The One Thing

After twenty years in the field, there is one thing still missing in my work, patience. Not with the children, but with the pace of my work. My first work experience was in retail, and that is where I learned that time connects to money, and speed is essential. These ideas influence my work to this day.

Often, I attempt to get through my work quickly without any real reason for it. Working fast is helpful in retail, but my work is research and writing today. Still, I get an internal feeling that whatever I am working on is not moving fast enough. I try to work more quickly even though I want to explore information and ideas thoughtfully.

While thinking about the origins of wanting to work fast, I discovered something. Retail work and the classroom environment are similar in energy and motion.

The early childhood education environment is an active space filled with materials, adults, and children. The classroom environment is often in a state of movement or transition. The educator's brain connects to the action and speed of the classroom. We have a hard time slowing down.

Thinking and reading about work pace, I came to a few conclusions. One is that being an educator, writer, or something else is a journey. Our work is a path of discovery, accomplishment, failure, learning, and application.

We define our skill in work through degrees of understanding. Our skill is to take a specific knowledge base and craft ideas or solutions that match the current situation. The key to skill acquisition is collecting continuing knowledge in our field. Applying knowledge to our practice helps us develop skills and move forward.

Through self-evaluation, I realized that I have always been an active person. When I was young, I never slowed down. In my spare time, I choose physical activities and have plenty of movement.

Applying this to my work, I need to accept the active person inside of me. I need to practice skills that help balance the urge to move fast. Taking time to journal, solitude breaks, or meditation time will help balance the feeling of not moving fast enough.

Slowing down is a key for us in our work. Find an area you want to improve and break it down to its elements. Inside the details are clues to the fundamental nature of the problem and a path for moving forward. The way is a process of trial and error until we find a solution that moves us forward. By taking small steps forward, we will arrive at our chosen destination.