Resilience

One hundred years from now It won’t matter What kind of car you drove What kind of house you lived in How much money you had in the bank Nor what clothes you wore But the world may be a little better Because you were important in the life of a child Each and every day a tremendous amount of trust is placed in staff who work in schools. In response to the question, “What is the most important thing in your life? What do you treasure most, care about and see as vitally important?” 99% of parents will answer, their children! More important, significant and treasured to them than their car, their house and even their partner! Not only…

Gift Number One – Presence You are about to take some well-earned time off to spend with loved ones, recharge your batteries and reconnect. This is often easier said than done as we struggle to wind down, to switch off and be fully present. Presence requires us to dig deep and fully savour those precious moments, such as children opening presents or a friend or relative sharing a story. Here are my tips for remaining present this season: Aim to minimise use of technology and devices. Instead play interactive games, engage in conversation, actively listen, turn the phone to silent, shhhhh. If you need to get some work done during the break, schedule time to do it, decide how long…

Working in schools can be overwhelming and all encompassing. It feels like there is always more that we could do and our work can feel never ending. It can also be difficult to disconnect and switch off. Thinking about work and the challenges we face at school can be all consuming. It is important to set boundaries and limits to stop school work from encroaching on the other things in our life that are important to us eg your partner, family, friends and other interests. Whilst developments in technology should help us, they have also resulted in us becoming more ‘connected’ than ever. For example, many staff members check their work emails at home at night, on the weekends and…

One of the key characteristics of highly resilient people is their ‘natural’ ability to reframe challenges as opportunities, to make lemonade out of lemons. I have used inverted commas for ‘natural’ because, whilst for many this is an intrinsic characteristic of optimism, for others it can be learned. Step 1 – Understand that Events can be Neutral – When something we perceive as challenging happens, we often label it as ‘bad’ or ‘negative’. However, upon reflection we sometimes realise that it wasn’t so bad after all or it may even have been ‘a blessing in disguise’. If we can check ourselves before labeling an experience as good or bad, we can change our response into something more resourceful. For example,…