By James King
With this month’s theme being BYOD I was trying to think of a topic that wasn’t talked about in depth. After trying to think of a topic, life did what life does and provided me with a topic. I know most of us see BYOD as Bring Your Own Device but this article is going to be on Bring Your Own Determination. I will warn my readers that this article is going to be different from others I have written; this article is going to be more personal.
I have learned that life is going to challenge you. Life is going to push you. Life is even going to try and break you. This is when you need to bring your own determination and stand your ground. Like the Japanese proverb “Nana korobi, ya oki” which means “Fall down seven, stand up eight”, says we need to keep getting up. This drive to get back up when you are knocked down is not something everyone has but it is something that I feel everyone can get to. This determination is a mindset and it is just about getting your mind into the right mindset.
Fall down seven, stand up eight.
Japanese Proverb
Throughout my life, I have always faced challenges so maybe that is why I have that mindset. When younger I dealt with having a speech problem. I could have stayed down and been hard on myself about this, but I brought my own determination and I learned to work on my speech. Yes, I still have a speech problem but I work on it all the time to try and get better. This determination to not let my speech limitation hold me back allowed me to be on different podcasts as well as co-host my own podcast.
How does this correlate to AV and IT?
We are going to have limitations with our systems. These limitations could be due to our lack of knowledge, lack of resources, or a number of other variables. These limitations should not hold us back from providing the best learning environment for our students. We should not stay down on the ground and let these limitations be an issue for our users. We should get up and overcome these limitations the best we can. Just like my speech limitation, we may not be able to rid all of the limitations of our system but that should not be due to a lack of trying every resource we can.
We may not be able to rid all of the limitations of our system but that should not be due to a lack of trying every resource we can.
Besides having limitations there could also be times when we are faced with dealing with stress in our lives. I know the last nine months I have faced many challenges between work and my personal life which has been stressful. I spent two months away from my family, I moved my family 2,600 miles from where they grew up to a location none of us had ever been to before. I took on the role of building a brand new team that will handle a brand new building, faced challenges with the supply chain to get the new building going, and changed from the equipment I had been using for the last 14 years to equipment I never had experience with, I had issues with the place we are renting and even had car issues. All of these issues could have easily led to me staying down but I again am determined to get up and overcome these challenges.
When we are dealing with a large amount of stress, we can not let our users see this. This means we need to find healthy ways of coping with stress. We can go for a walk, talk to a friend, we can meditate, pick up a hobby, etc.. The idea is to handle our stress in a healthy way so that it does not break us or come out onto our users. Think about it this way, if you are having car issues, I am sure you are not even thinking ‘what type of day the repair tech is having’ but are focused on that you are having an issue that prevents you from doing something you are trying to do. This goes true for our classrooms, our faculty members are not thinking about ‘what kind of day we are having’. They are focused on that they have a presentation to give and the AV system is preventing them from holding that presentation. This is why we must be determined to manage our stress so that it does not spill out onto our users. Just as it doesn’t make a difference to use if the auto tech is dealing with a lot of stress, it doesn’t make a difference to our users if we are dealing with a lot of stress we still have a job to do.
In conclusion, do know that with the right mindset and the right determination you can be stronger than your limitations and the stress in your life. We can not let these items control us but us to control them. Here are some examples that work for me. For limitations, I find resources to overcome them. I attend networking events, I watch videos, I get training, and I get to practice on the item. For stress, I listen to music, take my lunch break away from a screen, go for a walk, watch my saltwater tank, and have friends, like Joe Way and Tim Van Woeart, that I can talk to. I end with this, only you can determine if you will stand up the eighth’s time.
Only you can determine if you will stand up the eighth’s time.
