Dear Overwhelmed:
"Overwhelmed is not a feeling, it is a choice."
- Jim Dethmer
We were also a little taken aback at both the truth and the anxiety that this quote brought up for us, and feel free to read further in Jim Dethmer's
book,
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
above.
It does seem that the amount of email, conversation and the general work load of educators is undoable. That is why this quote stuck out to us. We choose to feel overwhelmed, and therefore, this implies, we can choose something else.
On a more practical level, we, at L+D have a bias towards action, and if you are stuck in a pattern that is leading to feeling overwhelmed, we suggest you
take action.
In order to pause a pattern, in order to interrupt an unconscious way of being, one must remove themselves from their everyday life and reflect.
Why are you doing the work you are doing? Are you taking the road that was prescribed for you, or the one that you have chosen? Are you happy? Are you surrounding yourself with the type of people that give or take energy? Are your skills and talents being honed, challenged and grown or dulled and in a state of atrophy? Why lead in schools and how might we design a different experience than "overwhelmed" despite the emails that continue to come in?
These are the questions that form the base of
Leadership + Design's Santa Fe Seminar.
Along with a program designed to tackle the inner work and reflection for school leaders, the Santa Fe Seminar is set in the beautiful and reflective heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the school leaders that attend each year have formed the habit of turning the connections made there into relationships that continue to inform and enrich their work well beyond their time together in Santa Fe.
So, Overwhelmed, put that {Out of Office} email message together and join us in Santa Fe, NM this November.