S2: E59 Sunday Sip: Three Words

Season Two
Episode 59
Sunday Sip: Three Words



Hello friends and welcome to Sunday Sip on Afternoon Ti.  Each Sunday for the remainder of the year I plan to share a single idea, thought, or meaningful take-away in hopes that you’ll be encouraged and inspired as you prepare to enter the next new week of teaching. 

I recently read the book ‘The Originals: How Non-conformists move the World’ by Adam Grant.  Highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it yet. I love how Adam weaves stories into lessons and insights into human behavior and ideas.  It’s creative and a fast-paced read. The last chapter of the book is called “Rocking the Boat and Keeping it Steady: Managing anxiety, apathy, ambivalence, and anger.”  

The section of this chapter that has stuck with me over the past few weeks after reading it was a story about a college professor who asked students to give a persuasive speech.  Before they gave the speech they were asked to speak one of these phrases out loud to themselves: 

Either “I am calm” or “I am excited.”  On page 215, Adam shares that the students who said “I am excited” not only came across as more persuasive, but also spent more time on stage.  Another scenario was when the same teacher asked students to sing 80s rock music in public. Again, they were assigned a phrase to say out loud to themselves:  either nothing or “I am anxious” or “I am excited.” And again, just by saying “I am excited” was enough to make a difference in the accuracy of what was performed.  More details are in the chapter about the ins and outs of this, but this is a broad overview that gives us some insight into how what we speak to ourselves when we are anxious can change how we react.

At the end of the book, Adam shares actions for impact - insights from each chapter about simple steps we can take to change our focus or our mindset.  Number 12 is “Don’t try to calm down.” I tried this with a class this past Tuesday. We are in a new trimester. I have all new classes and students - many of whom I have taught before, but hadn’t taught since last year.  And each class make-up is different even if you’ve taught students before. I always get anxious before the first class. It’s the unexpected or the wondering of how it will go. I decided that instead of telling myself to stay calm, to not worry, to take deep breaths, I was going to be excited.  There was so much I truly was excited to share with students - I just needed to reframe it in my mind and out loud to myself. I love my students and I am truly excited to be with them. Instead of telling my nervous self to take deep breaths and calm down, I said out loud “I am excited.” I found I smiled more - and I tend to smile a lot anyway.  I found that I had more energy with the class. I found that the students were smiling back. I found that the class flew by. And that I was more engaging with students. Those three words “I am excited” impacted how I believed and interacted with my class.

If there’s a performance you’re having with students this week, tell yourself “I’m excited” because you’ve prepared them and it’s going to go well.  If you have a meeting with a parent that you’re nervous about, say “I’m excited” because you get to be the one to help impact that family and that child personally.  If you are feeling anxious about a situation, about teaching a specific class, about working with a specific student, with a colleague, administrator, or whatever may be causing anxiety for you, try saying “I’m excited” and see if you find more energy and a shift in the outcome because of reframing your anxiousness into excitement.  

Thanks for joining me for your Sunday Sip today.