Barbara transitioned from a career as a scientist into a career as a teacher after seeing the academic language needs of English Language Learners. 

 

We talk about growth mindset, perseverance, and the need to stay open to learning new things, even when it’s hard. Barbara’s ideas about accommodating student needs in order to enable them to be successful are applicable to anyone - we’ve all known what it’s like to be overwhelmed by something that feels difficult, “too hard”, or beyond our reach.

 

Breaking difficult work into chunks, and working towards goals one step at at time, enable students (or anyone!) to work towards what they want to achieve in a manageable way.

 

You probably can’t run a marathon tomorrow...but if you started by running a mile today and training every day for the next year...you could do it! Succeeding in school, business, or life is the same thing.

 

Whatever you WANT to be able to achieve - stop telling yourself that you can’t and figure out something that you CAN do right now, today, to start moving towards what you want.

 

Time, organization, and planning are essential to the process!

 

Set aside the time you need to make an initial plan, and then schedule in time you’ll need to actually pursue your plan, one small step at a time.

 

Get organized by determining what tools you need, who you need to connect with, and what kind of scheduling barriers might come up. Order any resources you may need, or apply to a training or educational program.

 

Plan to succeed - when will you work on your goal, why does your goal to matter to you, how will you know you’ve achieved your goal?

 

Also - you are much more likely to passionately pursue your goal (even when the initial fun wears off!) if you actually CARE about your goals. If you aren’t personally invested, you’re not going to be able to stick with it yourself!