Week 2 Comment #2 for: Lori Hobbie

MAC Week 2 Reading Blog: The Art of Possibility

I have actually read this book before. As I’m re-reading the book, it’s giving me an opportunity to reflect how this book (and a few others related to linguistic ontology) created an open space in my life for me hold questions with no answers needed and to think so radically outside of my “measurement” box that I actually considered pursing a graduate program in Educational Media Design and Technology! How serendipitous that as this journey is coming to a close, I am being taken back to the year of contemplation that led me to this program. I had a dream to create an educational coaching practice that could help kids to become their best selves in their respective educational environments. I even took a year off of teaching to invest time and energy into this idea and I wasn’t even exactly sure what it was. So that is how my company One Life Learning was born. From there, I was drawn to the opportunity that Full Sail offered of gaining a skill set that would allow me to market this dream, to place it in a relevant context. And here I am. So when Zander & Zander refer to “inventing a framework”, “set the context and let life unfold”, “give yourself an A” and “ declaring yourself a contribution” they are reading my mail! What a joy it is to re-read this book on this side of a long transitional journey…full of possibilities.

My Comment

Lori, its exciting to see someone drawing their lines outside the box. I have had the desire for something similar but have failed to give myself an “A”. You however made a point that we all share in the enlightenment. We all drew lines outside our boxes and pursued a graduate program in Educational Media Design and Technology and as for me it’s my second masters. Why, when I’m so close to my second retirement? Because I guess I am thinking outside my measurement box. I don’t want to be measured by the standard, I want to set it! I didn’t think I could get more motivated than I already am from this program but the Zanders’ book gives me a fresh way to see what I’ve always known and even included in my own philosophy. Case in point, I have a saying that for every problem there is one or more solutions you just need to find them. On page 27 of his book, Zander puts it a little more elaborately, “Every problem, every, dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and the problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.” Good luck with One Life Learning!