3 Beginning of the Year "Must Do's" for Successful Teachers

The beginning of every year, we all like to sit down and make this long list of resolutions or if you're woowoo, like me, a huge vision board to help get you started or reaching your new goals. Well, today I'm going to break down, three beginning of the semester must dos in order for you to reach your goals as a successful teacher while doing less. So let's get into it.

Transcript of the Episode:

It's January 2022. Can you believe it! This is our year, say it with me. This is our year. Now it feels a little silly, because we've been saying that since 2020. Every year has been so wildly different. But I really feel it this year, January and the beginning of the school year both feel like fresh starts. In December and over the summer, we have a break to really tune into our needs. And I hope that you were able to do that little bit over this past break. We get to look at what do we need in order to move forward towards our goals in a way that honors our values and our boundaries. What are those linchpin habits that bring us closer to our goals and closer to who we want to be? And moreover, what do we need to stop doing?

In today's podcast, I'm going to break down how I'm moving forward into 2022 in regards to both personal and professional life boundaries I set at the beginning of each semester, and the ways that we can work together this year to empower you to live your best life in 2022. So here's where the woo part of me comes in. And because before I even start to talk about what my goals are, and ask you what your goals are, what we need to do is future pace ourselves. Sit down some of our clients, if you're walking and listening to this podcast, maybe you can close your eyes and take a few steps or stop walking and take a deep breath. If you are driving, don't close your eyes of course. But if you are doing something physical and you are able to stop and really think about this next question, take a few breaths here, maybe pause this podcast and dive into this with me will have a much easier time actually reaching those goals. And the question is this…

On December 31 2022,
Who have I become? Who have I become?
What does my environment look like?
Where do I spend most of my time?
What do my clothes look and feel like?
Who are the people around me?
And what things do I do?

Now I ask this because many times we can sit down and we can write down our goals. But we're writing those goals from a place of who we are today, not who we are when we actually reach those goals. Now at this exact moment in time, I'm not asking you to figure out the how. And it's okay if the house feels a little scary. Like maybe you don't know how. But as one of my mentors says, don't worry about the how for now. He actually uses cuss words but we're gonna keep this PG. So once you have that vision in your head of who you are, you can then start to think back throughout the year. What did I accomplish in December, in November, in October and then take the time to go back throughout the whole year and actually visualize your life as it has unfolded.

Now of course, you're doing this from this date of December 31 2022. And if enlightening, your brain starts to freak out, just understand that you don't know how it's gonna happen. And also understand that your brain literally cannot tell fact from fiction. It cannot distinguish something that has actually happened, versus something that you make up in your head. 

So, if you're fearing the worst or if you're not believing in yourself, your brain takes that as truth just as much as it does, you actually believing in your own self. And so you have a choice. And I know you have many obstacles. I know you have any book cast, what about this, the cast, you don't understand, because you don't dadada into whatever it is. 

It's normal for your brain to pop up and say things to keep you safe. And then if that's happening, all you have to do is just say thank you brain, just a little prefrontal cortex, that's it. Now from that renewed sense of who you are, who did you show up as this year, from that place emotionally. Like fully embody it, that's where you write your goals from. 

That's a much more empowered place than the typical I ate too much cake over Christmas break, I need to lose 10 pounds, because I don't like my body anymore. And I'm falling into diet culture place. You feel a shift in the difference, just those energetics moving towards something that you want, versus away from something that you don't want. makes all the difference when achieving what you want to do. 

So before the semester even starts, here's what I typically do. And I'm gonna break this down into professional life and I'm also gonna break it down into my personal life, I'm getting kind of vulnerable here. As I was writing the outline, I was like, I don’t wanna share this. But I'm going to, and I urge you to take some time to do the same. 

Now, it doesn't matter when you found this podcast episode, you can listen to it at any time. You can go through this at any time. So one thing I like to do first is to set my boundaries, that person who have become at the end of 2022, what boundaries did she have in place that made her a better person. Now, you may not know just yet, but these could be overarching boundaries for yourself, and how you're going to act or react to certain circumstances that happened in your life. Boundaries for work, or what have you. And just start to think about this as the forefront when you go into your goals, because what I don't want to have happen is you set these amazing goals. But then in order to reach them, you have to cross over what would have been your boundaries, because you're so focused on your goals, that you don't even put those boundaries in place, because you don't think that you can reach your goals with those boundaries in place. I'll give you some examples in a second. So just think about your boundaries. Are you gonna leave work at a certain time? Are you going to stay off your phone during work hours? Are you going to disable Social Media Monday through Friday or Saturday and Sunday?

