Not gonna lie, I think I just wrote the best 8 pages of instruction I’ve ever written. This new course, Confidence (it will be on Udemy and the Pramek site) has required months and months of white-boarding, analysis, research, restructure, new outline, refilming. I just want to get it right.
But, I literally just forgot I was writing for two hours, looked up, reread and was like, ‘whoa, I might have gotten that right.’
I wish I could write a little simpler, just have a bunch of slogans and a squared jaw that looks good in photos for a blog and social media fake photos in front of other people’s cars…instead, I’m cursed to Pramek this stuff and, from what I can tell, go far deeper than anyone has ever done outside of the medical world.
If there is any advice I can give to an up and coming teacher, no matter the topic, it’s to be self-reflective:
- Write out your lesson plans, write out what you will say, think about your words.
- Don’t let good enough be the enemy of perfect – get it right, don’t be afraid to learn from failing, but saying ‘aaaahhh, good enough’ can backfire on you later.
- Film your class, put the phone in the corner of the room when you teacher – some days put it on you, some days put it on the students. See their faces, you’ll always miss someone, see if they get it. Note when they don’t, write it down, make sure you adapt it to them. See yourself, your positioning, how much time you are spending with students?Rate your performance – be honest, critique, what would have missed?
- Don’t worry about social media or youtube, you will have time for that – spend less time scrolling and more time doing everything above. When we started posting our class videos online I had critiqued myself so many times that I didn’t need to rehearse for the camera, I just needed to teach. Be someone that when you finally post your work you’ve been critiqued so many times by yourself that you are confident.
- Specialize in something – find what you like, spend a little more time on it, study it, study others who do it, create a specialty, be known for something – not as someone, but for something that someone knows.
I’m excited for this course, and for the year (I’ll write that post later talking about 2020). This course won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Studies show our attention spans are being decreased by the internet. It would be much easier to not deep dive this topic, to just post slogans, photos of myself and create a personal ‘brand’ and tailor the message to it – or, just regurgitate other people’s work.
But, someone some where is gonna buy this and be a different person after, and you just don’t get that with quote memes, slogans, and squared jaws. Adaptation and Evolution are long term processes that slogans don’t achieve.
