Setting My Goals for 2019

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month feels auspicious enough to be setting goals for the coming year.

As a coach, I ask open-ended questions to guide people in uncovering what's next for them. Here, I answer such questions for myself, in a self-coaching session.

What is important to you?
Once all my basic food, safety and comfort needs are met... it's being part of the evolution of the education system. That's been a significant theme all my life, I am always nudging the system to wake up and take better care of the people it is supposed to serve - the teachers and the learners. The more I am involved in the education system, the more determined I become to make a difference. There's so much still to do, and so much to gain from a more evolved state. I want to see the education system evolve so that it serves higher levels of human needs.

What do you want most of all?
I would love to watch how the education caterpillar turns into a butterfly. I want to be there on the day when it happens. I want to be part of the happening. I don't know what happens after that. That is as far as I can see my life. I am drawn to that time with full curiosity and a sense of adventure. I long for it even though I sense there would be an end to something important in my life.

And what is one good step you could take in the right direction?"
They are all good steps. Any step that takes me to where I am involved with people in the education system whether it be the caterpillar state or the butterfly state. Some steps are tougher to take, I tend to take the easier route most of the time. Then I get frustrated about how long the journey is taking; and take a short cut even if it's tough.

When are you at your happiest?
Writing! You knew I was going to say that. Writing is still new for me and I am getting better and better at it. Being in the writing process is when I am the happiest. Time melts away, hours flow into each other. Not so sure about the results. When I share what I have written, I realise I need to rewrite and how much more there is to write about.

When you feel life is most meaningful, what is it that you are doing?
Talking about how teaching and learning interact; how teachers and learners interact. And how to create spaces where such interactions occur at their best.

I'm mostly involved with teenaged and adult learners but what I am doing is the same - I'm holding learning conversations. I get to see the light go on, I hear the ah-ha's, I am part of their emerging understanding. Just imagine, in a small way someone goes from not-understanding to understanding, and all I did was to ask a couple of open-ended questions,  and wait. What could be better?

How can you get more of that?
For a moment I was tempted to say do more of the face-to-face learning conversations, but that would take more effort than my body can provide. There's a limit to how often I can do that. No, what's calling for my attention is to get more out of each interaction. More, as a quality, not a quantity.

So, I will get more out of each learning conversation; write them down maybe. Yes, journal the learning conversations, make a book out of them. Now that would be something I could read over and again.

What have you decided to do differently in 2019?
I am going to journal my learning conversations with teachers and learners, then make a book out of them.

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Proposed Goals for 2019

 Thinking about goals for 2019:

FOR ME

• ZERO inspirational talks
• ZERO workshops
  

FOR MONEY

• 5 individual coaching clients
  
• 10-12 books per year
  
• (an online course?)
  

FOR FREE

•  2 business start-up mentees via Almi Mentor
• 50 - 100 maths students via Mattecentrum
  
• a monthly pod on learning conversations (not sure where yet)