. I think that really shows how ones perspective can make or break something. I think about this at school when we do not like something- we can make a choice to create a bigger problem or we can find a solution to make something better from the change.
I liked the line about how "the defining factor is never resources. It's resourcefulness." I think my students and I are all guilty of making excuses when we are capable of things. We all have power of choices. One of the most frustrating parts of teaching is when someone with "potential" doesn't "apply" themselves or use their powers for good. I think I need to do a better job of encouraging kids to self-reflect ("examine their web"), because I agree with him wholeheartedly about growth and contribution.
ReplyDelete"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love"
ReplyDeleteThis quote may sound cheesy, but it's one of my core beliefs as a teacher, coach, and parent. I don't know if I'll ever win an award for teaching or coaching and I don't know if my kids will grow up to attend good colleges and high paying jobs. But, I do know that I can teach, coach, and parent with love and my students, players, and kids will be better from it.
The part that resonated with me most was the question, When do we start to live? When faced with death. This school year, I have been been dealing with a health concern that I’m struggling to overcome. Although not life threatening, it has often left me in pain and struggling emotionally. It has really made me think about how I have been living my life and what quality of life I want in the coming years. It has shown me that I can’t neglect taking care of my body and health. In my professional life, it has made me realize that I need to step away from some of the extras in order to take care of myself. Also, I have learned that I need to focus on accomplishing what I can while at work, so that I am not bringing work home as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite lines were:
ReplyDelete“Emotion is the force of life.”
"What makes the difference in the quality of people's lives? There's two master lessons. One is: there's the science of achievement. The other lesson that is rarely mastered is the art of fulfillment…. The reason is, it's about appreciation and contribution.”
“We've got to remind ourselves that decision is the ultimate power. If decisions shape destiny, what determines it is three decisions: What will you focus on? Consciously or unconsciously, the minute you decide to focus, you must give it a meaning, and that meaning produces emotion. An emotion creates what we're going to do, or the action.”
In my personal life right now, besides spending time with my family, my passion lies in mountain adventures and photography. But a deeper part of this journey has been finding a way to serve others. After I climbed my first mountain, on the drive home, I decided to share my journey by creating a blog, which eventually turned into my website. I was also asked to speak to the teachers in my district on how to overcome adversity when we were coming back to school after covid. I was able to draw from my experiences and challenges in the mountains and parallel them to the challenges we were facing as we came back to school. I’ve also created a youtube channel where I share positive messages as I go on my mountain adventures. With my photography, I try to share the beauty I find in the mountains.
In my professional work, I love my job and I am grateful for the students and colleagues I get to serve. I believe in my students, and I let that drive me everyday to create the best learning experiences I can for them.
The line that stood out to me most was, "The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness." I can apply this to my personal life when I feel that I cannot do something. Instead of looking for resources, I need to look inward for resourcefulness.
ReplyDeleteI also think this is very applicable to my professional life because I do not have all of the resources that I think I need, but that is not an excuse. Instead of complaining about what I do not have, I can instead look for ways to fill that need using resourcefulness.
Callie Dutenhoffer
ReplyDelete“Life isn’t about me, it’s we.”
When it comes to my personal life, this means life is now about my family. Obviously life changes in your different stages, but before a husband and a child, life was only me. My responsibilities were based on just the things I needed to do for myself. Now, my child comes first. Its now my child, husband and myself, which makes it “we.”
In my professional life, to me, it means teamwork. I work in a group setting and it is so important that you don’t focus on just yourself, but all of your coworkers. Where I work now, there would be no success unless we worked as a team. This is true for teaching too, which I am no longer in at the moment, but I feel if you don’t work as “we” there would be a lot more struggles and frustrations. It was very important to me to have others I could depend on when I was teaching.
"Think about your life and the decisions that shape your destiny:
ReplyDeleteIn the last 5 or 10 years, have there been some decisions that if you'd made a different decision, your life would be completely different?"
For sure! 10 years ago, my husband and I made the decision that I should quit teaching entirely and stay home with our (at the time) one son. This single decision changed the trajectory of our life as a family forever.
We become more courageous as a couple, living on one meager income, selling our home and buying a dilapidated acreage for my husband to begin his dream of a vegetable farm. We had two more children, and then after five years of this loveliness, I decided I wanted to go back to teaching which shocked us all.
I went back to full-time teaching, and my husband became the full-time family and children manager. This is the stage we're at now.
If I had not walked away from my teaching career, and accompanying depression and anxiety, my life and restored joy in teaching would likely be very different.
I had two favorite quotes that he used. The first one was "Decisions shape destiny". This is so true. One decision can change the rest of your life. When you think of it that way it is a little scary and intimidating, but also incredible. If we had done one thing different in our lives it could have led us down a different path.