Are you going to take an hour of the day for yourself? Whether that be reading, going on a walk, taking a bath, working out? What boundaries does that person have in place? What did they stop doing? Maybe it's people pleasing. And then from there, I set my goals. And I'll walk you through how I'm setting my goals this year. It's pretty simple. I'm always in the favour of doing less and getting more results and making more impact by doing less. And then from there, once my goals are set, then I can determine my projects, which are kind of like my objectives and my linchpin habits. And I'll walk you through what linchpin habits are once we get there. 

So here is how I'm setting my goals in 2022. I like to choose three main areas of my life. To focus on, there are so many areas in our lives. And if you're like me, you might want to make a goal for all of them. Or you might want to make a goal to continue doing something. And then you end up with like 10 goals. And for me, it's hard to pair it down. But I'm going to urge you to stick to three different areas of your life, choose one overarching goal, it can be a little bit vague and a little bit open. 

Now, the good life project breaks our life down into three separate buckets. Vitality which is your health, your wellness, I also include my mental well being in that as well. Connection, like your connection with your community with yourself, and then your contribution. If you're a stay at home parent, that's raising your kids, that's your home life as well. And that's also the work that you do out in the world. And their theory is if you have a leak in one of your buckets, you're only as fulfilled as your least filled bucket. Kinda like you're only as strong as your weakest link. So this year, I have four goals. One because my contribution goals are split into two because teaching and running allied are two very different things. And they need two very different goals. So my first goal is to create systems in my teaching to streamline my time outside of teaching, like my indirect time for better results. Most of the time, I don't get paid for indirect stuff. And I need to have better systems in place for that. My second goal is to increase allied community to help over 1000 OEM specialists in 2022. My third goal is to become an investor. I'm very serious about this. I love learning about investing. And the way that I'm learning how to invest is very aligned with a heart centered approach. If you ever want information on the programme that I'm in, I'm happy to give it to my coaches amazing. The fourth goal is to create a cozy home experience where I can gather with friends. 

Before I break all of those down into the projects and how I'm working all that I do want to remind you that on January 13, we are having our webinar all about what's working in O&M 2022. We've got a panel of presenters from all around the world who are coming in, and they're going to be sharing all about cane skills, whether it be cane skills off the beaten path, the mindset component of cane skills, how to adapt cane skills, and how to use PVC pipe to individualize your cane skill, or your canes. That is happening next week! So you absolutely do not want to miss it whatsoever. We know that cane skills are the foundation of our mobility skills, we also know that they have to be individualized in order for them to work for the learner. There isn't a one size fits all and there are so many different aspects that go into individualized teaching. This panel promises to be uplifting, inspiring and so informational. Isn't one of your boring, typical webinars, there will definitely want to be there for this, you can go to alliedindependenceonline.com/2022 to be able to register.

Okay, so with that said, let's look at the projects and the linchpin habits that I'm setting up to increase my teaching goal. My Projects specifically are to use the New Mexico inventory, it's such a great tool and this is my first assessment since learning about the New Mexico inventory from the symposium last year, and this year, they're coming back with a wheelchair, New Mexico inventory, which I cannot wait for. 

So I'm going to do that in my upcoming assessments. Because I really think that it'll allow me to streamline how I do my assessments. The second one, ohh, it's reserved vacation here for your girl. So that has to be a project in and of itself. You know how that goes. And my third project is to attend a minimum of one in person conference. Although I'd really like to make it to two conferences in person this year. The numbers out there are looking, they're not looking the best. So we'll see how that goes. And then my linchpin habits. Now these are the habits that we really look at when we want to succeed. And these are the things that make it so that way, things are easier for us to succeed. 

For example, if you had a goal of going to the gym in the morning, you would make it harder on yourself, if you went to bed super late, because you wouldn't get all eight hours of sleep, you would also make it super hard on yourself if you didn't set your clothes out. So a linchpin habit for that goal would be to set your clothes out and to go to bed early. It's my linchpin habits are the ones that are often overlooked. For me, this is to set up my progress report data collection. Now that I'm getting more students, I need to not do it student by student. So I'm gonna start doing it. All of my students in one form, or at least, each school has its own form, just to make things a little bit more streamlined for invoicing. I'm personally still writing in pencil with this. If you were at the November webinar, and Kristin talked about how she does it, I would follow her. 

