The Power of Explicity

In the education world, the year is drawing to a close (Cue OMG OMG OMG IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! *happy dance*  But I digress).  In my district, we have 9 days until freedom, and it’s always around this time frame that I find myself reflecting on the school year and realizing the myriad of ways I, in my eyes, failed once again as a teacher.

Before you react in horror and send me messages of how amazing of a teacher I must be, know this:  I don’t think that any teacher, ever, thinks they have reached the pinnacle of their potential.  We all have room to grow, things to tweak, and ways to improve, and quite frankly, the moment that I think I’ve figured it all out is the moment I become a truly terrible teacher.

One of the things that I have been thinking about recently is how I need to be more specific with my students.  I tend to assume that they will be able to figure things out, and while I still guide them quite a bit, I realize after every unit that I could have outlined things a bit more.

This got me thinking about the power of simply spelling out in minute detail what we want or need in all aspects of our life–with our goals, our family, our romantic partner.  I have been doing this more and more in my current relationship, and it’s kind of ridiculous how magical it seems.

Recently, I told my man that it bummed me out when he didn’t respond to my morning or night texts.  In prior relationships, I would have just lamented to my girlfriends about how terrible it was whilst keeping the guy in the dark.  Boom-I get a text that night reading “Good night you amazing woman.”  It’s like I have discovered a magical genie that grants me my wishes, but instead of rubbing a lamp, all I have to do is *gasp* communicate.

Another example of magical genie dust was when I spent a lot of time with my 8th graders going over how to analyze a poem and gave them an example of a good analysis essay.  We worked on this unit for quite a while, and when they handed in their essays, most of them were pretty damn good (for being in 8th grade, of course).  Going through things multiple times, giving specific examples, explaining my thought process–all added up to a result that I was more than pleased with.

There is a catch, however.

In order for this genie to work, however, you need to know what you actually want and WHY.  That’s the hard part for most of this stuff, actually—the WHY.

For example, if you want your partner to be doing more of this or that, or less of this or that, make sure you know WHY you want those things.  What is it about that action that will contribute positively to your life?  And then, if there’s actually not that much of a why, don’t fixate.  Let it go and move on.

The power of being explicit with our wants and desires and our WHY has been demonstrated to be extremely effective.  Almost everyone who is wildly or even moderately successful will tell you that they focused on the details of hitting their target and they stuck with it because they know WHY they were doing so.

If you take a look at your life and you are not where you want to be, perhaps its because you haven’t given a whole lot of deep thought to the matter.  Honing in on what you want, why you want it, and giving those things your absolute focus will set the universe in motion.  If you don’t want it bad enough or don’t give it enough thought, the universe won’t care.  Things don’t just fall into place on their own.

All of these things have been great for me to contemplate since I feel like I have reached a impasse in my own life.  While I still love my job, my friends, and my location, I just don’t feel like I have a sense of direction and true, soul-burning purpose.

And so, my quest for this summer will be to figure out MY PURPOSE.  What actually sets my soul on fire?  What will make me get out of bed in the morning when I don’t have to go to work?

Being me, I would like this revelation to happen the first day of summer.  But, knowing how these things work, I will just have to focus on energy on putting out my desire into the ether, and simply….trusting.

And if you feel like me, I invite you to do the same.  The more of us who are focused on what’s good and pure and right for OUR lives, the more light and positivity we bring to this world.  And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.