I was 25-years-old, standing in my first classroom as a new teacher. I was about to be surrounded by thirty 17-year-olds I had never met before.
I was a fairly insecure adolescent, but I stood there on my first day of teaching only mildly nervous and mostly excited to meet my first students.
Why wasn't I feeling insecure???
I had a secret weapon.
Adolescents can sense inauthenticity immediately. They can see right through our masks and they can smell our insecurities.
The way most high school teachers I’ve worked with manage their insecurity is by knowing more than their students. When the main currency in school is knowledge, the teacher is the richest person in the classroom!
But knowledge isn’t actually the main currency in the classroom - our shared humanity is.
Here’s what ALL students want: to be seen, to be listened to, and to be honored and respected as valuable beings. Students are human beings, and ALL of us want to be loved and to belong.
And that is my secret weapon: I know how to move beyond self-concerns to show up 100% present, engaged, and connected with my students.
There’s nothing special about me, so why don’t more teachers effectively do this? Actually, why don’t more of us love and honor others in general in our daily lives?
Instead of sharing in the wonder, sanctity, and beauty of our humanity, we gossip. We complain. We blame.
We fester in our opinions and righteousness, then blame others for not giving us the space to contribute. We make fun or we pander, we fume in private or fume to our colleagues to get them on our side.
You see, we’ve all got insecure thinking at times. These self-judgments (many of them from decades ago) are still holding the reins on our mindset and being. These unexamined and active self-judgments determine who we get to be, how we get to show up, and who we let in.
Think of all the enjoyment, health, and productivity that's lost in managing our insecurities.
What we never learned in school, however, is that each of us has an innate capacity to complete and move beyond our insecure self-judgments.
You see, insecure thinking is selfish. Insecure thinking puts our attention on ourselves. Insecure thinking denigrates our spirit and the spirit of others.
Until we adults start dealing with our self-limiting, spirit-inhibiting, love-prohibiting, sympathy-soliciting insecurities, we will never be truly free…
Free to be satisfied. Free to feel great most of the time. Free to love unconditionally. Free to be loved unconditionally. Free to live full-out our authentic expression.
Until we close the chapter on our insecure self-judgments, we’ll never make the impact we are here to make.
If you’re ready to do the work to lay to rest your self-limiting judgements and beliefs for good, reach out and let’s connect. Regardless of what your insecure thinking says about it, you can handle this transformational conversation.
Your world is waiting for you, and I’m here to help.
Thank you so much for reading. 🙏❤️
P.S. As a transformational coach, I help people and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel amazing. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, schedule an exploration with me. 💌