Efforting

Wisdom from the Field #36

In his classic guide Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Joseph Goldstein explains how our effort to improve can sometimes be unhelpful.

“Effort can become unskillfull when there is a forcing of mind - what I call ‘efforting’ - rather than a relaxation of mind. Effort becomes unskillful when there’s some idea of gain and a mind full of expectations, rather than an openness and receptivity to what is already there.” (p. 243)

A reflective practitioner, Goldstein recalls at one point in his life wishing he was still in India - where his meditation practice flourished - once he returned to the States.

“I was always wanting something other than what was there.”

Once he let go of wanting to be somewhere else and accepted his current circumstances, his meditation practice improved.

“The lesson here is that we need to be mindful of how we’re making effort. If there is a strong agenda - the ‘in-order-to’ mind I’ve spoke of - being aware in order for something in particular to happen, or if we’re holding on to the object too tightly, afraid that we’ll lose it, then we need to open and relax the mind, softening the quality of our effort.”

You have everything you need

In the beginning of my book, I advocate for school leaders to first

• accept their current reality, and

• acknowledge all the resources and strengths currently present.

It’s difficult to move forward if we don’t know where we are starting.

And even more challenging to grow if we don’t recognize successes already achieved.

This shouldn’t be a difficult exercise. During my 5th grade commencement speech yesterday, I was sharing with the families and students how awesome our school is: we offer two hot meals a day, students are surrounded by books, they have time to read and write around their areas of interest, and they can hang out with their friends at recess. Schools are one of the few remaining “great good places” in our community.

From this starting point, where might you go next?

And how far along are you already on your journey to excellence?

This is the last post for the Wisdom from the Field series. (It is also a feature in my book, Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H.) Which one resonated with you the most, and why?