just
ALWAYSthinking
About life, the Universe, and everything...
You can get to know me more by reading my blog (which I will have up soon). But for now, I’ll share with you a few thoughts that go through my head most every day: Asking why is not as important as asking how. "Why" mires us in the past and "how" allows us to break through into the future. I believe in honoring the past, but our society has created such a focus on it, that it rarely becomes precious to our present. Staying present, allowing ourselves to be human (to feel, to be uncomfortable, to be clueless, to be so happy we can’t sit still), creates the potential for us to be fulfilled. Staying present is an art, and an acquired skill. It requires us to be fully who we are at every moment. And that scares most people either because we don’t know who we are, or we don’t like who we are. Trying to squelch who we are is the most destructive force on the planet. I notice this happens most in our jobs and in our schools.
As "unique" as I am, everyone is like me. Each person has something that is phenomenal...a gift. Most of us spend more time trying to hide who we are rather than BE who we are. There is a way for each one of us to access our gifts without all the pain I went through to access mine. I found all sorts of tools along my way that make it easy to be "us"so I categorized them into a system.
This system is odd because it changes every time I use it. But, what it contains are the methods for ANYONE to be engaged, successful, and fulfilled academically.While many things didn’t work for me, I saw the types of people for whom they would work, and I kept these tools in my vestibule of methodologies to facilitate learning and growth. I think the most important thing in life is to try everything you can with a goal in mind towards which your learning can be singularly and continually productive (and fun!).
I work with children because that is where I feel at home. I know they get me and I get them. And honestly, most adults don’t really get kids.They have forgotten what it felt like for NO ONE to pay attention to their ideas or discoveries--for NO ONE to understand. They have forgotten how it felt to be 13 and have to make a new friend.
I haven’t forgotten. I remember exactly every moment of being a child. Sometimes, adults pigeon-hole children and forget to give them the props they deserve for their special brand of brilliance. If you doubt this, just watch an adult or a teacher for a day and count how many times they tell children no. To me, it's irrelevant if saying no is, “for their own good." I rarely tell children no because we appreciate each other--they know I honor them as much or more than an adult, and so they do the same with me. This doesn’t mean I let them be in charge or think I don’t know more than they do about certain things, but we have a mutual respect of talents and gifts and yes, even age. Sometimes, this is not something a parent or teacher can do...it kind of needs to be an outsider. So, oddly, that’s where I fit in: as the outsider! I work with adults, too. When they are willing to take responsibility for their own happiness and success, it is rewarding to work with them, especially helping them learn to become a professional in the business of selling. If you’d like to know more about my research and philosophy on education, you can check out #LawhonEducation--or on business, design, retailing, & sales #SellingRetail.
In both you can find both hope & scientific research, a variety of options to help you or your child succeed, and a bibliography of some of the research I think is paramount to a necessary paradigm shift in education & training.This paradigm shift is my goal. I work daily on finding ways to change our culture, and to create breakthrough, effective methodologies for learning. So, most days, I am continually thinking about education, and the difference between teaching and learning. On my "off days" I just continue to work towards designs and interactives to improve learning. I think probably the greatest two things I have to offer are: the gift I give to parents (clear quantitative proof that their child is truly brilliant in some way--and what to do with this); and my ability to extend my father's research & experience in sales education (to help anyone educate him or herself to be a successful professional in an area they love). Maybe these are really my ways of giving back to my parents. I love how it all is a wonderful cycle of learning, creating, and giving.
MISSION: REVOLUTIONIZE THE EDUCATIONAL PARADIGM BY FACILITATING LEARNERS' JOURNEYS THROUGH CAPITALIZING ON STRENGTHS, ENGENDERING EXCEPTIONALITY, & EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALITY--AND PROVIDING THEM A SYSTEMATIC WAY TO DO THIS.
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VISION: A WORLD WHERE THE "AVERAGE" STUDENT IS HIGHLY SPECIALIZED, FASCINATED BY LIFE & LEARNING, AND IS ENCOURAGED TO CREATIVELY MANIFEST ACCORDING TO THEIR GIFTS & PASSIONS.
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THEME: CREATIVE, CURIOUS, AND THOUGHTFUL DISCOVERY OF THE BRILLIANCE IN MYSELF & OTHERS
MOTTO: "SHINE MY LIFE LIKE A LIGHT"
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FAV TV SERIES:
GENTLEMAN JACK
XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS
DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
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FAV SONG LYRICS:
'WE GOTTA TWIRL WITH THIS WORLD, I CAN FEEL IT MOVING...RISE UP YOUR DEAD, THERE'S LIFE IN THE OLE GIRL YET...'
