Question: what's more important money or happiness? Over the summer, I traded about $25,000 a year of income (and gave up a benefits package worth more than that) for a "better fit" job. It's still a high responsibility, high-stress, long-hours job, but one aligned better with my biases, beliefs, and strengths. We are certainly making some lifestyle adjustments to compensate. (My timing is not that great on this--a son starting college, and me still in the middle of a doctoral program--with big tuition bills every few months).
Well, I remain above the threshold described by Kahneman and Deaton (2010), at which positive impact on emotional well-being ceases to accrue with income increase. While more money might increase my subjective self-rating of life satisfaction, according to that study at least, it won't make me any happier.
I'll tell you what: having autonomy in leadership (e.g., the license--indeed the expectation--to employ my own good judgment in decisions that impact my organization), enjoying the expressed appreciation of my publics--my bosses, my staff, parents and students in my school, feeling a part of a worthy and worthwhile mission, and feeling genuinely and positively impactful is worth trading some net pay for, in my book.
So is being closer to extended family. As only children, my wife and I are enjoying being 5300 miles closer to our parents these days. As parents ourselves, we are enjoying being in the same country, and same state, as our college freshman. That was part of them if trade as well.
There were some, in my prior work organization, many, in fact, who stayed on, for the wrong reasons. They called the sum compensation package the "golden handcuffs." I do understand what they meant. While I wish all my former colleagues (those who feel shackled and those who are loving every minute, and all those in between) the very best in their endeavors, I am glad to have taken the leap of faith I did, and escaped wearing those handcuffs. I am glad I was there, when I was, and I am glad I left when it was time for me to leave.
In my work, in my faith life, and in my physical location, I have come home. And it is good to be home.
Yeah, and here is an APA citation of the study I referenced, a symptom of dissertation-related compulsion. I know. You don't have to do that in a blog.
Khaneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (107)38, 16489-16493.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
I told you so
I hope the title doesn't sound too smug, or self satisfied, or sanctimonious. But, in my previous post, I described a leap of faith. I said, "It will work out, I know it will." Well, it has worked out. I am so pleased and excited about the way in which it has indeed worked out. Here are my two recent Facebook announcements on the subject:
Having just handed my son his diploma (how many dads get to do that!); having maintained a 100% graduation rate, and positive achievement trends; having ushered in some exciting 21st century teaching and learning innovations during my four-year tenure; having bid a fond farewell to students and teachers for the summer; having announced my erstwhile assistant principal as returning to take over leadership; and having just received my travel orders; it is time for me to say goodbye to Bitburg High School. Though, as we are fond of saying, "I'll always be a Baron."
Goodbyes are bittersweet, but the bright side is that they do make way for exciting new "hellos!" Or, "hello agains." With our parents aging, with Jeshua starting college at Oregon State, and (having lived, worked, travelled and played on four continents) with our wanderlust well sated, we are so happy to be returning home to The Rogue Valley in Oregon.
I am pleased, proud, and excited to begin service as principal at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Medford, officially on August 1, but already working towards a smooth and successful in-transition. I am impressed by the school's high quality staff, strong commitment to excellence, and embodiment of Catholic values--it feels like such a good fit!
My conversations with the parish and the school, as well as conversations with my mother, and conversations with my in-laws, and comments and "likes" and support of friends and colleagues...in fact just about every metric, and every indicator, reinforces the "rightness" of this decision, and this move, for me, and for our immediate as well as extended family, at this time.
The Voice that began as a whisper ("make a change") grew louder and louder--I am so glad I listened.
And now, onward.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Another leap of faith
I quit my job. While successful, while well-respected by my supervisor and my organization, while very well compensated, while privileged to operate in a very well-resourced environment, and to live in a hub for travel and exploration in the middle of Europe for the last several years, I have nonetheless turned in my resignation effective at the end of this school year. While in the middle of a targeted job search, I don't as of now have another job lined up. In other words, for now, unless something changes, I am effectively unemployed in these tumultuous times and in this challenging economy, come August.
My colleagues have described my action and choice as "gutsy," "bold," "brave," and "crazy." Sometimes that last was preceded with an unprintable adjective.
