Do Less with More Intention

My husband and I got back from Cabo today. It was a relaxing and restful getaway, and I’m so grateful for our time together.

One fun fact about traveling to Mexico from the Midwest is that you gain 3 hours, so we were up before the sun each day, and it was stunning to lay in the hammock on our patio and watch the sun rise.

While most people use January 1 as their New Year, many educators treat the start of the school year as their new year. We reflect on who we want to be this school year, the new habits we want to implement, and the new strategies we want to try.

But if we are not careful, it’s easy to overdue it. We cannot do it all, and we cannot not it all well at one time. As I say in Legacy of Learning, not everything is worth our highest level of effort.

What would it look like to create a school year that we don’t need a massive escape from in the summer?

I wonder what it would look like to spend less time doing so much and more time doing more of what matters most with intention?

When we move so quickly through so much, it’s easy to lose our ability to think clearly and feel deeply.

I was reading another Katherine Center book, The Love Haters, and I love this note about aging and life, “We appreciate the days more because there are fewer of them to come. And it’s really true. I felt it so much today. How fast it all goes. How much we have to be thankful for. What a miracle each breath is.”

In a fast-paced world of strategy and innovation, what if the most “edgy” thing we can do is to simply be grateful for this beautiful life, this meaningful profession, and the good people inside of our schools? What if instead of adding more to plates this school year, we filled our conversations and our work with more love and appreciation? What if we remained steadfast in our focus on those simple things that matter most instructionally?

What if?