Saturday, March 26, 2016

Slice of Life: March 26 -- What I Learned from Not Slicing

I'm writing tonight to admit what those of you who read this blog already know: I didn't keep my Slice of Life commitment.

It's hard to type that sentence.  No, the physical act of pressing the keys on my keyboard isn't difficult.  It's feeling like I didn't keep my word that's hard.  It's feeling like I've let others down that frustrates me.  It's feeling disappointed in myself that's hard to get past.

Yes, I feel bad about not keeping my commitment, but at the same time, I may have learned just as much (if not more) from this experience.  No, I'm not advocating quitting.  Please don't get me wrong.  What I am simply saying is that "life" happened this week and I realized that I wasn't as committed to a Slice of Life as I should have been if I really wanted to accomplish my goal.

And so, in spite of my lack of commitment and failure to meet my goal of slicing for 31 days, let me offer what I did learn through this experience.

1.  Things that are not a priority don't and won't get done.  A slice of life truly wasn't a priority for me this year.  I know that sounds bad, but it's honest.  I committed to slicing this year knowing it was going to be even more difficult than in the past.  That knowledge along with failing to make it a priority meant slicing fell to the bottom of my "to-do" list each day.  As a result, when real life happened, which it did, then I simply forgot about slicing or didn't have the energy or motivation for it.  It wasn't a priority and, as a result, didn't get done.

2.  Things that are a priority do and will get done.  I honestly entered this year's challenge half-heartedly.  That's probably part of why I didn't make slicing a priority.  Truth be told, that should have made slicing more of a priority for me if I wanted to reach my goal.  When I prioritize and make something important on my "to-do" list, it gets done.

3.  I need to plan ahead if I intend to slice next year.  I need to have a game plan going into next March if I decide to take this challenge again.  It's hard to come up with writing ideas for 31 days, especially after a couple years of slicing.  However, I know that if I think ahead, I can be better prepared with writing ideas that will help me when I'm stuck and don't know what to write about.  I always tell my students that you have to have a plan if you want to meet a goal.  This year, I failed to heed my own advice.

4.  This experience has only been a failure if I didn't learn something from it.  I refuse to say I failed.  No, I did not meet my goal, but I did learn a lot from these past few weeks of slicing.  I will take what I learned through this experience (and about myself), and will use it to do better in the future.

5.  I need to reach out to others for help more often.  I often tell students that anything I have ever done that was worth doing was hard.  A Slice of Life would fall into the "hard" category.  In looking back on all the difficult things I have ever done, I can find one thing they all had in common: I relied on others to help me get through the tough times.  Looking back, I didn't reach out to my friends and colleagues like I should have this month.  I didn't seek them out for ideas and I didn't read their blogs as much to get inspiration.  Asking for help would have been key in helping me meet my goal.




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