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I enjoyed Zander’s remarks about lighting a fire in others. I feel like I was born with the ability to do this and see it as a big responsibility to my students as well as my family and friends. The way he described enrollment as the ability to give yourself as a possibility to others and to be ready to catch their spark really hit home with me. He has so many inspiring lines in this book that I want to remember. I felt a strong reaction to his discussion of taking “no” less personally and myself less seriously and in doing that being able to see the opportunity for enrollment.
I also really felt a connection with Zander’s idea of being the board in your life, not reacting to the other players, but taking control in your life and transforming your entire circumstance. Making room for all the moves, as Zander puts it. What a revelation for most of us to stop seeing life as a blame game. When you look back, it’s so interesting to see how measurement in it’s many forms completely rules our existence. We have been trained to think that way.
Reading the steps in chapter 11 about vision and being a leader of possibility inspired me to write them down and carry them with me. Lately I feel as though I am always trying to overcome the downward spiral so it’s going to be a key part of my outlook to get into the practice of focusing on what is possible. Whether it’s because of a certain student or faculty member that I’m having an issue with or if I’m just plain tired that particular day, the goal is to stay focused on realigning myself. If I keep the concept of the framework in my mind, hopefully it will more easily allow me to bounce back when I get pulled down.
As I begin to head back to school this coming week after spring break, I feel that I have a renewed sense of purpose in what I do. Part of it, yes, is simply taking some time off, but the other part is finishing the last few chapters of this book. For me, the WE story truly communicates why I work at a community college and sets the framework for me as a teacher and as the interim coordinator for the center for teaching and learning. I have learned many valuable lessons and want to plaster some of Zander’s quotes on the walls of the school. It also makes me think about my role as a mom and wife and how I can set the framework for all the relationships in my life.
My comments to Dena:
I could not relate more to your sense of renewed inspiration through the experience of this book. I think that we are taught to some degree by society this negative outlook on our positions or to blame or to measure and compare. I find it so inspiring and such a positively challenging task to take a different outlook. It is even ironic for me, as I have continually made it my mission to help my students look at their lives or their place in the world with a different critical lens, a more positive one. Yet I have not completely practiced what I have preached, but perhaps also because I have not looked at my philosophy through such a structured and organized means as the Zanders have presented here.
I am early in my career, but have been given such a challenging situation. Increasingly over the past year I have taken a more and more negative view of what I am going through, and this book has given me a new sense of vision. I particularly relate to the statement you made in this regard that we need to "take “no” less personally and myself less seriously and in doing that being able to see the opportunity for enrollment". I have not necessarily taken a "poor me" stance but I have definitely taken some of the situations that I viewed as less optimal as personal dejections or failures, rather than doing what is suggested through the text; consider and make the most "possibilities" out of the situation. I will be taking a similar stance as you and making the attempt to " overcome the downward spiral" by keeping the lessons and suggestions in this book close to my heart.
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