On the Sunday before Christmas, several musicians performed during our church service.
One man struggled during his number, and I wasn’t feeling very impressed. Then the man conducting the service commented that the musician said he could have picked an easy piece, but had picked a challenging one so he would have to stretch.
This comment changed my view of the performance. I was more appreciative of the effort this man had put into his music and the confidence he showed even when he got a bit off.
Since we’re starting a new year, this experience got me thinking about resolutions.
I don’t always make resolutions, but I could work on being less judgmental of others especially when I don’t know the whole situation. When I knew more about the musician’s desire to challenge himself, my perspective changed.
I could also follow this man’s example and set a goal that will cause me to stretch
.Is there a quality you would like to develop more this year? How about finding something to challenge you instead of picking the easy option?
I teach college classes and once the pandemic changed how we taught, college administrators have reminded us to be flexible with assignments and due dates and to show grace to our students by being more understanding of how the pandemic is affecting them.
As faculty and staff, we have also been encouraged to show ourselves this same kind of grace. Teaching and moving all interaction online has made our work more complicated and we need to not be so hard on ourselves when things don’t go how we wanted or expected.
For example, I like to get assignments graded within a week at the most. However, when students turned in their big midterm assignment my life was extra busy, and I didn’t get everything graded for several weeks. I felt bad that I wasn’t meeting my usual standard, and I realized that I needed to give myself the same kind of understanding and flexibility I give my students when life gets in the way of their studies.
I want to keep working on giving myself this kind of grace. Would being kinder to yourself be helpful for you this year too?
Using feedback from others can also help us find things to change.
In our end of the semester evaluations several students pointed out that some days they were overwhelmed by the number of assignments due. I have tried to spread out the workload but based on these comments I plan to reevaluate and move or eliminate some assignments. Asking my family and friends for feedback on areas that I need to improve can help me find other resolutions for this year.
You could ask your family, friends, or co-workers for feedback to help you determine some resolutions for this year.
Another resolution possibility could come from changes we’ve made during the pandemic.
Are there things you started doing differently that you would like to continue once we’re out of the pandemic?
We started weekly family Zoom calls, which I want to keep doing.
I have also discovered that when students submit their paper drafts online, I can look back at my comments on their rough drafts when I read subsequent drafts to more easily see their improvements. Grading online is not my preference, but I do like having my comments available online so I might just need to make peace with online grading even when we meet in person again.
As you contemplate making resolutions this year, consider qualities you want to develop, options that challenge you, feedback from others, and pandemic changes you want to keep.
Then as you work on your resolutions, I encourage you to be kind to yourself when things don’t go as planned.
Susan Cox is one of The Republic’s community columnists, and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. She is a mother and an adjunct instructor of English at Ivy Tech Community College Columbus and Indiana University Purdue University Columbus. She can be reached at editorial@therepublic.com.