I think of it as a leap of faith. We (my family and I) made it after much reflection, discussion and prayer. Here's the thing: discerning and doing what is "right" after analyzing the sum total of input data, seems to always work out for the best. For this choice, this year, the pull home to Oregon, this spring, just ended up out-balancing all the other pieces of the puzzle. My wife and I are both only children, and our parents in Oregon deserve and increasingly need our proximity, attention, and care. My son has chosen Oregon Statue University for his next step, as he graduates from our DoDDS high school this June, and being closer to him, as well as qualifying for resident tuition, has its appeal. I am at the dissertation stage of my doctorate, and easier access to US schools for research will be helpful. Emotionally, with thirteen years of our married life spent abroad, my wife and I are again ready for some time "at home." Professionally, I am ready to make a change to a higher level of leadership, ideally to my constitution in a somewhat smaller educational institution than is DoDEA, and while the international schools hold appeal, the Pacific Northwest calls as a best case scenario.
Leaving a "perfectly good" home/school/employment situation without clear "next step" prospects is par for the course in the international school realm where Arlee and I spent our early careers. When "moving on" feels right, announcing that, and only then beginning a search for the future (e.g., signing up for an international schools job fair) is the norm. That is not the norm elsewhere, and it is not the norm here. Thing is, our background has taught us to trust that leap of faith. When it's time, it's time. Things work out as they are meant to. All will be well. "Sometimes you have to close one door to open another..." We have lived it numerous times. (Hong Kong, to Manila, to Saudi Arabia, to Oregon--each move, in our wonderful global journey, a leap of faith).
Call me gutsy, or call me crazy. I will grant that the time of uncertainty ("Where will we live, in August?") is difficult. But, we hold to the certainty, in faith, that "all will be well." Either, the "right fit" job will come to fruition (for me, and/or for my wife), or, perhaps I will take a year or so to focus on my doctoral studies and dissertation in-depth, maybe do some consulting and ad-hoc work, and re-enter the market later with my Ed.D in hand.
It will work out. I know it will.
My colleagues have described my action and choice as "gutsy," "bold," "brave," and "crazy." Sometimes that last was preceded with an unprintable adjective.
I think of it as a leap of faith. We (my family and I) made it after much reflection, discussion and prayer. Here's the thing: discerning and doing what is "right" after analyzing the sum total of input data, seems to always work out for the best. For this choice, this year, the pull home to Oregon, this spring, just ended up out-balancing all the other pieces of the puzzle. My wife and I are both only children, and our parents in Oregon deserve and increasingly need our proximity, attention, and care. My son has chosen Oregon Statue University for his next step, as he graduates from our DoDDS high school this June, and being closer to him, as well as qualifying for resident tuition, has its appeal. I am at the dissertation stage of my doctorate, and easier access to US schools for research will be helpful. Emotionally, with thirteen years of our married life spent abroad, my wife and I are again ready for some time "at home." Professionally, I am ready to make a change to a higher level of leadership, ideally to my constitution in a somewhat smaller educational institution than is DoDEA, and while the international schools hold appeal, the Pacific Northwest calls as a best case scenario.
Leaving a "perfectly good" home/school/employment situation without clear "next step" prospects is par for the course in the international school realm where Arlee and I spent our early careers. When "moving on" feels right, announcing that, and only then beginning a search for the future (e.g., signing up for an international schools job fair) is the norm. That is not the norm elsewhere, and it is not the norm here. Thing is, our background has taught us to trust that leap of faith. When it's time, it's time. Things work out as they are meant to. All will be well. "Sometimes you have to close one door to open another..." We have lived it numerous times. (Hong Kong, to Manila, to Saudi Arabia, to Oregon--each move, in our wonderful global journey, a leap of faith).
Call me gutsy, or call me crazy. I will grant that the time of uncertainty ("Where will we live, in August?") is difficult. But, we hold to the certainty, in faith, that "all will be well." Either, the "right fit" job will come to fruition (for me, and/or for my wife), or, perhaps I will take a year or so to focus on my doctoral studies and dissertation in-depth, maybe do some consulting and ad-hoc work, and re-enter the market later with my Ed.D in hand.
It will work out. I know it will.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Character
I want to be cautious about moving from the process, here, of creating content, to that of simply highlighting it (sharing and re-posting seems like more of a Facebook kind of thing, not that I do much of it there, anyway.
If I link, or embed, articles or videos or other content here, I hope to at least synthesize, analyze, or evaluate, adding value to and not just bandwidth, to the virtual world. Just like I strive to do more than take up space, in the physical world.
I don't have much to add, right now, to this piece, and I am posting it here mostly so I can find it back easily next time I want to show it to students or teachers. The idea that character is vital, is important, is central, to our meaningful existence as humans, well, that resonates with me. I like the idea that there is a periodic table of character strengths, and will be digging deeper into that idea--possibly even for some tie-in to my dissertation (the topic of which remains disconcertingly fluid right now).
I will say this by way of analysis: this piece by Tiffany Schlain and the Moxie Institute is worth the eight minutes it takes to watch. Mobile devices without Flash, click the link here.
