Date: Mon 10/31/2005 3:27 AM
Random Thought: Keep the Fires Burning
Couldn't sleep. It's early, late, who knows. It's this delayed time change.
It's an almost "brrrrrrr" morning. I'm about to go out for my five mile brisk,
semi-bundled up walk--no power walking until at least mid- January--in the brisk 40 degree
pre-dawn air. Meanwhile, this morning, over a cup of freshly brewed coffee, I was
thinking about a bunch of questions laid on me by a young professor a couple of weeks
ago. "You've been at Valdosta for thirty-seven years. You're senior professor on that
campus. You teach the same courses semester after semester. You always seem upbeat. How
do you not become bored? How do you not become frustrated and resigned? How do you not
burn out? Why do you not burn out?" He asked. "How do you still continually enjoy both
your career and your life? How do you keep fresh? How do you avoid becoming stale,
getting into a rut, and ultimately burning out? What's your secret?"
I don't really have a secret as this professor and so many others assume. You
only have to know where to look to see how public my secret is. We always have to look
inward to find the worth, the meaning and purpose that give us the courage to change, the
determination to continually go on, and the strength to continually make the effort. It's
a long, rocky, challenging inner journey of constant reflection, admission, correction,
and betterment. So, here are some of my fuels that over the past fourteen years I have
concocted which constantly feed my furnace and keep me blazing away:
1. I smile and laugh inside as well as outside, especially during the challenging situations 2. I have a dream, a vision or a calling that gives me a heading of true north in the service of others 3. I see the sacred in myself and each student 4. I trust and am trusting of myself and each student 5. I care and am caring about myself and each student 6. I am kind towards myself and each student 7. I'm a constant learner always asking "why," and reframing myself each day. 8. I enthusiastically create enthusiasm in myself and each student 9. I understand and accept that nothing worthwhile is quick and easy 10. I am excited about adventure and take pleasure in the unexpected and in discovery 11. I make sure I do something special for someone each day 12. I am grateful that I have an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life 13. I stay in physical and emotional shape 14. I stay in mental and spiritual shape 15. I am flexible and adaptable 16. I am hopeful of and optimistic about myself and each student 17. For me the job of teaching is a love, my love 18. I accept my own imperfection and that of others 19. I am understanding of myself and others 20. I let go and don't try to control others 21. I am patient with myself and each student, especially when I or they make mistakes 22. I see and embrace the newness of each moment, each place, and each person 23. I have as much joy in my teaching as I do in my hobbies. 24. I enjoy being alive each precious moment, live in the now, and live in this place at this moment 25. And, I go to sleep and wake up each day with my best friend by my side.
As I looked over this list, I noticed that not one of these twenty-five ways comes
under the heading of pedagogy or technology. Not one of these is an outside doing of a
"what" or a "how." No, each ingredient is an inward looking being of "who!" So, each of
these twenty-five ways is one of those "I teach who I am" and "I see things and others as
I am." Each of the twenty-five ingredients is an act of both faith in and love of both
me and each student that are at the core of every one of my acts. They're the source of
my strength, conviction, assurance, courage, peacefulness, vitality, clarity, vibrancy,
perseverance, connection, commitment, and determination. They calm me when I get
agitated. They hold me up when I wobble. They invigorate me when I weaken. They
refreshen me when I feel stale. They remind me when I forget. They urge me on when I
hesitate. They give me the encouragement to risk, permission to fall, freedom to laugh,
support to feel worthy. Each of these twenty-five ingredients then is a seed, an outlook,
a thought, an emotion I plant each day, nurture each day, and allow to germinate each day
in the soul of my being and the spirit of my doing.
You see, the secret to keeping the fires burning is to thrive rather than strive.
The real fuel is not limited to just a lucky few. We each can be our own endless fuel
plant. To be one, we have to make the courageous choice to retrain our hearts and minds,
to reshape our attitudes and outlooks, to let go of the limitations we each have imposed
on ourselves, to make a place where fulfillment and satisfaction and joy and peace happen,
to understand that each of us has to cross our inner River Jordan; that what happens in us
is far more important than what happens to us; that who we each are and can be is far more
important than what each of us does or can do.
What does it take to do all this? Make no bones about it. It takes strength and
courage. It's takes endurance and perseverance. It takes commitment and determination.
It's takes time, lots of time. It's a heavy chore because it's not just a matter of
learning new strategies, acquiring new outlooks, or developing new attitudes. It's really
first a matter of unlearning. I had to unlearn what was tethering me, in my way, weighing
me down, and limiting me. It was not just a matter of learning more. If you think it is,
you'll go back on yourself as if you were on one of those faddish diets or self-help
programs. I mean I found out that I couldn't learn to reach out and touch until I learned
to let go. Moreover, I couldn't play the blame game. It's a no-winner. For one thing,
blaming keeps our heads turned around to where we came from and doesn't let us look
forward to where we want to go. For another thing, blame is an excuse for not taking
responsibility and control of ourselves. Blame gives control over us over to others and
makes us powerless.
And so, though a make-over is a labor, it's up to you to make this a labor of love
in a way that is not laborious. Otherwise little will stick. The answer for this
professor is that the prevention of burnout is a matter of what most of us call a state of
mind. I call it a state of heart. It's key. It takes nothing more than your choice to
make it happen and keep making it happen. Nothing more! I'm not being flippant. It's a
tough "nothing more" that doesn't happen overnight, but it doesn't happen by itself. If
inner change is a matter of unlearning, it is also a matter of a transference of
empowerment. These twenty-five ingredients have no special powers until you transfer the
empowerment you gave to those things holding you down to those things allowing you to
soar. That is, no one can do it for you. It takes your effort, determination, and
commitment to find a way to do it and then to do it, moment by moment every moment, step
by step every step, day by day every day. So, staying happy, satisfied, contented, and
fulfilled in my career and life, to paraphrase the bard, is not in my stars or my genes or
my situation or my resume or in the judgment of others or in some technique or in some
technology. It's all in me. It's not in someone else's decisions. It's in my
decisions. It's not in anyone else's hands. It's all in my hands. The more I open my
mind, my heart, my ears, and my eyes, I more I will seek out and find that which makes me
feel lighter and happier and absolutely wonderful. These openings of my heart and soul
invite me to accentuate the positive and depreciated the negative, to savor being fully
alive, to dwell in the place where I am, to live boldly in the now and wow, to get
everything out of each day, to love deeply, and to have undying faith. They make sure I
don't miss the miracles of existence all around me. They help me appreciate and be
grateful for everyday things every day. They are what fuel my spirit and my soul and my
body. When I live from my heart, I feel full, rich, in control, confident, peaceful,
vibrant, energized, blissful, bold, connected to my life's purpose, and life just seems to
flow so easily. And what of the dampening waters? Well, the fires burn so hot that the
flames steam them away.