Words to live by...

I've been in Anchorage the past three days, co-leading a training to 60+ educators. Good people, interesting work. As I was packing for the trip, Jake called. Now and then, Jake will call late at night, and we'll have a classic sherman conversation -- wide-ranging and full of tangents that all seem to link back to some central theme. or two or three.

Jake is a researcher of human motivations -- Sara has said that he is like an alien sent to research Humans. Jake is very skilled in analyzing motivations and avoidances in others, and has developed an amazing list of Axioms to describe his discoveries (which seem to be corollaries of his tag line "--Don't be afraid.")

One of his Axioms is "Nothing changes for no reason." I think that is true. Sometimes, a change will be beyond one's control; what is within one's control is how one responds to that change. But I suspect that most of the changes in my life were influenced by my own actions (and sometimes by my inactions). And I do tend to have an always current, often updated, 5 year plan.

Jake and I have also been talking about careers. My advice to him has been to think in terms of doing something that is interesting to him for 2 to 5 years, and then look around for something more interesting. Could be in the same field, or a sharp left turn.

Sort of like my own career. I didn't start out 25 years ago with an ambitious goal to be a university professor and an expert in assessing students with severe cognitive delays. I kept chasing interesting opportunities: working with children from abuse, teaching, systems change, teacher coaching, state consulting, state level work, teacher preparation teaching, district level administration, and finally here. I paused for 2 to 5 years at each waystation; although all are in education, each step and project and job was a little fork in the road.

Jake is writing again (one of his paths), and is making plans to live in China for awhile, teaching English and learning Mandarin. And, I suspect, studying the humans there...

Two more of Jake's axioms that feel true to me:

"Do something that scares you."

and "The means don't justify the ends."

"Don't be afraid" is sort of his anchoring philosophy; I have witnessed Jake's bravery and never cease to be impressed with him. And though I am not yet without fear, I have been learning to move ahead anyway.

Good enough for now, for me...