Create More, Consume Less: A Surefire Way to Feel More Excited About Life

a post by Lori Deschene for the Tiny Buddha blog


“Creating means living.” ~Dejan Stojanovic

We live in a consumer culture. We love to eat, drink, and be merry—while binge watching whatever’s trending on Netflix and getting a dopamine hit for every item added to our cart on Amazon Prime.

We love to take it all in—information, entertainment, status updates, news reports, substances, and an endless array of stuff. There’s never a shortage of things we can consume, often to keep our minds distracted and our feelings silenced.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love a good meal, a Jim Beam or two, and an afternoon spent zoned out on my couch, Penn Badgley haunting me hour by hour as his stalking escalates from creepy to criminal.

And I’m all for staying educated and updated, on issues both important and inane. I’ve spent hours obsessively researching all things health-related, and I’m embarrassed to admit that my search history reveals more than a healthy number of celebrity websites, if such a number exists.

I also understand the instinct to shut down for a while. Our minds can get intolerably loud, and sometimes, external demands can be overwhelming. A little disengagement can be a good thing in a world that often requires us to be on.

But there needs to be some kind of balance. If we spend our whole lives ingesting information and scarfing down an assortment of stuff meant to soothe us, we’ll never have the time or space to connect with ourselves and create the things we want to create.

I’m not talking just about artistic expression, though I personally feel more alive when I’m bringing some type of creative vision to life. I’m talking about filling the void inside with our own curiosity, passion, and awe instead of constantly stuffing it with external pleasures.

It may not seem like it in the moment when our shows, social media, or shopping carts beckon, but often the greatest pleasure stems from actively working toward a life that excites us.

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The Impact of ‘Achievement for All’ on School Leadership

an article by Sonia Blandford (Founder and Chief Executive of Achievement for All, Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education and Senior Research Fellow University of Oxford) published in Educational Management, Administration & Leadership Volume 41 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

The Achievement for All (AfA) pilot initiative, delivered in partnership by the Department for Education (DfE), (formerly the Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF]), National Strategies and the National College (NCSL), aims to increase the attainment and progress of children in schools with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); improve the engagement of their parents with the school and improve wider outcomes for this group of children.

Introduced in September 2009 as a two-year pilot in 454 primary, secondary and special schools and Pupil Referral Units across 10 Local Authorities in England, AfA, with a particular focus on inclusive leadership practice, takes a whole school approach to school improvement.

The population included pupils in Years 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 identified with SEND on School Action, School Action Plus or holding Statements; 85 per cent of the participating schools are primary. Guided by government documentation (DCSF, 2009a) and local authority advisers, schools have implemented the initiative around three distinct but integrated strands: assessment, tracking and interventions; structured conversations with parents and provision for developing wider outcomes.

By considering focus group data evidence from headteachers/school project leaders across the participating local authorities, this article will explore the impact of AfA on inclusive leadership practices in schools. Findings suggest that although vision, commitment, collaboration and communication remain self evident for the majority of leaders, within the context of AfA, these characteristics of effective inclusive leadership along with pupil learning have been enhanced.

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