“The
mindset you have, determines the next step you take.”
Living the 7 Habits takes a new
mindset. We need to look carefully at our roles and responsibilities and have
goals for them. Do you remember the way Charles Fonbuena describes our brains?
He uses these descriptions in his book, Leadership
is a Way of Life.
Each person has three brains. Our Lizard
Brain controls our fight v. flight impulses. This area of the brain houses the
medulla oblongata and brain stem. All animals in the fish, bird, amphibian,
reptile, and mammal classifications have this brain. It’s useful for the “eat
or be eaten” issues we deal with, such as when we play staff v. students hockey
games, or, more importantly, when we’re driving our cars defensively. We need
our lizard brains to help us stay safe, so it’s good to listen to them. However
Lizard Brain can get in the way if it makes us too competitive, too focused on
our own “win” and interferes with our ability to understand others with
compassion.
The second brain we have is called
the Monkey Brain. The more social a mammalian species is, the more developed
this brain can be. This brain has us asking, “Do I fit in? Do I look okay? Do
others like me.” The Monkey Brain also has us asking, “Does it feel good or
taste good?” Monkey Brain is the reason I overeat sweets. Okay, okay, when I
overeat everything. While the Monkey Brain doesn't always work to lose weight, it also can be a good
brain to pay attention to as it helps us regulate embarrassing situations, help
us feel confident, and keeps us in the group.
Researcher and lecturer, Simon
Sinek, points out that the first two brains do not have speech centers or the
ability to form language. We can have difficulty using words to express the
thinking of these first two brains so we have other ways to describe how we
think with them. We talk about “gut feelings,” and “heartfelt” emotions. Shawn
Achor, the Harvard brain researcher and psychologist, says we can retrain these
brains to help us rather than keep us from accomplishing our desired goals. He
says we have to train the third brain to be in charge.
The third brain, according to
Charles, is called the Leadership Brain. This brain is the one we use for
logic, for telling us to do the right thing (such as telling me not to eat too
much). It also allows us to make clear thinking and integrate all three brains,
making decisions based on needs, wants, and principles. Obviously it’s more
complicated than this in reality, as our brains are doing other functions. But
the three brains idea gives us a way to see our brains are working with us and
yet need our control. Certainly our students need to learn this control.
We have to stay intentional about
our lives enough to lead with our hearts while we pay attention to our
leadership brains. The 7 Habits are the tool best used to regulate and
pre-decide some of the nonsense our Lizard and Monkey Brains can come up with.
Living the 7 Habits gives us the way to understand our priorities well enough
to take care of them, keeping distractions of the less disciplined parts of our
brains from taking us away from our true purposes. Then we can focus on doing
what we need to do, what is right to do. The 7 Habits work well for our students
because they can become intentional in their lives; students become the product
of their choices, not their circumstances.
“Once
you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.”
BIG ROCKS
- · There are some staff members wanting to work on dress code and other handbook issues. Dress code is particularly difficult. If you’d like to be on this adhoc committee, please email me. I am happy to chair the process. If there’s no interest, we can leave changes for another time. Some of the issues revolve around “yoga” pants and other tight wear that may be comfortable to wear and yet can be uncomfortable to look at. Emerson is also trying to male changes. Are you interested?
- · We had a great turn out for Judy’s Teacher of the Year presentation last Monday. I know Judy was grateful, and the turn out said we are supporting our favorite media specialist! Judy’s speech was honored Cooper staff and all we have done. Thank you, Judy! Congratulations and “nice job.” We love you!!
- · Next week is Thanksgiving, and Cooper has more to be thankful for than usual. Angie and Victoria and back after having beautiful boys. Sarah has had a boy and all is well in their family. Our parents are expressing their highest gratitude for our accomplishments and the culture at our school, and we have a renovated school that is almost working.
- · With all of that to be thankful for, we experienced another incredible Work-a-thon, led by Lauren, Annette and Sally’s organizational skills, complimented by many staff members adding preparation, and then a hundred-person crew of parents and students working 2 hours to make changes to Cooper Friday evening. It was fun and productive. Judy was able to document some of it on our Cooper Facebook page. You will see the changes when you come to school on Monday. Not all of the projects are completed, yet you will see the difference right away.
- · We can also be grateful for our first break of the school year: five days off!! I will be going to Austin, Texas to have Thanksgiving with my son, Matt, and his wife, Kerrie. I am looking forward to seeing them! They are real football fans, and I am planning to enjoy watching the Lions with my son. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been together to watch a game. What are you planning?
The next two weeks of
business include:
Monday: Terry to Coleman A. Young
Center (Noon-3:00)
Tuesday: Dentists R Us at Cooper
Center EPT (8:00)
Lighthouse Team (3:45)
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Turkey Time
Friday: Off
Monday: ??
Tuesday LEAD
time assemblies by group, Youth Making a Difference topic
Lighthouse Team, 3:45
Wednesday: IST (8:00)
Planning Team (3:45)
Thursday: Staff Meting (8:00)
Friday: ???
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