Episode 117: A Year of Possibilities

As we embark on this new year, I want you to think about what you really want. Then believe– KNOW– that this is possible. Before setting goals and making progress towards what we want to achieve, we need to really see the possibilities in front of us.

So often, we talk ourselves out of doing what we want to do. I talked myself out of building Educator Forever for years. People will think I’m trying to take teachers away from teaching, I thought. I have a young baby at home, I reasoned. I know nothing about building a business, I told myself.

But there will always be excuses. ALWAYS. And we can always move through them to do the things we want to do. So the first thing I want you to think about is: What do you really want to do?

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Looking for something both scary and exciting to pursue

  • Embracing the messiness of the process

  • Failure is inevitable!

Resources mentioned:

Related episodes and blog posts:

 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

A Happy New Year. As we move into a new year, I hope that you're thinking about it as a year of possibilities, and even if it's not the new year when you're listening to this anytime can be a time for possibilities. And I think one of the greatest practices we can try and cultivate is one of seeing many different possibilities, because one of the worst things to feel is feeling stuck. And I know that I’ve felt stuck so many times in my life, and it can feel hard to find a way out. And so I want you to really think about this as something that you can develop a practice around: starting to see possibilities, starting to question your thoughts that might be limiting, starting to question when you feel stuck, think about what the other options are. There are always other options, just sometimes they're not appealing, or they're hard, or we don't know exactly how to get there. And so as we move into this new year, or really again, any time, I want you to think about possibilities. There are so many things you can do, and honestly, there are so many changes you can make, and new skills you can learn, and risks you can take, infinite numbers, right? But will you? That's the question. We all have desires. We all have things we want to do. We're all busy. We all have excuses. And so I want you, as we embark on this new year, to think about what you really want and then believe and actually know that this is possible before setting goals, before having a checklist, before getting out the planner, like really see and believe the possibilities in front of you. And so often we talk ourselves out of doing what we want to do, like we could think, oh, you know, I really want to write a book, but who am I to write a book. I'm not an author. I don't have time to write a book. You know, all these things that we start just talking ourselves out of the things we want to do before we even try doing them. And it's our brains keeping us safe, right? Like, it's our brains helping us do things we've done before, but that's not helpful when we're trying to do something new. I have talked myself out of many, many things, as I'm sure we all have. I talked myself out of building Educator Forever. For years, I would tell myself like, oh, people will think I'm trying to take teachers away from teaching. I don't want to do that. Or I would think, Oh, I have a young baby at home, like I don't have any time or energy, or I don't know anything about building a business. So why would I even start? There would be too much to learn. And all of these looking back, are kind of ridiculous, because we could say these things, we could say these excuses about literally anything, and we can make time for the things that are important for us. And so I really think that going after your dreams is an act of competence. It's committing to the things that you want to and giving yourself a chance to make them happen. It doesn't mean that they are going to happen exactly as you planned or immediately, but that's kind of the deal, and that's kind of the beautiful part.


And there will always be excuses, always and we can always move through them to do the things we want. And the first thing is just recognizing, like, what are the excuses that your brain is giving you, and I want you to think about what you really want to do this year. Is there something that you just keep coming back to over and over again? Is there something that feels exciting and scary, because these are two related emotions, and usually the best goals feel both ways at once. So if you're feeling excited and scared and maybe even overwhelmed, that's probably a good goal. We want you to move outside of your comfort zone, and we want you to do those things that excite you, then commit yourself to doing it. You don't have to know exactly how. You don't have to have it all planned out. Just commit to what you want, and after committing it's going to get messy. It's going to be a messy process. You are not going to do this perfectly, and that's not the point. You're going to fail, you're going to fumble, you're going to feel overwhelmed. You're going to talk yourself out of moving forward, but don't talk yourself out of doing the thing entirely. When you feel like giving up, recognize what's going on and then recommit to your dreams. This is honestly what stops us, not that we have a goal that we want to do, but that we feel over.


Or we feel like we're not doing enough, or we feel like maybe it's not possible, but it is possible. We just have to go through all the messy part. And let's talk about failure, because that's a big part of the messy part too. Failure is inevitable. If we knew exactly how to do the things we want to do, we would be doing them. But we have to learn right, and how we learn is often by quote, unquote, failing.


Last week, I went to an art show with my family, and there was a jacket that said, failure is a lesson. And what could be more true when we go after our goals, we either will succeed or we'll learn, and both are great options, and sometimes when we quote unquote fail, we just get closer to learning what we need to learn in order to meet our goals. And the option I don't want you to take this year is to not go after your goals. We have these options, right? We can go after our goals and succeed, or, quote, unquote, fail and learn, or we cannot even try. Please don't talk yourself out of trying see the infinite possibilities in front of you. You owe it to yourself to try. You don't have to be perfect, because guess what? Perfect doesn't exist, and even if it did, it would be boring. You're here to learn, take risks and try new things. I can't wait to see what you do this year.

Lily Jones