That's what I'm doing is I'm gonna be following what she said. And also using a little bit of how I like to have my data collection set up. And then also, I have a huge linchpin habit at the beginning of every semester, I sit down with my students and we go over the O&M Rules.

My own O&M rules for my classes are, number one, be safe, or to be respectful. Three be a participant and four have fun. They've been the same rules for every student from here for the past, like 15 years, however long I've been teaching. But the implementation of them is different per student, which is why I go over them. At the beginning of every semester. 

Each student and I cooperatively create what following these rules looks like for them. And then we set our own goal for how many lessons that month or quarter or semester they need to meet all four rules in order to get a fun lesson. And as you can imagine, the younger kids might get like 15 minute fun activity a month, whereas the high schoolers get a full phone lesson every semester. Now, Allied has its own goals. Our mission is to empower 10,000 O&M specialists around the world to make a significant impact in the lives of their learners without burning out. We need y'all in the field and we're here to support you. My projects this year, things that you can look forward to working with us on or we are setting up a free professional development library. 

That'll probably happen sometime in the summer when things slow down. I want to help 800 people with the symposium and we're getting pretty close little by little every year. And 400 people with our clarity lesson plans. 

Now for my home life. I do want to create a cozy home experience where I can gather with friends. And for this, I only have a few projects, there are some rooms that I want to redecorate my house. And I want to treat my home as its own investment property. It's getting up there in age and things are breaking! And instead of having the mindset of like, Oh, there's the breaking and oh this is so horrible, I really want to have the mindset that this is an investment property. 

And it helps me feel really excited when my washing machine decides to do things like blow up! And I get a new washer and dryer set, which I really didn't have a desire to spend money on. Now, I already mentioned that one become an investor. There are some projects that I have within that looking at EFT’S, NFT's. Crypto and learning about the metaverse.. There's so much going on with that I can't even.. I don't even know. I will give you more information as I go on but right now, I don't know.And that's it. 

There's some things I want to continue doing within my vitality bucket. But that one I've been working on for the past few years, and I feel pretty set. So what about you? Who are you going to be December 31 2022? 

And how can you take steps forward every day to make sure that you become that version of yourself. Maybe your linchpin habits are simply to meditate for five minutes before you get out of your car in the morning. Maybe your lunch can have it is to make sure that you attend professional development opportunities that are not just the ones where you are already under water, but also the ones that give you a little wiggle room. So that way you are prepared before you get that next student. And if you're like most O&M specialists who want to continue to increase their skills and become a better teacher in 2022. 

I invite you to join us on January 13. It'll be at 8pm. Eastern Standard Time, for a panel discussion on what's working in O&M, that's designed to leave you with tangible strategies. So that way you can increase your student’s mobility skills, they'll give you the most current information as to what's working right now. How you can help all of your learners, whether they are using an adapted mobility cane, or they have an adventitious-ly developed visual impairment, whether they are in the city or out in a rural area, these presenters are from all over the world, and they will give you a much bigger, broader perspective. 

So that way, you can take that bigger and broader perspective, use that to ride all the way up to the penthouse level view and see way past the obstacles that are staring you in the face right now. That way, you can see ways that you can overcome those obstacles even easier and faster. And of course, registration for the symposium is still open until January 20th. So there will be a replay of this webinar. That will be open until the 20th. When registration for the symposium closes. It all comes down on the same day. And if you're wondering, yes, it is ACVREP accredited. Love our affiliation with ACVREP. And you can get credit if you watch the replay, but I highly suggest you join us live. And again, that link is alliedindependenceonline.com/2022 to register. 

Alright friends, I will actually get to talk to you a little bit next week. So mark your calendars and I hope you're able to take some of this information and just take one step forward towards living your best life in 2022.

You know that feeling when you've been rushing around all day. Your kids need food, your students need to be scheduled. It's five minutes before your next lesson, and you have no plans. Teaching during a pandemic has had many challenges. Wouldn't you agree? One of which being that it takes so much longer to plan for a remote O&M lesson, than it did to plan for a face to face lesson. But that's not a problem anymore because my friend we have got you covered. Your Allied Independence community stepped up and we've bundled together eight remote O&M lesson plans that can be taught virtually or distance all created by your community and customizable to your individual students' unique needs in five minutes or less. You want ‘em? I know you do. All you have to do is go to alliedindependence online.com/remote “R E M O T E” and grab your copy. Eight free O&M lesson plans so you can start spending your time doing what you do best and that my friend is teaching.