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Parent as student

March 12, 10 //
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I have had a lot of teachers throughout my life. Some taught me because they were paid to, some because they were supposed to, and some because they wanted to. Many of the best teachers in my life, though, had no idea that they were teaching me. (Or, perhaps more accurately, that I was learning from them.)

At the top of this list of unintentional teachers are kids, especially my own.

When the relationship between parents and their kids is discussed, “parent as teacher” is a common interpretation. There is no doubt that parents need to teach their children. But if we only see ouselves as teachers, whether it is because we are supposed to or because we really want to, we are missing out on some of the greatest learning opportunities we will ever be given the chance to experience.

This is especially true if your kids are different from you, or different from what you expected them to be. For example, if you are a “jock” and your kid a “geek” ( or vice versa). Or your kid is disabled and you’re not.

If you are a parent, take the time to learn from your kids. You’ll be amazed at what they can teach you.

There’s always something to learn

March 12, 10 //
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On the TV show NCIS the main character, Special Agent Gibbs, has two primary passions: catching bad guys and building boats. Not just any kind of boat, but hand made wooden sailboats. Which he builds in his basement. (A running gag on the show is the question of how he gets the boats out of the basement.)

In one episode, an old friend and mentor visits Gibbs for the first time in several years and sees a boat in progress in the basement:

“What’s this, number 3?”

“Four.”

“I thought you’d have enough practice by now.”

“There’s always something to learn.“

Truly words to live by, even if they do come from a fictional character.

This is my brain on the web

January 28, 10 //
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During a New Year’s Day seminar in which he spoke about some things he would be tracking and doing in 2010, Dan Pink made an offhand comment that “I like lists”. This comment, along with the coming of the new year and the inspiration from the seminar, prompted me to create a new “brain” – using PersonalBrain 5.5 – to collect the lists and other resources that I find useful.

Some of the thoughts in that brain will eventually find their way into a blog post or other writing somewhere, but much of it won’t. That doesn’t mean that it’s not good information, or that it isn’t worth sharing, so I’ve uploaded the brain to WebBrain.com as a way to share. It is very much a work in progress, both in terms of content and visual design, and as I continue to build it I will work on both. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas to add.

Here’s a quick look at the brain, and you can see it full size over at WebBrain.com. I may eventually find a permanent place here on my site for the brain, but for now I’ll just keep it there.

Being ready to die, he was more likely to live

January 28, 10 //
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Last night I attended my first kendo class. As a beginner, I felt clumsy and awkward as I tried to coordinate my footwork, proper holding of the shinai, and basic overhead strikes. And awed as I watched the senior members of the club do some free sparring toward the end of class. I am looking forward to continued training and learning this very cool art.

Kendo – the way of the sword – is a martial art based on kenjutsu, the traditional Japanese swordmanship practiced by the samurai.  As a sport, kendo obviously has taken away the lethal aspects of the art, but the spirit of the art remains. Success in kendo competition requires much the same commitment as that required by the samurai. George Leonard describes this commitment in his book Way of Aikido, The: Life Lessons from an American Sensei:

Long and arduous training contributed to the samurai’s presence and clarity in combat, but there was also another key factor: The samurai had to be totally free of considerations. If, for example, he was to think, “Why didn’t I have my sword sharpened?” or “I should have settled my debt with Takeda-san,” the break in ki would be fatal. The ultimate consideration is one’s own death. For the thought “I might die” to creep into his consciousness would mean sure death. That’s why the samurai was trained from earliest childhood to go into battle with no thought of either life or death. Being ready to die, he was more likely to live.

Having just read Seth Godin’s Linchpin, I can’t help seeing many parallels between the training of the samurai and what Seth is urging us to do in our own lives. For example, to be “free of considerations” is to keep the “lizard brain” at bay. Focusing on doing our work, on sharing our art, without regards to any rewards – though far from “being ready to die” – allows us to perform at out best. As Seth says in Linchpin:

The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security. When it is time for layoffs, the safest job belongs to the artist, the linchpin, the one who can’t be easily outsourced or replaced.

Are you “ready to die” as you set out to change the world?

Some early thoughts on Linchpin

January 15, 10 //
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In the letter that he sent along with the early review copies of his new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin asks us to “read it through (twice if you can)” before we review it. I get the impression from his letter, and from his introduction to the book, that he expects many people won’t like it, or won’t agree with it, and that many people will stop reading before they finish.

From my point about 1/2 way through I can see why he might think that; some people are going to find his ideas and suggestions quite radical. I really hope those people who don’t agreee, or don’t understand, take the time to read the entire book and reflect deeply on what it says. They will come out better for it, even if they still don’t agree with what Seth says.

That’s all I’m going to say here about Linchpin for now, I am going to wait until I’ve had a chance to go through it twice and really absorb it before I write an actual review. If you want to know what others are already saying about the book, check out the Linchpin lens on Squidoo.

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Brett's Waste Blog by G. Brett Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at blog.gbrettmiller.com.