Start pursuing your dreams
I can’t seem to find the happy medium between doing too much work and not doing enough. Even though I’ve been teaching for 20 years, I spend a million hours on my lesson plans and class materials.
New teachers need to put in long hours because they have so much to learn. But experience makes everything easier, so I should be able to work much more quickly. Yet if I don’t spend all my spare time prepping for class, I feel like a slacker.
I’d like to start preparing for retirement by nurturing the creative side of my personality and finding new activities. How can I stop devoting so much time to my classwork?
You’re being held hostage by your own conscientiousness. Over the years, extreme attention to detail has paid off for you, so now it feels scary to let anything go.
Odds are that all this extra "polishing" no longer adds much value. Does the additional hour of tinkering with an established lesson plan really make it that much better? Probably not.
Over-preparation also may serve an anxiety-reducing function. Constantly revising and reviewing and rehearsing can help you feel more prepared for the unexpected. But after 20 years, how many surprises could there be?
Breaking this habit will require a commitment to self-management. When that nagging inner voice tells you to redo another handout, give yourself permission to say no. Then turn your attention to something else.
To broaden your scope, schedule specific times to explore your artsy inclinations. Put these activities on your calendar, view them as a serious obligation and do not blow them off payday loans. Otherwise, you’ll just keep revising materials until the day you retire.
One of our co-workers doesn’t seem to care about her appearance. "Marcy" is almost 40, overweight and vertically challenged. I’m sure the way she looks will hurt her chances of advancement.
Instead of choosing attractive clothes, Marcy wears whatever she finds on sale. Several of us are just as large, but we select outfits that flatter our figures. People compliment us all the time.
In photos, with her hair and makeup done, Marcy looked wonderful. If she would touch up her face even a little, that would help. Her excuse is that her husband loves her the way she is. How can we help her?
Marcy is happy. Marcy’s husband is happy. And because no job performance problems are mentioned, I assume Marcy’s boss is happy. So perhaps you and your cuter colleagues should continue to bask in your compliments and just let Marcy go her own way.
Because you and Marcy obviously have different priorities, stop viewing her as an improvement project and accept her for who she is. Then maybe you can find something more important to worry about, like world hunger or the melting polar ice caps.
Marie G. McIntyre is a workplace coach. Send questions and get tips at www.yourofficecoach.com.
2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services