‘Save and Publish’

Ready! Fire! Aim!

Hi! Thanks for dropping by my new site. It seems like it’s taken me a long time to finally sit down and actually press the ‘save and publish’ tab to my own blog, but here I am, finally taking the plunge.

It’s a steep learning curve and feels like quite a big deal, so I decided my first ‘blog entry’ would recognize this aspect of the whole process, rather than launch into a separate entry about learning – perhaps not the most exciting idea, but it felt right to acknowledge my trepidation and not just launch into my first blog, pretending that I’m a confident and accomplished blogger. I’ve decided that in order feel good about pressing ‘save and publish’ on anything I write on this site, my best barometer has to be what feels right to write, not what I think I should write or am meant to write. My instinct a couple of weeks ago was not publish my site until it’s jam packed with blogs, photos, links, etc and is ‘complete’ – a cannonball, to use a Jim Collins concept. Instead, I’ve had to learn to feel comfortable to throw lots of bullets at it whenever I get change to and enjoy the slow and steady development of my site. I’ve also had to acknowledged that I can’t afford to be a perfectionist, or else I’ll never press ‘save and publish’. So, I’ll have to find the courage to use another Collins concept – ‘Ready! Fire! Aim!’ – as my modus operandi and learn to enjoy aiming at the target without necessarily ever hitting it. I’m enjoying re-reading ‘Great By Choice’ by Collins and Hansen.

New Learning is Fuzzy

I guess it’s pretty normal that as I’m at the beginning stages of developing my own site, it’s all fuzzy, a little unnerving and very clumsy – just like all new learning. As an English teacher by trade, I’m somewhat surprised that this feels like such a challenge, especially having taught students how to write for different audiences for the last 17+ years and working with numerous schools in creating Blogs, Facebook sites and Twitter accounts where they can share student learning. Now that I sit down to pen my own site, I’m apprehensive and filled with feelings of self-doubt – what will I write? will the site ‘work’? who cares? who on earth will want to read anything I write? Suddenly, the word ‘publish’ has grown horns and is glaring down at me with fiery eyes, bushy eyebrows and flaring hairy nostrils. This stuff is scary!

Fortunately, I love learning challenges. Taking risks, along with a good amount of struggle, usually leads to great learning. Some of the struggle comes with using the website platform itself, but I’m resolved to battle on with each one of them and am enjoying the small victories – the latest being setting up my ‘Contact’ page. No idea if it works yet, but it looks good!

Credibility

Last week I was jointly leading an aspiring middle leaders course in Houston, Texas, and led a session on ‘Developing your credibility as a leader’, referencing Stephen Covey’s ‘The Speed Of Trust’, of course. I later coached several colleagues on how to establish their own credibility and their own leadership voice. There were several instances where delegates were moved to tears as they reflected on their belief that they lacked credibility in their informal leadership roles and I worked with them to find ways to develop their leadership voice. It’s dawning on me now that I too feel like I lack credibility as a website designer/blogger and will need to work hard to find and express my own ‘Blogging Voice’. An exciting challenge!

My Vision for this Blog

In my leadership training I’m often reminding colleagues of the need for a clear vision and goal in any learning journey. The trouble is, my interests are so varied that I’ve decided to put them all under the heading of Learning, because that’s what I love doing. I am also passionate about:
• reflecting on my own learning and the learning of others.

• sharing learning, especially face-to-face and often in the form of storytelling – be it in the classroom, conference workshop, training sessions, while horse riding or in line at the coffee shop, you name it. I’ve promised those who’ve asked that I would indeed write a blog!

• writing. I am currently working on a collection of short stories about growing up a Shropshire Lass in rural England – just honing my teeth for my novel idea!

• making connections between all types of learning. I hope documenting my learning will help me make deeper connections. Connecting neurons gives me a buzz!

• conversing. I hope this blog will encourage and facilitate conversations and lead to great learning.

It seems to me that there are many great reasons to write this ‘public diary’ of learning, regardless of who, if or how many read it. So, perhaps I should’t feel apprehensive about pressing ‘save and publish’ after all. So, here goes……

I hope you enjoy and share your learning with me too.
Thanks!
Kate

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