So I've been traveling now for work for nearly 2 and a half weeks. I've had a lot of time to do some thinking and this is just some rambling that has been going through my head.
Ever wonder where personally profound moments and ideas come from? I've been pondering that concept a lot lately. I'm not sure why but the past few weeks have been marked by moments of intense thought and idea creation. Maybe is a blitz of creative ingenuity, but I'm amazed at the catalysts for these moments because they have been so varied. I had an explosion of creative ideas while listening to an audio book while driving across Alabama at 1 a.m., I pondered the state of education with an old friend I hadn't seen in 7 years over scrambled eggs and OJ at an Amish diner in Philadelphia, I've devised training workshops while sitting through a professional colleagues workshop (maybe I should have paid more attention), and I dreamed about what I'd inevitably do to my boyfriend when I saw him that night (I'll keep those details to myself though).
Where do these moments come from? Why am I writing about it now? Do I actually expect an answer to any of these questions I'm posing? I honestly can't say.
I'm reading an amazing book right now called "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", where the main character climbs down a well to "think". Essentially, to escape reality he had to get as far away from it as possible and literally climbed down an empty well. Maybe the past few weeks have been my well and these moments, people and places are the rungs of a ladder helping me out of my well. Maybe I'm digging too deep and I'm just having some inspired ideation. I guess time will tell. All I know is I'm sitting here on the airplane, listening to some killer music (check out Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine), inspired by Mr. Wind-Up Bird, and compelled to commit my thoughts to "paper". Actually my laptop died so it is on paper for the moment.
So my ideas are mostly centered on improvements of areas in my life and work. Work being the bigger thought generator. I'll be very honest, I haven't been creatively inspired at work for a long time, at least not until I started working with the mentoring class. Most of my ideas had faded or been written off by those in charge. This class has been that lone exception. It has given me an outlet to try new ideas and the students have given me enormous amounts of motivation. If any of you are reading this, I mean that wholeheartedly. I've learned more from this experience than I have in a long time.
Some of my ideas could be implemented in that context. For example, I was in a workshop by staff from UNC-Wilmington on the topic of ethics in leadership. They have developed a course for ALL student leaders at the university that creates discussions on ethics and informed decision making. I want to have more of those discussions. They talked about the types of conversations they have had and they are strikingly similar to one's I've had at ASU. They used clickers and relevent ethical dilemas to engage students in frank discussions. I think our class could have a field day with it and explore our perceptions and misperceptions of ethics in our lives. My hope is we could all come out of it with better understanding of ourselves, peers and be better informed to mentor others on the issue. I'd also like to explore more on the concept of strengths based leadership and how that plays into our mentoring capacity.
On an unrelated topic, I've randomly decided to teach myself how to use some new computer programs to better deliver workshops and try to create some online learning modules. I'm learning how to use Prezi to create some more interactive and fun presentations. I've also looked into taking some graphic design courses.
Where did this urge come from?! Maybe I've been in my well and these are my ways out of it. Perhaps Topher's influence has the odd effect of spurring me to better myself and try to impress him. Maybe I just want to keep learning and I've been stagnant in that area. One thing I know for certain is this burst of intellectual thought is exciting! I am coming out of my well and I'm bringing my thoughts, my ideas and my imagination with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment