I Quit

The new year brings about all kinds of thoughts of self improvement for many of us. Our resolutions seek to make us healthier, more focused on a goal or more relationship oriented. We all want to do something better. While most of us may not focus our resolutions on professional goals, the start of a new semester may be a good time to make some classroom resolutions. What do you want to do better or different this semester? Once you determine that, accomplishing and sticking to that goal will likely be more difficult than setting it.

I recently read a great article (you can read it here) about quitting. Not quitting because things are hard or did not go your way, but quitting something because stands between you and your big goals. Doing something new often requires us to stop doing something old, and we often miss that part. Being an educator takes up a great deal of time and that is something that we cannot create. If we need more time to prepare lessons, provide feedback, call parents or implement a new method, we have to quit doing something else. If we are not strategic about what we quit, we will likely either fail at our goal or miss out on something else that was an unintended loss. Think of it this way, if you want to exercise more in the morning, you have to quit hitting the snooze button. If you want to lose weight, you have to quit eating junk food. If you want to read more, you have to watch TV less. When you are goal setting for the start of the new semester, be strategic. What will you stop doing, in order to accomplish something new?