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'WITH EVERY LESSON LEARNED, A LINE UPON YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACE'
-indigo girls
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'MY FAVORITE COLOR IS YOU...YOU'RE VIBRATING TO MY FREQUENCY'
-AJR
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So standing in the steady throne of restless hope
You don't feel like an outcast anymore
And something deep inside of you has wakened up
And you know that nothing's gonna be the same again
And on these streets
You can see for what seems miles
Because in your heart
You know they feel like you do
Sound and pulse and volume
Hands just reaching out for hands
This is almost overload
I said almost overload
Friends and foes and princes
Are all just human in the end
This is so damn simple, yeah
It's so damn simple
-snow patrol
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FAV SONGS
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Uncharted All The Women I Am. Get Out the Map
Bad Idea I Didn't Plan It. Elizabeth
Dead Sea Afterlife. Swamp Ophelia
Celebrate On Top of the World. Match
99 Problems Bad & Bougee. Buttermilk Biscuits
A Thousand Years Times Like These. I Was Country, When ...
You Are My Friend Asking Us to Dance Somebody Loves You Baby
Bright Tell Her You Love Her Astronauts
I Like Me Better Better Place Hey Hey Hallelujah
Sweet As Whole Fine By Me Perfect
Good to Be Alive Extraordinary Magic All of the Stars.
It Isn't It Wasn't It Ain't Never Gonna Be Here I Am
You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma. I Feel Lucky
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FAV MOVIE QUOTES: 'I JUST LIKE TO SMILE, SMILING'S MY FAVORITE!' -Elf
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>Try here. Stop. What the ____ am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie? >Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now. >What happened to then?
>We passed then. >When? >Just now. >We're at now now. >Go back to then. >When? >Now. >Now? >Now. >I can't. >Why? >We missed it. >When? >Just now. >When will then be now?
> Soon. -Spaceballs
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'LA LA LAAAAAA' -Babe
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FAV BOOKS: Illusions & Jonathan Livingston Seagull-Richard Bach, All 5 Books of the Increasingly Inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams, Dante's Inferno-Virgil, The Odyssey-Homer, Life 101, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, A Brief History of Time-Stephen Hawking
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FAV POEM: "Not Waving but Drowning" Stevie Smith
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FAV DEAD GUY: William Blake
SPIRIT ANIMAL: Owl
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HARRY POTTER HOUSE: Ravenclaw
ANIMUS: Winged Granian Horse
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FAV SIMILE/METAPHOR: "The Spaceships hung in the sky in much the same way bricks don't."
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GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: After unknowingly signing in from an "unknown device" (i.e. a student's computer), I got Amazon to take the hold off my account in less than 35 minutes!!!!!
who i am
Who am I? Hmmm. A mentor of mine used to say my path was: healer, peacemaker, light bearer. I pull people back from the edge of the chasm. I know my job here is to relentlessly pursue better options for living a fulfilled life, and empower others to do the same. I am a scientific, methodical, tenacious, creative, idealistic visionary. I grew up feeling “weird” because I was different. I adapted well to social situations on the outside, but had and have inner consternation when it comes to "going along with the pack." It was not easy being so unique, so I decided to just own it. About the time I entered high school, I figured out how to change weird to exceptional. So, I definitely still think of myself as an "odd duck" but I'm willing to express who I am as "a light-filled, authentic, learned, caring odd duck."
As I pondered things throughout my life, a couple paradoxes always stood out. As a child, I wondered incessantly: if every single kid pretty much despises school, why don't they change it? It bothered me that we were all relegated to it, and our voices were not heard. To me, the parental excuse, "Every kid complains about having to go to school, deal with it," does not make it okay that kids have to do something miserable all day every day. And most of the parents were miserable going to their jobs all day, so I wondered, "What's the point of being miserable to prepare yourself to be miserable?" To me, I looked at it as, "If there's that big of a problem for us kids, why aren't adults finding a solution?" Just because I loved learning, didn't mean I liked school!
Then, as I grew up, my thoughts shifted to, "Why do people have to work all day every day in jobs they hate?" I didn't understand why being happy and making a decent living had to be mutually exclusive. So, I set out to change that for myself. Once I did, I wrote a book about how others could achieve fulfillment and a good income.
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That’s why I think I make such a difference in students’ success--I relate. My sensitivity feels like both a blessing and a curse. I choose to honor it, despite the pain it sometimes causes.
Education is devastating the way it is now, in most venues. I am here to improve it according to the INDIVIDUAL and in response to research which proves how our brains are wired. So, I'd say I am an "identifier." I find a way to relate to everyone because I can quantify their strengths, and deeply feel their fears. If you read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, you know how this works--that instantaneous knowing stemming from the amalgam of your experiences, DNA, and aliveness.
