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Take my hand
Take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you

Elvis Presley

Re-igniting the 'lost spark’

I was facilitating a workshop with a newly appointed group of wellbeing leaders in Melbourne this week and one of them shared the enormous sense of privilege they felt working in education, to shape young lives, and to be deeply connected to the communities and families they served. I then had a coaching session with a Headteacher who told me that she felt she had lost her spark, she felt lost, she was exhausted - her ‘mojo’ had gone. This is completely understandable given the year we have had, and she is not alone.

In this weeks guest blog, Rachael Horn, headteacher of Mount Street School, shares with us how her heart has always been in teaching since the age of 6, but during this pandemic year she seemed to have lost that connection with what she loved. So how do we address our exhaustion and re-discover, once again, our sense of purpose and privilege?

I was reminded of an encounter between Brother Steindl-Rast, and the poet David Whyte, who had been working under significant stress for some time. David asked a simple but profound question; “tell me about exhaustion.” Brother Stendhal Rast replied; “the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest, the antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness”.

For me, this means finding ways to fall back in love with our work again.

How Mindfulness can help.

It is easy to get caught up in the day to day, the operational, and the endless to do list. All to often, this means our core purpose, our values and principles are sometimes in the background, waiting for our spark - our ‘mojo’ - to come alive.  Just as Rachael found, our purpose can be reignited in the smallest of things. 

Mindfulness practice can help us to take time to pause and notice more. Even the smallest things can re-ignite our purpose. As Rachael says in her blog; a child’s smile, the gift of a dandelion, a lost shoe found, the small child who she took the time to be wholly present for as he told me his troubles. I have learnt to savour these moments.

These small moments of rebalancing, and the savouring of that which really matters have made all the difference to her. She fell back in love with her work again. Here’s a few practices for you to try…

A note on this practices. These are very simply an opportunity for you to try a practice and see what happens without expectation. Self judgment and doubt may arise in thoughts such as “am I doing this right?” or “I am not sure this is for me”. Notice these thoughts and, as best you can, be curious, be kind to yourself and let them go!

Linger, savour - moment by moment

Stay awhile – linger

Ron Heifetz in his book Leadership on the Line, encourages leaders to “spend time on the dance floor, in the midst of the action, and also on the balcony, watching.” Where’s your balcony?

Perhaps its at the bottom of the stairs, on the edge of the playground, at the door first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Linger there. Watch, notice, delight in the day to day movement, the flow of the dance that makes a school a community. When you find your mind pulled toward ‘got to get on, got lots to do’ linger just a moment longer. Smile, greet and savour the feeling. 

Find nourishment

Ask yourself ‘what brings me alive at work?’. Take time to reflect on how you can build more of this into your day. Almost all school leaders respond to this by saying; “being in the classroom with the children, having conversations in the playground, chatting to the staff at the end of the day.”

Of course COVID-19 has robbed us of much of this. Now we can start to turn toward it again – don't let the experience of being without it become a habit. It matters. 

Pivot toward purpose

Each small act is an opportunity to re-ignite our sense of purpose. Whether we are in a moment of decision making, a brief conversation, ending a meeting or making a phone call. There are two questions we can ask ourselves in these moments as we pause and gather our attention.

What really matters to me most in this moment? 

 -and  

Who do I want to be in this moment?

The more we practice this, the more our core purpose will be reignited, moment by moment and day by day. 

If you have time to go further, why not read Rachael’s guest blog to see how these simple practices have re-ignited her spark, and helped her fall back in love with work.

A reflection to leave you with…

Want to develop your leadership practice further?

Just head to the Courses page of the website! Here you’ll discover bespoke courses suited to the needs of you and your team, designed to help build resilience, find gratitude and better serve the teachers and children in your school.

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Maggie
maggie@maggiefarrar.co.uk