As I said in my previous post. I am going to tell you how changing my attitude changed my experience of life.
I won't go over the whole story again, if you want to read it, it is in the 'I think I Can't! I think I Can't!' article.
I had decided that it could not go on like this. I could not spend the rest of my working life not wanting to go in to work everyday.
I started making a point of noticing the good things that were around me. The friendships I had made at work. The absolutely gorgeous little faces that I had the pleasure of seeing and teaching everyday. Like I said, I did not want to teach children every day anymore but still wanted to work with them and enrich their lives.
I spent some time thinking about what I could do with them, outside of the curriculum. I then came up with a great idea – I was going to organise a triathlon for the children to do. It was for the 9-11 year olds.
I had a great time organising. It was held at the local pool and park. I invited other schools to come along for they day. We ended up having just over 300 kids take part. It poured rain all day, but everyone had a really great time!
I enjoyed the day so much that I asked me boss if I could do more of that. He said, 'Sure'. I put a proposal to 10 head teachers to pay me one day a week to organise sporting events for our 10 schools. They said, 'Sure'. So I spent one year, one day a week, organising sporting events for up to 1000 children.
That then led to me being offered a job doing the same things, but as part of a team. Supporting teachers in school and organising sporting events, but this time we were doing it across the 74 primary schools in our borough.
So, three days a week I was doing that and the other two days I was teaching. I had the best of both worlds. Teaching two days a week was really enjoyable, I was still able to come in and teach but not have to do it five days a week.
The whole point of the story is that if I had not changed my attitude then none of that would have been possible. I would still, now, be dragging my feet in to work everyday and taking my bad attitude with me.
You might be surprised how easy it is to have your life be different. It is not about being positive all the time – it is about looking at the things that are great in your life, instead of focussing on the rubbish things. The more you focus on the great things and be grateful for what you have, the more and more great things you will begin to notice, even if none of your circumstances have changed.