ReplyDeleteThe second quote I liked was, "Life isn't about me, it's about we." This one is so great. It's true that we all need to work together. In education this is spot on. It's about us together as a classroom, and how we can grow together.
I enjoy the "it's not about the me it's about the we". My principal made this a professional learning day one year and it was a really nice reminder we don't all have to carry the load alone. They say it takes an army to raise kids and it takes an army to teach them as well! The more we can all work together the better off we'll all be! I think this can be applied to teaching by remembering to lean on each other for collaboration and support. Sometimes I struggle to ask for help but I have learned and changed a lot from collaborating as well!
ReplyDelete"Decision is the ultimate power." "Defining factor is resourcefulness." Those are the two that stick in my mind and kind of go together. This means to me that I have the ultimate power what I do, I can say yes or no. I can't control others, but I can control myself. We can't blame others or get annoyed, we can control that. We control that with how we act. If we want a change or something done, and we are passionate, we will find a way to accomplish it. I think this resonates with me in that at times I get annoyed with other peoples decisions, but then I look at it and I need to tell myself, did I have a say or not, do I need to be annoyed, or what can I do. It is my decision how I feel and that can rub off on my fellow teachers. I shouldn't sell myself short when teaching or trying something, I need to be resourceful if I want to accomplish something, especially when it is new. Bottom line is that decisions and resourcefulness go hand and hand.
ReplyDelete"It's not about me; it's about we." Having been surrounded by teens and pre-teens for the last 20 years, this really stuck out to me. That age group is very "me" centered and trying to get them to look beyond that is always an interesting challenge! I have also spent a great deal of time talking with my students in different situations about emotions and how they drive us. In my personal life, much of my time is about opportunities that involve helping other people, whether it is my family, my fellow teachers, my fellow church members, etc. In order to have a happier me, it is essential to help the we!
ReplyDelete"What makes the difference in a person's quality of life? What is shaping this person's ability to contribute? The art of fulfillment - it's about appreciation and contribution and you can only do so much by yourself. " These ideas remind me both of my students, myself and the teachers I work with. We all wonder what we can do to shape a person's life, to make it better, to set them on a path to success. But there are student's who aren't successful or appreciative or even kind to us and you have to stop and wonder why? What is causing them to have a bad day, year, life? Why can't they contribute? Most often, there is some form of stress or trauma going on in their life and it is hindering their ability to see positivity, that growth is possible, that they are important. When my students or colleagues act unloving, I try to act with grace. Deep down, we just want to be valued. Sometimes the most important work we do won't be what we teach a student, it will be how we made them feel. If we can change their emotions, their mindset can shift and then we can get to bigger growth. At the end of the day, no man is an island. We all shape each other positively or negatively. Focusing on how you make someone feel might just lead them to their greatest success.
ReplyDelete"If we get the right emotion, we can get ourselves to do anything" I really like this quote because it applies to everything. We need to adjust the way we think and respond to situations and respond with the correct emotions. We can build relationships and home and at school when we use the right emotions. It helps us to to empathize with others and truly understand where they are coming from. It's a mind shift change. Going in with th right attitude and emotions when we go to work or get home can help to create a different environment for everybody.
ReplyDeleteShare your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was when he talked about the 6 different needs people are driven by, the first 4 being personality needs and the last 2 spiritual. It made a lot of sense that these needs drive us in our daily lives and often do influence our choices in life.
What does this mean for you in your personal life?
When he mentioned looking back over the last 5 or 10 years and thinking about a certain career or relationship decision and how that has impacted you, it made me think about my choice to continue teaching through health struggles. Though many times I have wondered if I could continue, the Lord has strengthened me to do a work for Him with children. This made me think of the spiritual needs, especially number 6, "to contribute beyond ourselves."
How can this be applied in your professional work?
I think all 6 needs play a part in how we live and also how students experience our classrooms. They need certainty, variety, significance, connection/love, growth, and to contribute beyond themselves.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDeleteWow...what a powerful message. I appreciated the perspective on the six needs we all have and how we will do what we can for the first four. I wonder how many students are striving to get those four in whatever way they think they can.
Decision is the ultimate power. I have the decision to utilize what I have gained through this course to make a difference in my life. Personally, I can decide to free up my time for the priorities in my life. To establish boundaries and to protect my time so it is not devoured by the things in my life that are insignificant to me. Professionally, the same. What is my legacy as a classroom teacher? What is taking away from that and what do I want to do about it. I have that power to make those decisions. Lastly, God bless.
