The SBL road is rarely straight – detours, distractions and getting off track – before you know it, you’ve arrived at your destination with no idea of how you got there. Education Executive’s Laura Williams has some advice on making the journey a little smoother
I’ve spent a lot more time on the road than usual these last 3 months and my sat-nav has been both a blessing and curse. It’s helped me avoid traffic jams, detour around incidents and to get where I need to be with little fuss.
However, there’s one thing that drives me absolutely crazy and that’s when it lies to me…
One minute, it’s telling me that it’s going to take me 43 minutes to reach my destination but ten minutes later, it’s still telling me that it’s going to take me 43 minutes to reach my destination!
So ok, it’s not ‘lied’ as my app clearly has access to all kinds of info and traffic data to bring me real-time updates but in those ten minutes, it feels like time has literally stood still. I’m moving but I’m getting nowhere fast.
It can of course get worse when it jumps from 43 minutes to 1hr 43 minutes (which prompts a whole string of bad words from me) but then occasionally it can get better because 43 minutes becomes 33 minutes within a flick of a glance!
If you’re reading this and thinking ‘Laura, what on earth are you on about?’, I’m talking about what last term felt like – and maybe what most terms feel like now as a School Business Leader.
There’s been so much going on and there’s still so much left to do.
Time has zipped along, and we’ve barely noticed but simultaneously, we feel like for all the movement and the doing and the chaos, time may have moved on, but we’ve barely moved at all. What started out in September as a super-duper plan to get things done, with a clear route to a destination in mind soon turned into a ‘FFS, are we nearly there yet?’
And now we are about to hear: ‘You have reached your destination and guess what? It’s not where you wanted to go, but here we are. Oh, and you’ve ran out of time to do all the things you planned! Haha!’
If you’re feeling like this (I’m feeling it too), I’ve been thinking of what I would say to you if I was chatting to you right now.
This is what I came up with:
Despite our best efforts, we can’t plan for everything. A lot of the time our plans go out the window and we have to adapt. This is one of those times.
Time is both a concept and a matter of perspective. (Pretty deep for me huh?!) What I mean is it can fly, or it can drag. And it all depends on where we’re sitting or what’s happening around us. One thing we can’t do is turn it back, we can only move forward. Time can be wasted too – so don’t spend too much time looking behind you when it would be more useful to look ahead.
Perfection is an illusion. Like time, it’s a concept and a matter of perspective! We may have SBL superpowers but perfection is beyond even us. It’s also incredibly subjective which means it doesn’t actually exist. So, chasing it doesn’t serve us. Could things have gone better? Sure! Have they ever gone perfectly? Well, that depends on who you ask and where they’re sitting! Should you let the idea of perfection go? Absolutely.
Just because things didn’t go to plan doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make a plan. We have to have something to aim for. Not achieving it doesn’t mean falling short, it just means we achieved something else. Like a busy day where we get loads done but none of it was on our to-do list that morning! Recognise your achievements, even if they aren’t what you thought they’d look like when you set out.
We may have to accept that some plans won’t stick as the outcome is beyond our influence but there are some plans we can make that we can absolutely see through. Things like finishing early, taking a lunch break, reaching out to a SBL friend, doing some CPD or attending a conference! These things might need us to get a bit gobby (or gobbier!) and get our elbows out but we can make them happen if we choose ourselves. You matter so don’t lose sight of yourself.
Reset your sat-nav, stock up on snacks and remember, even though me and the rest of the SBL community aren’t in the car with you, we’re only a few minutes up the road ready to help if you need us.
PS Me & some of the SBL community will be at the EdExec Live events THIS MONTH! We’re in London on the 16th May and West Midlands on the 22nd May so if you fancy a detour from your usual route, why not come and join us? If you haven’t already booked, click here for more info – and if you’ve already booked, pop me an email at [email protected] and let me know which one you’re coming along too!
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