This has always been true for me. However, recently, I lost both my parents and everything I thought I knew went right out the door. My entire foundation was just ripped out from under me. Grief took over and I have lost myself in it--in the not knowing what's true for me anymore. It was, and is, the most debilitating thing I’ve ever experienced.
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Now, I’m starting to turn the corner (I have a page on Facebook called “The Grief Corner” if you’re interested). As I rebuild my foundation, some core elements stand out. I’m starting to see all I’ve learned from my parents, and from their passing--I now am learning the things that are truly "me" no matter who is around me. And I'm learning what was theirs and not mine. I don't love letting those things go because it feels like another piece of them leaves me, but slowly I am finding the strength to be authentically me, whoever that is, and however I need to express it.
Others don't often understand what it is like to have lost people so intensely strong and amazing and integrated into my life as my parents were. It wasn’t fun, it isn’t fun, and there’s nothing really great about it. I lost a lot of friends along with my parents. Only furthering my feelings of not being "normal" enough.
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When I see a child or a teenager who feels isolated, and alone, my heart leaps into action. It is a tear into my own soul, and I will stop at nothing to help them see their beauty. I think my grief has made me even more capable of understanding children and being there for them.
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If I had to give you a positive about losing my parents (as that’s what I’m kind of known for),
I’d say I have learned who I am independently of my family, friends, career, and partners. I never knew myself as a sole entity before, only as a part of or product of something else. It is empowering to learn this, even though it means acknowledging letting go of being a daughter. It is yet another, step forward in my quest for the best educational system possible. Now, even though I am no longer CC, the daughter, I am becoming CC the empowerer.
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My parents' and my common values and beliefs are continually interwoven into everything I do. That is how I keep my parents alive within myself--and through my integrity. People don't always like what I do, but they respect that I do 99% of it out of integrity. Some of the things my parents brought to this world are beyond vital to me, and to our world, and I intend to make sure these things last, for them, because of them, for me, and for all those with whom I interact.
From my mom's brilliant intuition and expansive, creative, visionary resplendence, to my dad's strength, vast knowledge, and insight into learning, I get to be it.
I emphasize, this is not my business website. It is my personal website. The thing is, I am my business and it is me. It's not my "job," it's who I am. It is the expression of me, every day. Everything I learn in my research on education and the brain illuminates a piece of me, and gets emanated as me. So really, who am I?
I am #LawhonEducation. I do not just "go to work" there every day. I work hard, and yet never feel like I'm working. If I start to feel like something is work (with the connotation of drudgery, agony, and annoyance), I stop doing it. If I cannot make a difference by what I am doing, I either change it, or I find someone who can, and let them do it. That's the beauty of honoring everyone's diversity--and their strengths! Then, I can go do something else that feels fun, and is more effective, by playing to my strengths. I get amazing things done this way, and get to do a lot! I never quit, but I do accept when I am not the man for the job.
This works for me, and makes my life easy and fulfilling.
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I have come to understand I am an embodiment of quantitative, measurable, and fulfilling CHANGE. Sometimes I am a slow changer, sometimes I turn on a dime when I figure it out. I am diplomatic and compassionate, and am as kind as possible, but am willing to risk upsetting someone rather than be inauthentic or dishonest. In my favorite book, Illusions, Richard Bach wrote, "Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world--even if even if what is published is not true." And, some people who dislike my insistence on authenticity have published some pretty awful things about me. I feel compassion that they were upset, and surprise at their attacks, but never anger, because I know who I am, and so do they, and so does anyone who meets me.
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Being a change-agent is easy for me now, because I personalize and honor others' plights. I recognize their feelings and needs by having felt or needed something similar at some point in my past, and I go to work. I am a worker, an inspirer, a facilitator, and a do-er. If someone attempts to work alongside me, or love alongside me, and remains unchanged or is inauthentic, I let them go. The few who stay in the weirdness, discomfort, and growth with me are my soul mates. The glow in their eyes, the pride in their expansion, the joy of their discoveries...this makes life worth living--worth reveling in.
This is why, more than anything, I am grateful for those willing to stay present--who grow with me, through the rocks and the hard places, out of the dark and into the light. An early potential subtitle for Guru-You! was "Grow your Soul." When you, and your children, want to do that with me, it makes my life the most gratifying one in the Universe. I am just thrilled to have you here sharing it, in all it's wild wonder.
What I've
DONE
Well, this feels like I’m bragging, but I suppose you should know how I’ve succeeded, and that I understand how to do that in many different ways--perhaps the ways you might want your students to succeed. So, here goes!