Thought of the Day: January 22nd, 2014

Over the past couple of weeks I have been deeply immersed in a great book called Creative Confidence written by David and Tom Kelley. The book delves into many aspects of creativity and innovation giving specific strategies to bring out the best in all of us whether it be in education or in business.  Although I feel as though there are a zillion things from the book I could blog about that have resonated with me, I am focusing this post on one thought only and am writing it solely from the perspective of education. 

As teachers, some of us are always striving to have perfect lessons (or nearly perfect). Often times we can get so caught up in thinking of ways to create these perfect lessons that we become unaware of precious time lost. Here is a great thought from Creative Confidence found on page 123. I underlined it immediately after reading it for the first time. So simple in nature but so very true. 

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Don't let your inner perfectionist slow you down.

My takeaway is that when we have good ideas, let's run with them from the get go. The only way to test out their effectiveness is to put them into practice while these ideas are fresh. The more we put into practice, the more we can adapt, mould and perfect as we go. The nature of repetition itself lends itself to steady improvement over time. So I say take those great ideas and get started with them. No need for perfection right away. Chances are if you are a thoughtful, caring, and well-organized teacher the ideas you are putting into practice are going to be good ones. 


Try out those ideas you've had on the back burner forever. Make it happen. Learn from any mistakes made (there are sure to be some of course) and keep pushing the learning forward. Your thoughts? Thanks for reading.