My favorite line from his talk was, "The sixth need is to give beyond ourselves. Because we all know, corny as it sounds, that the secret to living is giving." I loved this quote and his story about the Thanksgiving meal that he shared after it as well.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal life, it means I reflect on any acts of kindness done for me and I make a silent vow to take advantage of the opportunity when I can return the favor. For example, I've had friends make meals for me after having a baby. I've had neighbors go out of their way to help my family with random tasks. When my dad passed, friends sent notes or thoughtful gifts that really meant a lot to me at that time. Now when I see an opportunity to extend kindness to others, I take it.
With teaching, I have the same mindset. I think of the things other staff members have done for me that meant a lot, and I want to keep paying it forward in the future. Whether it's sharing education materials, giving words of encouragement, or helping out when a coworker needs a hand with something, I want to be lifting others up and offering what I can.
“The third human need is significance. We all need to feel important, special, unique. You can get it by making more money or being more spiritual. You can do it by getting yourself in a situation where you put more tattoos and earrings in places humans don’t want to know. Whatever it takes. The fastest way to do this, if you have no background, no culture, no belief and resources or resourcefulness is violence.” I just thought the whole concept of everyone having the same needs, but going about having these needs met in different ways, was very interesting. This means in my personal life that it would be beneficial to see things from others point of view more. Maybe if I understood where people are coming from, or what needs they are trying to meet, then I would be more understanding. I believe the same to be true professionally. I think I’ve always leaned towards thinking that some policies were put into place to actually harm or neglect others rather than just a quick band aid of a solution at the time. Like the example the author gives of taking away recess from classes 2nd grade and above. You have to be in very desperate shape to think that is a good idea at all. But that is what they were, desperate, not trying to actually harm children. Being more understanding of everyone's position would make it easier to come up with a better solution.
ReplyDelete"The defining factor is never resources, it is resourcefulness." Why do we do what we do? We may think it is because we feel that we don't have the resources we need, like a special degree, a lot of money, or special opportunities, but when we start feeling this way, we should be resourceful. Sometimes the school can't supply the things I need for my students, so I have been able to find some resources to obtain these things for little money of my own, and sometimes people will even donate them.
ReplyDeleteShare your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDelete"The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we."
This is something that I am constantly working on. Sometimes I find myself worrying about myself and the things around me that work for me. When living with someone and working around so many people, I have to remember to also worry about those around us and how they are doing/feeling. It is much easier to accomplish something with support systems. I have a great one around me, so I need to be a great system for those people as well.
"Here's what we really need; connection and love"
ReplyDeleteI feel this in my life with my family. As long as we have the connection of each other and love we can get through things. All of the 'stuff' doesn't matter.
"Contributing beyond ourselves...the secret to living is giving" The gift of giving and thinking beyond ourselves is powerful. Giving in our profession as educators along with connection and love, I know makes differences in the lives of children daily. What a blessing to choose a career path that we get to give each day.
"The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness."--I think this comment resonated for me because it's similar to a concept that I teach in my speech class...and every year, I find that I am speaking as much to myself as to my kids. We can make excuses all day long about the things that we don't have time/money/energy...but if we truly want something, we make a way to get it done. As I've written in previous blog posts and what has been reinforced by reading "Fewer Things Better" is that I have come to the conclusion over the past few years (after feeling stressed and overwhelmed) is that if I want change in my habits and time, I'm going to have to reformulate how I structure my time and what I DO. Doing is how we move forward, and what I do day in/day out is what is going to make all the difference in my levels of stress and happiness/fulfillment both at work and at home.
ReplyDelete"We can do small things with love".
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us have always thought that in order for us to make an impact, we have to do something huge and grandiose. However, sometimes the biggest impact we make is by doing the small things for our students and family. As long as we are caring, nurturing, and supportive, we can make a lasting impression on our students that will follow them well beyond our classroom.
6 needs: 1) Certainty and 2) Uncertainty. Opposites of each other, but both needed in personal and professional life. Personal - we need to know and rely on the people around us, but the uncertainty keeps things fun and unpredictable. This can both be enjoyable and maddening at the same time!
ReplyDeleteThe same goes in the professional part of life, we need to know we have a job everyday and our roles with that job. The uncertainty keeps us motivated daily to keep going and provide the best we can do in order to fulfill the needs of the job.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to Tony Robbins speak. He had several lines that I really enjoyed. Some of my favorites were: "Emotion is the force of life." "The defining factor is never resources, it's resourcefulness." "If we can get the right emotion we can get ourselves to do anything." I thought how he talks about emotion as the key to motivation is spot on. Personally, lately I have been having a hard time getting myself motivated with wellness/exercise. I think I need to work on tapping into that emotion to help drive me to be better! Professionally, I think I have been successful in my current role because of emotion. I genuinely care about what I am doing and the kids I am serving. I did not have those feelings about my last job, and for some time I felt like I was just going through the motions. The level of emotion that exists for me in my current job is very high, and I think that is what makes it so satisfying for me.
