To develop and grow you have to be comfortable in taking risks and learning from mistakes. Put yourself in the right place of opportunity with the resilience chat cards (place). If you find yourself playing it safe or fearful of trying new things, then this step will help.
You have to be uncomfortable in order to be successful, in some ways. If you stay in your comfort zone you would never do the things that you need to do.”
Lights Poxleitner
Do you find yourself in any of these situations?
“I have to mark every piece of work or I will be challenged (by HoD, HoY, SLT, Inspectors).”
“It doesn’t matter if I change the way I plan my lessons, it won’t make a difference anyway.”
“I’m not able to keep on top of all my tasks, while maintaining my teaching at the level I want.”
“Other people are much better than me.”
“I got feedback last time that my lesson wasn’t good enough and I don’t think I’ll be able to do any better next time!”
If so these are actions you can take
- Get perspective: take a few minutes to reflect on what is holding you back. Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence, fear of failure or ridicule? Ask yourself ‘what’s the worst thing that will happen if it doesn’t work first time?’
- Change mindset: develop a Win/Learn mindset (rather than win / lose). Mistakes happen or you may not get the result you want – this is OK. Ask yourself ‘what did I learn from my last experience?’ and ‘What will I do differently this time?’
- Create a personal ‘mantra’: replace negative sayings with positive words like ‘I can do this’ or ‘I want to have a go’. Repeat it at least 3 times every time you start slipping!
- Visualise success: close your eyes and imagine yourself in the situation you want, hearing and seeing everything going well. What are people saying? How are you feeling? Keep doing this until it feels real.
Click here to see the next chat cards – passion.
If you have any questions or would like to find out more about building resilience or improving staff wellbeing, please get in touch.
Other articles in our resilience and wellbeing toolkit
Resilience and wellbeing toolkit (introduction)
The difference between pressure and stress
The symptoms of stress and lower resilience
Managing stress and building resilience
The major causes of workplace stress
13 tips to build your energy and wellbeing