{"id":442,"date":"2012-04-30T01:39:51","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T01:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=442"},"modified":"2012-04-30T19:53:51","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T19:53:51","slug":"staying-healthy-and-motivated-chuck-sandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2012\/04\/30\/staying-healthy-and-motivated-chuck-sandy\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying healthy and motivated – Chuck Sandy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen Carefully\"Chuck<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen. When I hear people say things like, \u201cI can\u2019t seem to get myself motivated today,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019d like to spend the whole day doing nothing<\/em>\u201d I know what they mean because sometimes I feel that way, too. Yet I also know that no one really ever does nothing<\/em>. I never do.<\/p>\n

My nothing <\/em>consists of walking nowhere in particular, pulling little weeds from my garden, and needlessly reorganizing my books. While doing these things I might look unmotivated and unproductive but it\u2019s this doing nothing<\/em> that motivates me to do more. It\u2019s when I dream and think things through and I am telling you because I want you to know me. You understand this, right?<\/p>\n

I also want you to know that this is why I love the procrastinators, the dreamers, and the nothing <\/em>doers in my classes so much.\u00a0 Getting to know who they really are is something else that motivates me. I think about them as I weed and walk and reorganize my books.<\/p>\n

I know from experience that thinking of these people as unmotivated and taking them to task for not doing the things we think they should be doing will cause us to lose them. We don\u2019t want that to happen. We want to pull these people in. But how? It\u2019s simple: Listen.<\/p>\n

Make them realize you believe their lives matter.\u00a0 Do this by taking their lives seriously, believing in their potential and demonstrating that — visibly. In a culture where taking anyone\u2019s internal universe seriously is increasingly rare, you just might be the only person who\u2019s ever done such a thing for them. Talk about motivation!<\/p>\n

If you are suffering from motivation problems yourself and think this sounds nice but wonder where it’s \u00a0leading, then I\u2019d like to give you a challenge: Go to class, pick your most unmotivated<\/em> student and find something to compliment him or her on. Say, \u201cWhere do you usually go shopping. I love your style\u201d Or ask a question. Say, \u201cYou look really tired. Were you up late last night?\u201d Then, listen. Repeat this process over the next few classes. I guarantee you\u2019ll start to notice a change in both yourself and in your unmotivated<\/em> student.<\/p>\n

Now, start keeping an eye open for this student and other dreamers. Whenever you see them, stop for a chat. \u00a0Invite them to join you for coffee if appropriate.\u00a0Listen and share. Talk about your<\/em> day, about whatever is going on with you, about how you\u2019re tired because you were up late watching stupid YouTube videos. \u00a0Tell them about your partner if appropriate. Refer to that person by name, as if these students were a part of your life. When they begin to understand they are<\/em> a part of your life, they will start telling you about what\u2019s going on in their lives.\u00a0 When they do, listen carefully. Of course, this process works with colleagues, too, and I mean both those colleagues you see every day at school as well as the ones who make up your professional community online.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t listen to each other enough. Even as teachers, we rarely talk with each other about what\u2019s going on in our lives, yet I have come to believe this is absolutely necessary. We need to share more and \u00a0listen more carefully to each other. If we consciously do this, we will start to feel better about who we are and what we do. We will become less fearful, our confidence will increase and we will become more motivated.<\/p>\n

This is what I was thinking about today as I weeded the garden and I wanted to tell you about it because I want you to know me. I want to know you too. That motivates me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen Carefully Listen. When I hear people say things like, \u201cI can\u2019t seem to get myself motivated today,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019d like to spend the whole day doing nothing\u201d I know what they mean because sometimes I feel that way, too. Yet I also know that no one really ever does nothing. I never do. My … Continue reading Staying healthy and motivated – Chuck Sandy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staying-healthy-and-motivated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}