If I link, or embed, articles or videos or other content here, I hope to at least synthesize, analyze, or evaluate, adding value to and not just bandwidth, to the virtual world. Just like I strive to do more than take up space, in the physical world.
I don't have much to add, right now, to this piece, and I am posting it here mostly so I can find it back easily next time I want to show it to students or teachers. The idea that character is vital, is important, is central, to our meaningful existence as humans, well, that resonates with me. I like the idea that there is a periodic table of character strengths, and will be digging deeper into that idea--possibly even for some tie-in to my dissertation (the topic of which remains disconcertingly fluid right now).
I will say this by way of analysis: this piece by Tiffany Schlain and the Moxie Institute is worth the eight minutes it takes to watch. Mobile devices without Flash, click the link here.
Equal time
Most of my recent ramblings have been over in the Technoleadership blog I created for my latest class.
I have waxed enthusiastic there, granted with a balancing note of caution, about advances in technology, and especially about the societal revolution emerging from ubiquitous mobile internet access and ability to share information and form groups. My position is, like it or not, the tidal wave is upon us, so we had better learn to surf it!
Here is a spot of equal time, with a beautifully-done artistic video, apparently viral on Facebook. Ironic, of course because its message is, "turn this thing (the computer or more likely, the mobile device from which you are watching) off." It is a good reminder that virtual connectivity, while it can be an amazing thing, is not the same thing as connectivity in "real life." Certainly worth the time it takes to watch it: Here is the link, if you are on a mobile device without Flash.
I have waxed enthusiastic there, granted with a balancing note of caution, about advances in technology, and especially about the societal revolution emerging from ubiquitous mobile internet access and ability to share information and form groups. My position is, like it or not, the tidal wave is upon us, so we had better learn to surf it!
Here is a spot of equal time, with a beautifully-done artistic video, apparently viral on Facebook. Ironic, of course because its message is, "turn this thing (the computer or more likely, the mobile device from which you are watching) off." It is a good reminder that virtual connectivity, while it can be an amazing thing, is not the same thing as connectivity in "real life." Certainly worth the time it takes to watch it: Here is the link, if you are on a mobile device without Flash.
It is interesting to read the commentary, and different points of view, on the YouTube channel/page where this is posted by Gary Turk (disclaimer: I don't know who that is, or anything about him--not an endorsement of anything but this which I found to be a valid and interesting visually presented poem and comment on our times).
See you online...AND, in real life.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Technology and Leadership
So, here is another choice, or decision point. I have just started the next course in my doctoral program at Creighton: Technology and Leadership. We are to do the lion's share of our work, it seems, as posts in a public blog.
Now, I have a number of blogs: two are strictly professional, and actually behind passwords, targeted at my school communities. Then, I created a blog on my Weebly-based portfolio of work that will be reviewed by my dissertation committee. It is focused on my "dissertation journey" and my own reflections as I zero in and do that work. Then, there is this. For whatever it's worth. What started as an intended travelog, or public diary, or whatever, as our family headed overseas to Morocco, and evolved into a hodgepodge of my musings. The one for "no audience in particular."
I need to decide whether to use THIS blogspot, or to create a new, dedicated spot, for class-related posts on technology and leadership (I'm excited about the class, as it represents the intersection of two topics very high on my interest list). For some reason, I feel like I want to use this one. I don't think I will, as that just doesn't make much sense. For one thing, it would unbalance my hodgepodge. One or two rambling posts per month, at best, for five years, and then suddenly at least one a week, and all on tech-related topics. My goodness, the asymmetry.
Here is what actually makes the most sense, and provides a bit of a compromise. I'll create a new blog on Blogger, with an appropriate title: TechnoLeadership. I'll link and reference it here, and reciprocally as well. So there it is.
For whatever it's worth.
Now, I have a number of blogs: two are strictly professional, and actually behind passwords, targeted at my school communities. Then, I created a blog on my Weebly-based portfolio of work that will be reviewed by my dissertation committee. It is focused on my "dissertation journey" and my own reflections as I zero in and do that work. Then, there is this. For whatever it's worth. What started as an intended travelog, or public diary, or whatever, as our family headed overseas to Morocco, and evolved into a hodgepodge of my musings. The one for "no audience in particular."
I need to decide whether to use THIS blogspot, or to create a new, dedicated spot, for class-related posts on technology and leadership (I'm excited about the class, as it represents the intersection of two topics very high on my interest list). For some reason, I feel like I want to use this one. I don't think I will, as that just doesn't make much sense. For one thing, it would unbalance my hodgepodge. One or two rambling posts per month, at best, for five years, and then suddenly at least one a week, and all on tech-related topics. My goodness, the asymmetry.
