Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Be Patient


In Tailgating from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin shares,

“Tailgating creates frustration, limits your choices and isn’t safe.”

I have to admit that one of my worst flaws (I have many) is that patience is not my strong suit. I’m too impulsive and want to jump into things too quickly.

Thankfully I have a husband who is slower and wants to think things through before making any decisions. At times I find his slowness absolutely frustrating but in the long run, I usually benefit from this cautiousness.

When I hear something that I think it's a great idea I want to jump in with both feet. I tend to not look around and think of the negative things. I might think about dangerous consequences but if I don't feel there is anything dangerous about to happen because of my decision I want to do it right away. Luckily over the years, I have tried to make it a habit to discuss these kinds of decisions with my husband. usually, if he is in agreement right away, I know it is a good idea. But if he hesitates and wants to think about it some more, I have to stop myself from doing anything rash. it is his cool-headedness that helps me make better decisions.

When I stop to think about things in more detail, it opens up more options sometimes the first option is not always the best option. I might think about ways that are more cost-effective or even more time-efficient then my initial decision was going to be.

I remember a time when I thought getting an iguana for my classroom would be a great thing to do. I was ready to run out to the store and buy this little iguana because the cost was cheap, and it seemed like it was not an expensive pet for the class. Thankfully my husband suggested that I do more research into the topic. After much research, I found out that some iguanas can be aggressive towards the female students in my class and then I found out that they grow and would need a larger glass enclosure as they grew.  some of these glass enclosures could be 10 feet long and be very expensive. That is when I realized I needed to rethink having an iguana as a classroom pet.

When I went hiking in the mountains of Georgia one time, we went to an interesting talk about vermiculture which is also called worm composting. I was really excited about giving this a try and even my husband was in agreement. That weekend we bought plywood and my dad helped build boxes to hold my worms. then I had to find someone to sell me a lot of worms that were more than you would get in a bait shop. I had to find a supplier for a bait shop. this was a great project and we have had a worm compost bin for almost 20 years now and I've never regretted it.

So, I need to remember did patients sometimes is better than tailgating. I probably will end up at the same place either way and being in a better position by taking it slower. 

 How do you help your students have patience? please share.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash




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