#3: Inspiration, Part 2

100 Posts in 100 Days

I’m challenging myself to write 100 Posts in 100 Days.  

In these first few days, I’m thinking about what it takes to go from motivation to volition.  How do I go from the idea to the action?  And, specifically:

What’s going on that is helping me make the transition from wanting to do something (be a writer)
to actually doing something (writing 100 posts)?

As I pause to reflect and name some of the things that are helping me to take volition and start writing, three big sources of inspiration come to mind.

    1.   Atomic Habits by James Clear
    2. The Art of Coaching Teams book by Elena Aguilar and online course by Bright Morning
    3. The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul

Yesterday, I shared a bit about Atomic Habits.  Today, I will elaborate on the role that The Art of Coaching Teams has in my move to action.  

The Art of Coaching Teams book by Elena Aguilar 
and online course by Bright Morning

One year ago, the team of Deeper Learning Coaches I work with decided we would all take a professional learning course together.  We wanted the combination of a shared learning experience to support our development as a team with an experience that would help us skill up for the work we were planning at our school.  We selected “The Art of Coaching Teams 101” by Elena Aguilar and her team at Bright Morning.  It was a hybrid course, with asynchronous learning components that led to a culminating synchronous virtual session. 

The power of stories and storytelling as a tool in developing effective teams is one idea offered in this book and course.  As such, there was a prompt to make a list of your own stories and accomplishments.  I actually don’t remember the specifics of how the prompt was given, but I do know how I interpreted it and what I did.  I thought to myself, “I’ve been an educator for more than 20 years.  Certainly there are at least 5 things each year that were noteworthy.”  So, I made a list of 100 stories or accomplishments. 

I’ve had my list for 1 full year.  I’ve looked at it a few times and thought about writing each of those stories.  It’s another year later, so I’ve even added to the list of possible topics.  And now, here I am, writing 100 Posts in 100 Days.  

Funny thing:  None of these first few posts are directly from that list of 100+ ideas, but just writing and reviewing that list helped me to follow James Clear’s advice (see Post #2) and just get started.

By the way, my team felt the hybrid course was valuable for us collectively and individually and would recommend it.    


3 thoughts on “#3: Inspiration, Part 2

  1. What a great post! It made me think about a story telling experience I had. Many elements of my Doctoral work (including the research model I chose) was based on the work of Paolo Freire. Annually we had a doctoral candidate retreat in my department. We always started our retreats with story telling. I used this same process during a few retreats I had with my staff at the school I was working in at the time. It was a powerful process. You made me think about that experience, the impact it had on our work together and how and when to incorporate this into future work. Thanks, friend.

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