Here is what actually makes the most sense, and provides a bit of a compromise. I'll create a new blog on Blogger, with an appropriate title: TechnoLeadership. I'll link and reference it here, and reciprocally as well. So there it is.
For whatever it's worth.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Choices
I don't really have time to post a blog (Yes, I call a "post" a blog, inaccurately. It just feels right. Deal with it.) here. I have a professional blog (my "principal's page" for my school constituencies--with variants for staff and for parents and students. I have a blog that is part of my doctoral portfolio, tracking the evolution of my dissertation. I have discussion forums to post in--as graded classwork. I have a monthly newsletter to contribute to. And papers, and reports, and memos and emails and so forth to write, in considerable bulk, every day.
Yet, here I am, posting here. It feels safe, and cathartic, I guess. This is my "no consequences" blog. Sometimes, it is ok to indulge oneself. Sometimes, that kind of a choice is even healthy, and productive, in the longer term.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about choices, and the cumulative importance of small choices. I wrote, in a recent reflective paper, about an exercise I have done with students of mine, painting an analogy of standing at the 50 yard line of a football field. I ask them to imagine one end zone to be filled with success (whatever that means to them) as great as they can imagine. Riches, prestige, joy, love, self-actualization, being the best at something important, making a difference--whatever. And in the opposite end zone, I ask them to imagine the opposite of that: doom, gloom, despair, failure--"rock bottom." I then talk about how every day, each of us is faced with small choices, and each choice is like a step in one direction or another. The big take-a-way I want for these young adults is the apparent lack of consequence (position and perspective remain pretty similar after one step) of each choice, contrasted with the cumulative effect of many steps (even with a "two steps in one direction for each one step in the other" approach). Right choices, a majority of the time, progressively move you in the right direction, and likewise the converse.
A recent book (on Ignatian spirituality, actually) brought that idea back home for me. I'm working to consider my small choices, in the moment, and make sure they are heading me in the direction I want to go.
Time spent on this self-indulgent post, notwithstanding.
Yet, here I am, posting here. It feels safe, and cathartic, I guess. This is my "no consequences" blog. Sometimes, it is ok to indulge oneself. Sometimes, that kind of a choice is even healthy, and productive, in the longer term.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about choices, and the cumulative importance of small choices. I wrote, in a recent reflective paper, about an exercise I have done with students of mine, painting an analogy of standing at the 50 yard line of a football field. I ask them to imagine one end zone to be filled with success (whatever that means to them) as great as they can imagine. Riches, prestige, joy, love, self-actualization, being the best at something important, making a difference--whatever. And in the opposite end zone, I ask them to imagine the opposite of that: doom, gloom, despair, failure--"rock bottom." I then talk about how every day, each of us is faced with small choices, and each choice is like a step in one direction or another. The big take-a-way I want for these young adults is the apparent lack of consequence (position and perspective remain pretty similar after one step) of each choice, contrasted with the cumulative effect of many steps (even with a "two steps in one direction for each one step in the other" approach). Right choices, a majority of the time, progressively move you in the right direction, and likewise the converse.
A recent book (on Ignatian spirituality, actually) brought that idea back home for me. I'm working to consider my small choices, in the moment, and make sure they are heading me in the direction I want to go.
Time spent on this self-indulgent post, notwithstanding.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Happy New Year!
So there is this thing going around Facebook (I've mentioned here, before, not to look there, for me saying anything of substance. In fact I rarely update my status at all. There are reasons for that I suppose.) I do enjoy keeping up with friends' adventures and opinings. (My word processor underlined that last word in red, but I contend that it is a properly constructed and legitimate gerund of the verb "to opine.") But I digress.
There is this thing going around Facebook, where people are prompting each other to list three positive things about the year just passed. I am surprised at the number of people saying things like, "I'm so happy to turn the page on this year," or opining (see there?) in generally negative terms about 2013, on a personal and/or global level. At the same time, most are able to generate a substantial list of positives.
So, I'm picturing the hoary Taoist icon depicting Yin and Yang--the one I've always found profound, compelling, and insightful into the Nature of All Things. Each year brings its good and bad, and the further we step back (and, the more years we add) the more things tend to balance out. You can apply the Law of Large Numbers, or the idea of Regression Towards the Mean (yeah, I'm reviewing Statistics as a gear up for my dissertation).