"The other lesson that is rarely mastered is the art of fulfillment. Because science is easy, right? We know the rules, you write the code and you get the results. Once you know the game, you just up the ante, don't you? But when it comes to fulfillment -- that's an art. The reason is, it's about appreciation and contribution. You can only feel so much by yourself." This hit me for some reason. I look back at my life - personal and work. I figured out how to play the game. But the fullment part has been lacking. Now to figure out what is missing -- the appreciation, the contribution, or trying to feel so much by myself? Maybe it is a combination of things or has changed over time. I think I appreciate things at times. I think I have contributed at times. I think I have included others in my life at times. But I know I have not been consistent with any of those three due to a variety of reasons and experiences. I think I need to work on the art of fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the quote "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we." I have always classified myself as a giver, and it's probably what drew me the most to becoming a nurse. At work, I am constantly serving "we" by helping the students at the school with their health. I try to model empathy and a caring attitude toward the students. I care a lot about these students and I hope that they realize this. At home, the same mindset is present as well. I put my family before myself, and don't even think twice about it. I am always happy to help out others, that could be carpooling to activities, helping my neighbor with an errand, or volunteering as my daughters Girl Scout troop leader for the past 6 years because no one else did. Sometimes this can be draining, but I am truly a more fulfilled person because of this.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was "It's not about me, it's about we." I think that means when we stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on how we can truly make a difference in the classroom, community, or even the world we will finally feel like we are living a fulfilling life. I get caught up in the everyday "to do's" of life and forget about what really matters, which is my relationships with my family and my students. So if I would just stop and think about what's really important and make decisions based on that, then I would be able to feel like I've lived the best life I can and touched the most lives to make the world a better place.
ReplyDeleteThis is Erin Bradfeldt-Albers--
ReplyDeleteNot sure why this time it said anonymous?
My favorite quote from this talk was "The secret of life is about giving. It's not about me it's about we." I love this so much because I feel like my entire life I’ve focused on giving “me” and now I’m dealing with the burnout from it. In my personal life my husband is always asking me how I can take more time for myself and he can support me with this. We are a team. The past year we have focused more on our relationship since having our daughter 3 years ago. We’ve been making weekly date nights a priority and taking 2-3 nights together without our daughter during the summer. In my professional work, this has me considering that I work in a school community. Even in “my” classroom, my students are very much a part of the community. I want to make sure I’m providing the students with a space where they feel supported, challenged and cared for and also where they demonstrate all of these things for their classmates. It also represents the support I should receive from my coworkers and administration so I don’t feel like I’m doing this big job all on my own.
ReplyDeleteI think the part that resonated with me the most was the "it's not me, its we". Especially in my current role outside of teaching, I'm in a leadership position. Everyday I try and make this my mantra, that we are a team and it isn't about me as the "leader". At the end of the day, the team members are trying their best and have families to go home to at the end of shift. I think it is easy to lose sight of the fact that people are people and that at the end of the day we are more than a "product" to the company and clients in which we serve.
ReplyDeleteI like the part that says we need connection and love. In my role as a teacher in the primary level I see the importance of connecting with children on that deeper level. We all need to feel important and special and feel safe and loved in our environment. This helps when it comes to understanding students and how they act and what helps them thrive.
ReplyDeleteMy love language is quality time so connection and love is important to me. I like feeling like people are connected to me and I am understood, so I feel I should and can reflect that in my career.
"It's not about me; it's about we."
ReplyDeleteIn my personal life this quote means that we need to think of others and not just ourselves. I am consistently caring for my family and my students. I think too many people are selfish and only do things to better themselves. I think that volunteer work and helping in the community as much as you can is very important. We need to think about our actions and how they are affecting others before we do them. I think this is something that we have to teach our children everyday. We need to remind them that their actions affect others and can be very hurtful.
In my professional work I think it is important to create a family atmosphere in the classroom. Our actions affect all of the people in our classroom. I want my classroom to be a safe space for all students. Creating that "we" mentality is very important from day one of class. Our school really focuses on being responsible, respectful, and safe. I think these are all great things to be when in and out of school.
Share your favorite line or story stated by Tony Robbins in his talk, Why We Do What We Do. What does this mean for you in your personal life? How can this be applied in your professional work?
ReplyDelete"Decision is the ultimate power". This quote sums up so much of my life. Decision drives the way my life are gone, good and bad. Sometimes, a bad decision turned out to be the driving reason for the success I have had. Professionally, my decision to react when a student acts out can go either way. If I over react, it could go south with the student, but if I react with calmness, the incident can resolved.