The mindfulness topic has stayed on my mind through the day, leading to an important subcategory: Mindfulness at Work.
Here are some continued thoughts.
Mindfulness At Work
1) I feel like am more mindful in my private life than in my professional life.
2) That’s probably because it’s difficult to be mindful (ie aware and present for what is happening in the moment) when someone is dictating the parameters of what is important and setting the deadlines for work to be completed
3) Maybe I should stop caring so much what the administrators that set deadlines think of my professional performance.
To bring mindfulness into my professional life…
I think I need to set my own parameters for what I want to accomplish: in my days, in my years and throughout my professional career. It would take away the feeling that I am not working towards anything, or that I am working towards something I don’t totally understand. For me, a lack of mindfulness can be associated with a feeling of drifting and times when I don’t understand the big picture. Currently, the goal in my personal life is fairly simple: I want to be happy. Hence my enhanced level of mindfulness. I’m able to gauge: Am I happy? Why? Why not? Etc.
The goal in my professional life feels more complicated:
I want to create an atmosphere of disciplined student learning.
Also, I want the students to be happy too (I’m a big advocate of happiness, generally). However, I want them to be happy in a challenging, inspired environment. I do not want them to be happy because they have their phone balanced in their lap looking at snapchat while they pretend to take notes.
Disciplined learning is hard.
It’s especially hard to gauge the amount of disciplined learning that is going on in someone else’s brain. It’s hard for me to know when and what my students are actually retaining from class. I think the first goal towards mindfulness in my professional life rests on that–considering my job from the student perspective more carefully.
I’m excited to try and bring a greater sense of peace and thoughtfulness to my career. I’m especially excited to start…..on Monday. Happy weekend!
Thanks to Lesly Juarez for the banner photo.