Thursday, October 6, 2011
Week 2: The Art of Possibilty
After reading in the Art of Possibilty, it just confirmed what I was already thinking. This book suggests that attitudes can determine the ways that we perceive things. For example, If I go to work with a negative attitude, I might see everything in a negative manner. For example, in a meeting, our Principal is discussing the do's and dont's of teaching. He says everything in a nice manner, and tone, but because I have a negative attitude, then I consider his message to be negative. Whereas, if would have had a more positive attitude, I would have perceived his message as a piece of advice, and thanked him for his help. I often see this in the workplace. Most people have negative attitudes about everything, so everything that see and hear are negative to them.
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Excellent connection with the reading. So much of how we interact with the world is filtered through our disposition and thoughts not connected to whatever is actually happening at the moment. Your analogy of the dos and don'ts meeting is perfect. As one who likes to think of himself as a "realist" I know that the negative spin comes from a desire to not be surprised when things don't go our way, kind'a living the "nothing ventured/nothing lost" lifestyle. But then that existence won't realize it's potential either.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! One of the things I think of when I'm walking into the building in the morning is to "shake my Etch-a-Shetch." I know I'm dating myself, but do you remember the classic game? It was very popular in the pre-computer/GameBoy/Nintendo DS days. If you didn't want to stay with what you've got, all you had to do is flip it over and give it a shake. You could begin with a "clean slate" and take a fresh approach. Like you, this also resonated with me while reading this week. I'm a Substitute teacher who works a lot in the High School. I think it's a good idea to "shake my etch-a-sketch before re-encountering many of "my" students in order to do what the book calls seeing them with all of their potential, giving them the benefit of the doubt and treating them from an optimistically positive approach they can live up to. I've gotta say they do almost every time! I think it's something we teachers need to do sometimes more often than daily.
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