Sunday, July 21, 2013

30 Goals Challenge: Goal 6 Choose your battles

This is a really difficult one. I know that I don't have to complete all 30 Goals, and I would rather skip it, but..... my GOAL is to complete all 30, so here I am....

So what does the phrase "choose your battles" actually mean?
In our daily lives we all have to face numerous situations both at work and in our personal lives. One thing I have realized all these years is that you simply cannot do everything...
Unless you are Batman, that is...

You cannot be an excellent teacher, a great administrator, a wonderful parent, a fantastic housewife etc... Maybe you are a very good actor, if you give that impression....
So we all have to choose between small things and things that matter. We choose not to tackle with something temporarily, if it is less important. Yes, you can deal with it later.
What do I mean by this? An example:
In a classroom, the teacher has to handle with different issues. As I said before, we are not just instructors, but also educators.
So, let's say you have a student who constantly makes the same mistakes, you have a very aggressive student who brings chaos into the classroom and you also have this very shy student, who is very good, but his shyness does not let him make a difference.


Yes you do your best to deal with everything, but you have to get your priorities straight.
What bothers you the most? What deters the progress of the class? Who will you help first?
I will not say what I would do, it depends on each one of us, how he/she would handle the situation.
What I am going to say is that ...
  • We have to have some kind of plan.
  • Don't nag about it... Do something about it.
  • Talk with a colleague, a second opinion could help you decide  what matters the most.
  • Monitor and adjust to the situation
Sometimes it is better to  pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.

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