In the end it is down, of course to our choice of focus. I like trying to focus on the positive (honestly that is easier said than done), while acknowledging that without the negative, the positive would be undefined and unrecognizable. Or suspend value judgments altogether and acknowledge that it is ALL glorious, this wonderful, incomprehensible miracle that comprises our very existence. With all its nuances. All that being said...I'll play:
1) I have reached the halfway point of my doctoral program. While a two week break between classes (the first such since last Christmas, I think--when it was only one week long) has made me realize just how hard I have been pushing myself, balancing a challenging, long-hours job, a family that wants, needs, and deserves my attention, and a graduate program that demands a lot of thought, reading (you know, high-density, academic reading) and writing, and 20 or more hours each week. While taking energy, it has also granted some. And I have my eye on the prize. Anyway, the experience has been a central defining positive, on the whole, of 2013 for me.
2) Arlee and I marked 20 years of married bliss. OK, not all bliss. Refer back to the diagram. Strife, contention, frustration, joy, adventure, and bliss. But, together and in love, still. So, I'm counting it, and her, and in fact the family we have made together, as a central defining blessing, this year, and really every year.
3) I've been privileged to live, travel, adventure and just work and play day to day (such that I have time--refer back above) in Europe, with all the cultural and historic richness that I have come to take for granted. And, I've given that give, for when they later look back and appreciate it, to my boys as well. In 2013 I've ranged from The Hague, to Brugge, to Southern Oregon, to Phoenix, to Paris, and of course all around our local environs here in the Eifel region of Germany. And that was a quiet travel year out of the last several. I am lucky, our family is lucky, to be in a situation, geographical and financial, that lets explore so broadly and drink so deeply at the well that is the world.
Now, we've had some tough challenges, too. And hard lessons, and lessons left unlearned. But, as David Steindel-Rast sagely posited in his recent TED talk, focusing on gratitude is not only right and enlightened, but it is THE key to happiness.
So, I'm going to be grateful for a wonderful year, and I hope you will find a way to do the same. Now, bring on 2014!
There is this thing going around Facebook, where people are prompting each other to list three positive things about the year just passed. I am surprised at the number of people saying things like, "I'm so happy to turn the page on this year," or opining (see there?) in generally negative terms about 2013, on a personal and/or global level. At the same time, most are able to generate a substantial list of positives.
So, I'm picturing the hoary Taoist icon depicting Yin and Yang--the one I've always found profound, compelling, and insightful into the Nature of All Things. Each year brings its good and bad, and the further we step back (and, the more years we add) the more things tend to balance out. You can apply the Law of Large Numbers, or the idea of Regression Towards the Mean (yeah, I'm reviewing Statistics as a gear up for my dissertation). In the end it is down, of course to our choice of focus. I like trying to focus on the positive (honestly that is easier said than done), while acknowledging that without the negative, the positive would be undefined and unrecognizable. Or suspend value judgments altogether and acknowledge that it is ALL glorious, this wonderful, incomprehensible miracle that comprises our very existence. With all its nuances. All that being said...I'll play:
1) I have reached the halfway point of my doctoral program. While a two week break between classes (the first such since last Christmas, I think--when it was only one week long) has made me realize just how hard I have been pushing myself, balancing a challenging, long-hours job, a family that wants, needs, and deserves my attention, and a graduate program that demands a lot of thought, reading (you know, high-density, academic reading) and writing, and 20 or more hours each week. While taking energy, it has also granted some. And I have my eye on the prize. Anyway, the experience has been a central defining positive, on the whole, of 2013 for me.
2) Arlee and I marked 20 years of married bliss. OK, not all bliss. Refer back to the diagram. Strife, contention, frustration, joy, adventure, and bliss. But, together and in love, still. So, I'm counting it, and her, and in fact the family we have made together, as a central defining blessing, this year, and really every year.
3) I've been privileged to live, travel, adventure and just work and play day to day (such that I have time--refer back above) in Europe, with all the cultural and historic richness that I have come to take for granted. And, I've given that give, for when they later look back and appreciate it, to my boys as well. In 2013 I've ranged from The Hague, to Brugge, to Southern Oregon, to Phoenix, to Paris, and of course all around our local environs here in the Eifel region of Germany. And that was a quiet travel year out of the last several. I am lucky, our family is lucky, to be in a situation, geographical and financial, that lets explore so broadly and drink so deeply at the well that is the world.
Now, we've had some tough challenges, too. And hard lessons, and lessons left unlearned. But, as David Steindel-Rast sagely posited in his recent TED talk, focusing on gratitude is not only right and enlightened, but it is THE key to happiness.
So, I'm going to be grateful for a wonderful year, and I hope you will find a way to do the same. Now, bring on 2014!
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