Howard Gardner speaks or writes and I listen. Many years ago about creativity, he said, “It’s a serious business for serious people. Creative work requires, I think, being a certain kind of person, which includes being able to work on things for years, a drive not likely to come to people who paid five hundred dollars for a weekend under a tent.”
People continue to market weekend retreats or workshops on creativity. And all sorts of other things, too. Things that require greater effort, time, concentration and focus than a single weekend will afford.
Gardner and others who have long been leaning toward wisdom understand how delusional ideas can block our progress. That’s why Gardner calls it, “nonsense.” (Here’s a podcast interview Gardner did in 2007 about his book, Five Minds For The Future)
The world is full of nonsense. It permeates every pursuit. Business. Sports. Religion. Investing. Entertainment. Writing. Public Speaking. Music. Education.
Mr. Gardner’s assertion about creativity applies to many other endeavors. For example, stand up comedy is serious business that demands serious work. How else would a person be able to endure the difficult work of standing up in front of people, risking ridicule and rejection and laboring for years with little pay?
I’ve talked in the past about the time the Beatles spent in Hamburg refining their music with countless hours of playing. Those years required serious work done by serious musicians. Without that time they may have never arrived in America.
It’s nonsense to believe that people get lucky. The quote has been attributed to Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. I don’t know who said it, but it’s true. “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”
Success doesn’t usually happen overnight. The secrets aren’t found in a book, a workshop or a seminar. A few hundred bucks or even a few thousand bucks won’t give you the easy button you’re looking for. There is no standard formula that being hidden from you.
The missing ingredients to improvement – the ways to become remarkable – are summarized in three steps. They’re simple to understand, but quite difficult to implement. Only the very determined will embrace them, commit to perform them and see them all the way through to the Promised Land of Success. Most will fail. That’s why it’s remarkable. It’s extraordinary. Unique. Outstanding.
1. Rid yourself of false assumptions and the nonsense that cripple you.
2. Open your mind to creativity, innovation and the art of what’s possible.
3. Separate yourself from average through sustained concentration, drive and tenacity.
You and I have some beliefs – sometimes deep-seated beliefs – that are wrong. We think we’re right, otherwise we wouldn’t believe these ideas. We make assumptions based on faulty perceptions. We think we see it clearly – for what it is. But sometimes we’re wrong.
Education has as many false notions as any other industry. Some are more widespread than others. None are held by everybody. That’s where the conflict enters and often erupts. One person believes one thing to be true, while somebody else believes an opposing position is true. One or both can be wrong.
Danny Hill, co-author of The Power of ICU (Dr. Jayson Nave is the other author) begins his presentation addressing the nonsense that cripples schools – and the nonsense that teachers often embrace. He illustrates it with Plato’s allegory of the cave. He’s quick to point out the idiocy of giving students extra credit for erasing the teacher’s board for a week. Or bringing a canned vegetable to a school food drive, and lots of other nonsense that schools regularly practice.
None of us are immune to the power of misperception, false assumptions or idiotic practices that we’ve just not stopped to think through. We see ghosts and believe they’re real. Our own false notions get in the way of what’s real. We like to craft our own reality. Sometimes it’s crippling.
Give yourself some quiet time to recall instances where you came to understand your own delusion about something. Maybe it was a false assumption about a person. You thought they were one type of person based on an initial interaction with them. You sized them up and concluded they were conceited. Perhaps months later you were able to spend more time with them. Suddenly you realized you had them pegged all wrong. They’re quiet, reserved and quite fun to be around. At first blush, you mistook their quiet demeanor as stand-offish and conceited. Thankfully, your delusion was busted because of an opportunity to really get to know them.
What if that opportunity had never happened? How long do you suppose you’d think they were conceited? Probably from now on. You’d have no compelling reason to question your first impression, even though it would be completely unfair and wrong. Most of us lack the self-examination and determination (and the presence of mind) to find out if we’ve got it right or not. We simply assume we’re right and act based on our assumptions.
What if your assumptions about your work, the students, the administration or parents are wrong? How might that negatively affect your work?
There are people in education fully convinced that standardized testing is the best way to gauge a student’s progress. There are others equally convinced it’s among the poorest methods.
There are people in education who are convinced their profession is looked down on by the entire world. Everywhere they look they see critics. They’re convinced they’re victims, undeserving of any criticism.
There are people in education who believe small group interaction in the classroom is necessary for effective learning. If classrooms don’t have such interaction, they’re fully convinced the students will never learn or be properly engaged.
There are people in education who believe the role of education is to prepare as many kids for college as possible. Only the slowest intellects are exempt.
There are people in education who believe administrators are the enemy. You’ll never convince them otherwise. They may also believe the Union is their best friend.
On and on it goes. I could mention just a single word or idea and it’s highly likely most people have an opinion or belief about it. We’re all convinced our point of view is the correct one. Read them and I guarantee your mind will leap to a strong feeling about every single one of them. Good or bad. You’ll have an opinion and of course, you’ll have the right opinion. Or will you?
Grades. Assignments. Suspensions. Curriculum. Textbooks. Technology. Principals. Assistant Principals. Guidance Counselors. SAT. IQ. Literacy. Math. Science. Art. Music. Athletics. Discipline. Dress codes. Parents. Superintendents. School District. Summer School. Snow Days. Professional Development. Co-Workers.
It’s impossible to rid yourself of all nonsense. Part of being human is drawing incorrect conclusions based on your own biases. We all have them. The objective is to rid ourselves of the nonsense that cripples our efforts. Particularly, the nonsense that cripples our industry and our efforts to teach and train young people. Why give place to anything that can hinder your ability to make a meaningful difference in the life of a student? Why harbor any notion that would impede you in being the most remarkable educator possible? Why surrender your best to a false notion?
Challenge yourself to come to terms with self-limiting beliefs, possible false assumptions and the things that negatively affect your life. Here are some questions that might help:
a. Does this belief strengthen me or weaken me?
b. How does this assumption make me feel? Does it feed my insecurity? Does it swell me with pride? Does it foster feelings that make me more effective?
c. Is this assumption a crutch that supports some need I have?
d. What if I’m wrong?
e. Can I embrace “the other side” for a single day to see how it might affect my thinking?
f. How do I let other people influence me to embrace notions that might not even be my own?
There are many other questions that can help us challenge ourselves. I’ll leave today’s lesson there…with the idea that we can only find our way toward remarkability by challenging ourselves. Push yourself. Go forward. Climb above the noise of defeat. Refuse to accept average. Rebel against mediocrity.
I’m here to help you. Together we can grow, lean toward wisdom more and get busy being remarkable in serving the students in our lives. They deserve our best. We do, too.
