Success in the workplace can sometimes be measured in sales, upward mobility, specific accomplishments or a body of work. It can also be defined by the intangibles such as personal development, education or consistency and reliability.
Success is a Journey, Not a Destination
My workplace has been in the classroom spanning the years between 1968 and 2012. To teach that long, with a few breaks, requires a passion for learning, a passion for caring, and the ability to be flexible to the changing times. Since education is not a product that can be measured by sales, or even specific accomplishments, my definition for success is measured by the intangibles.
Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875-1961) said: " An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child."
Each school year, usually on the first day of school, I tell my students that I cannot succeed unless they succeed. I cannot teach unless they learn. No matter how reliable I am in preparing and presenting the lessons of curriculum they are to learn, unless they are equally reliable in putting forth their effort to learn I cannot succeed.
While it is estimated that perhaps 3% of what they learn in formal schooling is going to be used in their life's work, I used to be asked by students why they have to learn such and such--particularly when I tell them that schooling isn't education. It is only a means to education. Life experiences, both in and out of the workplace, will give them education as I have found in my own life. Success to most students is getting a good grade (and unfortunately, their parents think the same thing), but my goal has been to focus on learning. The grade will then come.
I chose education by default. When I attended college, I was enrolled in many science classes with the idea that I would become a medical doctor. For as long as I can remember, it was my father's dream for me to be the medical doctor in the family. I pursued that course through my junior year, even working in hospitals to gain experience. But when I came to the realization that I was still getting a D- going into the latter part of the chemistry course (for the second time in the same class), I decided to go to the counseling department at USU to see if they could help me determine to which major I should change.
They gave me a battery of interest and aptitude tests. After analyzing the results the recommendation was that I could do anything I really decided I wanted to do. However, they cautioned me that I should probably stay away from teaching. That was the answer I needed. No one was going to tell me what I could NOT do. I immediately dropped the chemistry class and formally changed my major from pre-med to science and secondary education. The only classes I needed to take in the sciences were a botany class and a lower level series of chemistry classes. I then spent most of my senior year taking psychology, science methodology, and many education classes in order to qualify for a teaching certificate.
One of the most challenging classes I had was a psychology class taught by Dr. Charles Hall. He had been a very controversial teacher, very outspoken, and offensive to most of the students he taught (especially the young ladies) because of the crude language he used in his lectures. He made no pretense in that he was out to fail most of the class and there would be few who would receive an "A" in his class. Apparently, the university was trying to get rid of him and he fought that, even teaching without a contract.
I believe there were four of us who received an "A" at the end of the term for his class. However, the Friday writing assignments that were required had to be at a thinking level we had never been challenged to obtain in any of our other classes. I remember that when he gave the subject of the week's writing assignment on Mondays, I would ponder until Thursday evening as to how I would express myself in a manner that would prove that I was functioning at a high level of thinking and reasoning. And the assignments always involved subjects that would require us to express challenging experiences in our personal lives. I would have to credit Dr. Hall with helping me to learn to think! This led to the ability to solve life problems and help me to be a life-long learner.
I mustered up the courage while immersed in this experience to have a talk with my father--the only such talk that I can ever remember. We sat in the driveway of our farmhouse, sitting in the car. I expressed to him how grateful I was for his sacrifices and those of my mother in my behalf. He told me that i had no idea what the sacrifices were, and that I would come to appreciate them when I was a father. He said, "My thanks will come through your raising your own children."
Then I told him that I had changed my major from pre-med to education. This enraged him, and the result was that he refused to speak to me for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, I was not living at home and was on campus except for a couple of visits home during that period. Before long the silence was broken. Dad had finally realized that it wasn't his dream that I had to live with, but my own dream.
Success is found in being able to dream and then working toward accomplishing it. I have found through experience that the world steps aside for the person who knows where he is going. Further, ways and means become available that weren't there before. I have also learned that they come in the eleventh hour after I have almost given up, having done all I could. The goal is not found in attaining the financial reward. But by going the second mile in service, eventually the financial rewards come.
Success has come through first being a servant with an understanding heart. In order to be a great leader, first one must be a good follower, forgetting self and focusing on serving others. As a public servant [teacher] I have never had a great salary. But I have seen success in the lives of students I have taught who have been willing to follow their own dreams. Most have never said, "Thank you." But I have received a B.S. degree, followed many years later (2005) receiving a Masters in Learning and Technology from Western Governor's University.
I have tried to keep on the cutting edge of learning research to involve best practice in affecting the lives of those I have had the opportunity to teach, as well as the colleagues I have been able to collaborate with. Because I believe that I am not just teaching a seventh or eighth grade student -- I am affecting a life for eternity,--I have found passion in working with students with high ability level as well as students who do not have such an ability to learn. I honor those students who have persisted with great difficulty, but who have never given up. They are my heroes. Those who have had the ability, but have been so lazy as to put forth little or no effort have been a thorn in my side. But they have caused me to examine and re-examine my own status to help me continue the climb to reach higher levels than the status quo.
Success is a journey, not a destination. I believe that it is a constant and consistent climb to improve in any and all ways in order to become a better individual. However, this should NEVER be done at the expense of others. We do not climb by standing on others that we put down. We must stand on the shoulders of giants--those who have paved the way before, and work to improve others, thus improving ourselves. To me, that is success.