What routines are preventing you from moving forward in your education career? Whether you realize it or not, you are a creature of habit. You probably get up at the same time every day, follow the same routine to wake up and get yourself ready for the day, drive the regular route to work, follow the same schedule in the classroom or your office, and take the same route home at the end of the day.
Recognizing job dissatisfaction is critical to get out of a career rut and the boredom of daily routines. If you are unhappy with your current teaching job, it important to take action now.
Once you arrive home from work, you probably have dinner, watch television, grade papers, work on a project, read the newspaper, and follow some routine once it’s time to go to bed. You set the alarm for the same time, and when it sounds the next day, you start the cycle over again.
Don’t get me wrong. Routines can be good. They help us improve our productivity. They allow us to multi-task. They make us feel comfortable, safe, and secure. They reduce stress. However, the drawback is that they can be difficult to break away from, and they can make it so that we are living our lives on autopilot.
So, how does this relate to your career? As a professional, you need to recognize that routines can prevent you from achieving your full potential. This is because if you are too stuck in your ways professionally, you won’t be finding new, exciting techniques and teaching methods to implement in your teaching, and your classroom might become stale. However, if you persist at incorporating a new technique into your teaching, it too will become part of your new routine. Adaptability is the fabulous aspect of the human spirit and brain.
The most successful people know that changes to their routine will cause them some discomfort. They are also very aware that these changes will become more comfortable and part of their routine if they work at it long enough.
When you have a specific daily routine, it is usually difficult to incorporate something new. People can intrinsically grasp a new concept or principle but experience difficulty in the implementation process. This is also why so many people find it difficult to change their eating habits for the better. They understand they should make changes in their diet, but implementing the changes is rather difficult because their eating habits have become routine.
The key to changing your routine is to keep applying the concept even though it feels uncomfortable and foreign. In fact, in most cases, you will begin to feel comfortable with the concept immediately after experiencing the greatest frustration and difficulty.
Consider learning a new sport, hobby, or task. At first, the movements feel uncomfortable. Your moves are not smooth, accurate, or natural. And this feeling usually persists for quite some time. However, when you feel like giving up because it has become too difficult and frustrating, something clicks, and the movements start to feel more natural. You have now progressed to the stage of being able to achieve results.
The same process happens when you decide to try something different in your career. Routines are powerful and effective. However, to get the most from them, you do need to change them regularly. Not only will this assist your teaching career, but it will also help to keep you from getting bored or becoming stagnant in your career.
